"his Word . . . tells us of him who surpasses all telling"

"The Father is beyond our sight and comprehension; but he is known by his Word, who tells us of him who surpasses all telling."

"Patrem quidem invisíbilem et indeterminabilem, quantum ad nos est, cognoscit suum ipsius Verbum, et cum sit inenarrabilis, ipse enarrat eum nobis:"

     St. Irenaeus, Adv. haer. IV.vi.3 (the numbering systems vary), as trans. Liturgy of the hours, Office of readings, Wednesday of Week 1 in Ordinary time.

"Jesus is not portrayed as friend to sex workers in any first- or second-century text"

"Having shown that Jesus is not portrayed as friend to sex workers in any first- or second-century text, I have looked to medieval fiction for the source of this misunderstanding[,] . . . [which] is medieval preaching and fiction."

     Anthony Le Donne, "Did Jesus befriend sex workers?," Journal for the study of the historical Jesus 20 (2022):  155 (147-155).

The promised land of eternal splendor

William West, c. 1845, Nottingham Castle

"May the splendor of your majesty, O Lord, we pray, shed its light upon our hearts, that we may pass through the shadows of this world and reach the brightness of our eternal home.  Through".

"Corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine, tuae maiestatis splendor illustret, quo mundi huius tenebras transire valeamus, et perveniamus ad patriam claritatis aeternae."

May the splendor of your majesty, O Lord, we pray, illuminate our hearts, by which [splendor] we may be enabled [(valeamus)] to pass through [(trans-)] the shadows of this world and come through [(per-)] to the fatherland of eternal brightness.

     Collect for Vigil of the Epiphany, Roman missal.  This is Corpus orationum 837a in the late 8th-century Gregorian (Deschusses, vol. 1, no. 20* on p. 689 from the Gregorianum Paduense; cf. no. 55 on p. 612), and other 8th-century sacramentaries, with the following differences:

"Corda nostra, quaesumus, domine, venturae festivitatis splendor illustret, quo (et) mundi huius tenebris carere valeamus et perveniamus ad patriam claritatis aeternae."

(The second half of Corpus orationum 837b is also close.)
     illustro can mean "clear up," and claritas, "clearness," i.e. "clarity."
     Could there be hints of the Exodus from Egypt and the entrance into the Promised Land here?
     Treat the rest of the lovely prayers of Epiphany eventually!

"Say what you want about the Christians, but they can write a tune."

"it’s beautiful isn’t it?  Say what you want about the Christians, but they can write a tune."

     Mrs. Reed of "In the bleak mid-winter," Black doves, Episode 6 ("In the bleak midwinter"), c. 29:45 (23:10 to go).

The history of the Advent wreath

1914:  The earliest occurrence of the exact phrase advent wreath in the Hathi Trust Digital Library as of 30 Dec 2024:  Margarethe Müller (1862- ), Elsbeth: a story of German home life (New York:  E.P. Dutton & Company, 1914), 214.  Naturally, others follow.  Here there are clearly more than four candles, but in this report on p. 276 of vol. 23 (no. 1 (March 4 1921)) of The Quaker:  a fortnightly journal devoted to the Religious Society of Friends there are only three.  Etc.

1918:  The earliest recoverable hit on Adventkranz (specifically) in the Hathi Trust Digital Library as of 30 December 2024:  Ernst Mummenhoff, "Das Findel- und Weisenhaus zu Nürnberg, -orts, kultur-, und wirtschaftsgeschichtlich II,"  on p. 102 of Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg Heft 22 (1918).  "recoverable," I say, because OCR doesn't always work well on Fraktur.  A Findelhaus is a foundling hospital or orphanage.  There are no hits on the French equivalent couronne de l'Avent before 1943, and that one is in The Duden pictorial encyclopedia in five languages, in which the Advent wreath (or "garland") may bear (or at least has the circumference for) more than four candles.

Incorporate the following histories, along with the sources they cite, among others:

• Those listed under Gaudete Sunday specifically.
  
• Haemig, Mary Jane. "The Origin and Spread of the Advent Wreath." Lutheran Quarterly 19, no. 3 (December 31, 2005): 332–443.  My thanks to the Rev. Paul Gregory Alms for alerting me to the existence of this one, which, of course, I should have found on my own.  Helpful footnotes.
• Schlierf, Wilhelm Josef. Adventus Domini: Geschichte und Theologie des Advents in Liturgie und Brachtum der Westlichen Kirche. Mönchengladbach: B. Kühlen, 1989.
  

Civil valor

      "After all, we have gotten use to regarding as valor only valor in war (or the kind that is needed for flying in outer space), the kind which jingle-jangles with medals.  We have forgotten another concept of valor [(доблесть)]—civil [(гражданскую)] valor.  And that's all our society needs, just that, just that, just that!  That's all we need and that's exactly what we haven't got."

     Aleksander I. Solzhenitsyn, The gulag archipelago 1918-1956:  an experiment in literary investigation I-II, trans. Thomas P. Whitney (New York:  Harper & Row, 1973), 461-462 (chap. 12, Tyurzak) = first full paragraph on p. 464 of the Paris (YMCA - Press) Russian edition of 1973.  Cf. Alexievich.

"the earth speaks to us of Heaven, or why would we want to go there?"

      Jayber Crow, in Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow:  a novel, chap 32 ("Seen afar").  "This is a book about Heaven.  I know it now" (chap. 31, "The nest egg"); "This is, as I said and believe, a book about Heaven" (chap. 32).