Sating one's hatred under cover of correction

"Third, he should strive in all charity to correct the sins of others, and this is indicated by the words judging without dissimulation, lest he should purpose to sate his hatred under cover of correction."

"Tertio requiritur ut caritative emendare peccata satagat, et hoc est quod dicit, iudicans sine simulatione, ne scilicet, correctionem praetendens, odium intendat explere."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.45.6.ad 3.

"It belongs to charity to be at peace, but it belongs to wisdom to make peace by setting things in order"

 "caritatis est habere pacem, sed facere pacem est sapientiae ordinantis."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.45.6.ad 1, "Whether the seventh beatitude corresponds to the gift of wisdom."

'Orthodox' means orthodox in life as well as faith

"Orthodoxy isn’t up for negotiation, and it isn’t subject to member surveys. Nor is it cleanly detachable from moral and social questions. The one clear case of excommunication we have from Paul’s letters involves a man who was sleeping with his stepmother. Sexual ethics, like other moral matters, is part of the Church’s witness and has been from the beginning."

     Brad East, "Mainlining nostalgia," a review of The vanishing church, by Ryan P. Burge, First things no. 362 (April 2026):  51.

for His own sake, for my sake

"one may adhere to a thing in two ways: first, for its own sake; second, because something else is attained thereby. Accordingly charity makes us adhere to God for His own sake, uniting our minds [(mentem hominis, the mind of a man)] to God by the emotion of love [(affectum amoris)]. On the other hand, hope and faith make man adhere to God as to a principle wherefrom certain things accrue to us. Now we derive from God both knowledge of truth and the attainment of perfect goodness. Accordingly faith makes us adhere to God, as the source whence we derive the knowledge of truth, since we believe that what God tells us is true: while hope makes us adhere to God, as the source whence we derive perfect goodness, i.e., insofar as, by hope, we trust to the Divine assistance for obtaining [eternal] happiness" or "eternal life, which consists in the enjoyment of God Himself", plus the "other things . . . for which we pray God, . . . secondarily and as referred to eternal happiness."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.17.6.Resp., as supplemented at the end by 17.2.Resp. & ad 1, trans. FEDP as modified (?) by the Aquinas Institute, italics mine.

"It is impossible to trust too much in the Divine assistance" properly understood (below)

"Thus faith can have no mean or extremes in the point of trusting to the First Truth [(in hoc quod innitatur primae veritati, in this, that it leans upon the First Truth)], in which it is impossible to trust too much; whereas on the part of the things believed [(ex parte eorum quae credit)], it may have a mean and extremes; for instance one truth is a mean between two falsehoods. So too, hope has no mean or extremes, as regards its principal object [(ex parte principalis obiecti)], since it is impossible to trust too much in the Divine assistance; yet it may have a mean and extremes, as regards those things a man trusts to obtain [(quantum ad ea quae confidit aliquis se adepturum, with respect to the things that a man trusts himself to obtain)], insofar as he either presumes above his [(suam)] capability, or despairs of things of which he [(sibi)] is capable."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.17.5.Resp., trans. FEDP (i.e. Shapcote).  "It is impossible to trust too much in" God's ability to "lead [us] to an infinite good", i.e. "eternal life, which consists in the enjoyment of God himself" (17.2.Resp.:  "we should hope from Him for nothing less than Himself"), as well as the "other things . . . for which we pray to God, . . . secondarily and as referred to eternal happiness" (ad 2).

Liberal Christian nationalism

       "There is a name for [Ryan P.] Burge's preferred cocktail of religion and civics, Church and state.  It's Christendom.  Burge's book [The vanishing church] is one long lament for the passing of mainline Christendom in America.  You might even say it is both a paean and a dirge for a certain style of Christian nationalism—liberal Christian nationalism.  Make the mainline great again!"

     Brad East, "Mainlining nostalgia," a review, First things no. 362 (April 2026):  52. 

"many who are in a state of grace suffer from dullness of mind"

"multi habentes gratiam adhuc patiuntur mentis hebetudinem."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.8.4.Praet 1, trans. FEDP (Shapcote).  Ad 1:  "Some who have sanctifying grace may suffer from dullness of mind with regard to things that are  not necessary for salvation; but with regard to those that are necessary for salvation, they are sufficiently instructed by the Holy Ghost, according to 1 John 2:27, His unction teacheth you of all things."