"the [twentieth-century] narrative concerning the medieval [Christian] reaction to [Hindu-Arabic numerals] and the number zero" constitutes "a bizarre funhouse mirror image of the Middle Ages"

Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 3 (1905), 155–195

"the way the introduction of the number zero as well as the whole system of Hindu-Arabic numerals into medieval Europe has been represented in modern scholarship and popular media" constitutes "a bizarre funhouse mirror image of the Middle Ages", "a rather depressing case study of the way careless scholarship and failure to check one’s sources can allow false narratives and made-up ‘facts’ to proliferate in the modern world."

     From a pre-pub version of C. Philipp Nothaft, "Medieval Europe’s satanic ciphers: on the genesis of a modern myth," British journal for the history of mathematics 35, no. 2 (2020): 107–136.

Friendship with God is unavailable to those who find the idea incredible and/or despair of it

"just as friendship with a person would be impossible if one disbelieved in, or despaired of, the possibility of his fellowship or familiar intercourse, so too, friendship with God, which is charity, is impossible without faith, so as to believe in this fellowship and intercourse with God, and to hope to attain to this fellowship."

"sicut aliquis non posset cum aliquo amicitiam habere, si discrederet vel desperaret se posse habere aliquam societatem vel familiarem conversationem cum ipso; ita aliquis non potest habere amicitiam ad Deum, quae est caritas, nisi fidem habeat, per quam credat huiusmodi societatem et conversationem hominis cum Deo, et speret se ad hanc societatem pertinere."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.65.5.Resp., in the FEDP (or Shapcote) translation.  On the other hand, the requisite faith and hope must be infused!

Faith and works

"Deus, innocentiae restitutor et amator, dirige ad te tuorum corda servorum:  ut, spiritus tui fervore concepto, et in fide inveniantur stabiles et in opere efficaces."

God, restorer and lover of innocence, direct the hearts of [your] servants to you, in order that, seized by the fervor of your Spirit, they may be found steadfast in faith and effectual in deed.

     Prayer for Thursday of the Second Week in Lent, Liturgy of the hours.  Corpus orationum =Bruylants, no. 235 on p. 72 of vol. 2.  From the 9th century, but the incipit ("Deus, innocentiae restitutor et amator, dirige ad te tuorum corda") from the earlier Gelasian.  On the other hand, shouldn't concepto, if modifying servorum (genitive masculine plural) or corda (accusative neuter plural), be plural?   For what else could concepto be modifying?  Innocentia?  But innocentia would require concepta.
     Universalis:

God of love, bring us back to you.  Send your Spirit to make us strong in faith and active in good works.

'Orthodox' means orthodox in life as well as faith

"It was a sign of the times that in the discussion about the vertical and horizontal aspects of the faith, not only [at the W.C.C. Assembly] in Uppsala [in 1968] but also after the Assembly, the most frequently quoted sentence from this [(from my)] address was: 'It must become clear that church members who deny in fact their responsibility for the needy in any part of the world are just as much guilty of heresy as those who deny this or that article of the faith.' If I had known beforehand that this sentence would become so popular, I would have added a complementary phrase such as: 'And church members who deny that God has reconciled men to himself in Christ are just as much guilty of heresy as those who refuse to be involved in the struggle for justice and freedom for all men and who do nothing to help their brethren in need.' For it seems to me that the health of the ecumenical movement depends on our readiness to stand with equal firmness for these two convictions at the same time."

     W. A. Visser't Hooft, Memoirs (London: SCM Press; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973; 2nd ed., unchanged, Geneva: WCC Publications, 1987), 363.  The address in question was entitled "The Mandate of the Ecumenical Movement".

'Orthodox' means orthodox in life as well as faith

Index of Medieval Art (Public Image)

"orthodoxus est recte credens, et ut credit [recte] vivens."

The orthodox man is [the one who is] believing rightly, and, as he believes, living [rightly, too].

     St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) in Etymologies 8.14.5.  Latin ed. (with the interpolation of that second recte) Lindsay, Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1911), vol. 1, n.p. (there are more recent critical editions that I haven't consulted).  Cf. PL 82, col. 294, which leaves that second recte out.  M. Sesan, "'Orthodoxie': histoire d’un mot et de sa signification," Istina 15, no. 4 (1970):  428 (425-434), cites PL 82, col. 388, but that is wrong.  The whole of sub-section 5 as trans. Barney, Lewis, Beech, & Berghof (Cambridge University Press) in 2006:

An 'orthodox person' (orthodoxus) is one who believes rightfully, and who lives [righteously] as he believes.  Now ὀρθῶς in Greek means 'rightly' (recte), δόξα is 'good repute' (gloria):  an orthodox person is a man 'of good and right repute' (recta gloria).  He who lives otherwise than as he believes cannot be called by this name.

And St. Isidore is right, both on the etymology (OED), and on the senses of δόξα; which, according to LSJ, can mean both opinion and repute.

 

"Nor did He stand in need of our service when He ordered us to follow Him; but He thus bestowed salvation upon ourselves."

"Not needing our service, but, bestowing salvation upon us [(nobis ipsis)], He commanded that we follow Him."

"Neque nostro ministerio indigens, iussit ut eum sequeremur, sed nobis ipsis attribuens salutem."

     St. Irenaeus, Adv. haer. IV.xiv.1, translation mine.  Latin from Liturgy of the hours (SC 100, 534-540); Ed. Harvey (1857), vol. 2, p. 184.  ANF 1:

"Nor did He stand in need of our service when He ordered us to follow Him; but He thus bestowed salvation upon ourselves."
 
Liturgy of the hours for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday:

"Nor did the Lord need our service. He commanded us to follow him, but his was the gift of salvation."

"A thirsty man is . . . not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring"

Source

"A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. . . .
     "Be thankful then for what you have received, and do not be saddened at all that such an abundance still remains. What you have received and attained is your present share, while what is left will be your heritage. For what you could not take at one time because of your weakness, you will be able to grasp at another if you only persevere. So do not foolishly try to drain in one draught what cannot be consumed all at once, and do not cease out of faintheartedness from what you will be able to absorb as time goes on."

     St. Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on the Diatessaron 1.19, as trans. Office of readings for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Liturgy of the hours.  SC 121 (1966), 53 (no Syriac; this volume contains, unusually for SC, a French translation only).  Cf. Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron:  an English translation of Chester Beatty Syriac MS 709, trans. Carmel McCarthy,  Journal of Semitic studies. Supplement 2 (Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of Manchester, 1993), 49:

The thirsty one rejoices because he can drink, but is not upset because he is unable to render the source dry. . . .  Give thanks for what you have taken away, and do not murmur over what remains and is in excess.  That which you have taken and gone away with is your portion and that which is left over is also your heritage.  That which you were not able to receive there and then because of your weakness, receive it at another time by means of your perseverence.  And do not, in your impudence, attempt either to obtain in one moment that which cannot be taken up in one moment, or to desist from that which you are able to take up little by little.