"Collect, for grace"

Mid 8th-century Gelasian sacramentary (no. 1576):
Gratias tibi agimus, domine, sanctae pater, omnipotens aeternae deus, qui nos transacto noctis spatio ad matutinis horas perducere dignatus es; quaesumus, ut dones nobis diem hunc sine peccato transire, quatenus ad uesperum gratias referamus: per.

Late 8th- or early 9th-century Gregorian sacramentary (no. 1491):

Gratias tibi agimus domine sanctę pater omnipotens aeternę deus . qui nos de transacto noctis spatio ad matutinas horas perducere dignatus es . quaesumus ut dones nobis diem hunc sine peccato transire . quatenus ad uesperum et semper tibi deo gratias referamus . per dominum.

The 9th- or 10th-century Durham ritual, no. 241 (Rituale Ecclesiæ Dunelmensis or Durham Collectar, Durham Cathedral Library MS A.IV.19, fol. 18r).  The Durham collectar, ed. Alicia Corrêa, Henry Bradshaw Society 105 (London:  Boydell Press, 1992), 165 (no. 241), with abbreviations spelled out:
Gratias agamus Domine sancte pater omnipotens aeterne Deus qui nos de transacto noctis spatio ad matutinas horas perducere dignatus es, quaesumus ut dones nobis diem hunc sine peccato transire, quatenus ad uesperum tibi Deo gratias referamus.  Per dominum.

The above three (but especially the second), i.e. "the prayer from which this collect [(the one below, the Anglican "Collect for grace")] developed", as translated by Hatchett (p. 126):
We give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty everlasting God, who have brought us through the period of night to the morning hours.  We beseech you that you grant that we pass through this day without sin, so that at vespers we may return thanks to you.

After this point it loses, somewhere along the way, the intra-horal anticipation of evening prayer.  Or is the following, contra Hatchett, not at all the same prayer?  The vocabulary is quite different.  Yet it is this vocabulary, rather than that above, that I find in the Roman Breviary and what Hatchett flags as "the Sarum little office of Prime" (col. 54 of Procter and Wordsworth):

Roman Breviary:  Domine Deus omnipotens, qui ad principium huius diei nos pervenire fecisti:  tua nos hodie salva virtute; ut in hac die ad nullum declinemus peccatum, sed semper ad tuam iustitiam faciendam nostra procedant eloquia, dirigantur cogitationes et opera.  Per.

Sarum "Preces ad Primum" (column 54 of Procter and Wordsworth):  Domine Sancte Pater omnipotens æterne Deus : qui nos ad principium hujus diei pervenire fecisti : tua nos hodie salva virtute, et concede : ut in hac die ad nullum declinemus peccatum nec ullum incurramus periculum : sed semper ad tuam justitiam faciendam omnis nostra actio tuo moderamine dirigatur.  Per.

I've struck out in both Bruylants and Corpus orationum.  But there is lots of relevance on this prayer in Google.  This specimen of 19th-century scholarship takes the line taken later by Hatchett.  In any case, the BCP:

1549 BCP (ed. Cummings):
O Lorde oure heavenly father, almightye and everlivyng God, whiche haste safelye brought us to the beginning of this day:  Defend us in the same with thy mighty power, and graunt that this daye wee fall into no synne, neyther runne into any kinde of daunger, but that al our doinges may be ordred by thy governaunce, to do alwaies that is righteous in thy sight:  through Jesus Christe our lorde.  Amen.

1662 BCP (ed. Cummings):
O Lord our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day;  defend us in the same with thy mighty power, and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

1928 BCP:
O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day:  Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

1979 BCP, Morning Prayer I:
O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day:  Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that we, being ordered by thy governance, may do always what is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

1979 BCP, Morning Prayer II:
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father you have brought us in safety to this new day:  Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

No love without judgment; no judgment more searing than that of love

"Only that love which pronounces judgment on all that is not love is in the deepest sense a restoring and saving love.  At the same time, no judgment pierces so deep as the judgment of love; and whatever refuses to be won by the reckless self-giving of love cannot be won at all."

     Anders Nygren, Agape and eros, trans. Philip S. Watson (Philadelphia:  The Westminster Press, 1938), 104.

     I was reminded of this by Louis Bouyer, who, despite his predictably heavy criticism of Nygren (in which I concur), agrees with him on this point:

It is the very grandeur of agape to will that love not transcend judgment except by accomplishing it.  More precisely, where love reigns (says Nygren himself, here [for once] faithful to Saint John), those who open themselves up to it are beyond all judgment, but, for those who refuse it, no further recourse is possible.  As he is not afraid to say, there is, finally, no judgment more inexorable than that of love, and if love comes to condemn us, the condemnation is total and without recourse. 

     Louis Bouyer, Religieux et clercs contre Dieu (Paris:  Aubier Montaigne, 1975), 90, translation mine.  Bouyer does not provide a citation, but p. 104 (above) seems to fit the bill.

"If you don't know the exact moment when the lights will go out, you might as well read until they do."

     Clive James in the Introduction to Latest readings (Yale University Press, 2015), as quoted by John Banville in "A quest for clarity," The New York review of books 52, no. 14 (September 24, 2015), 79 (77-79):

If there is such a thing as a reader of genius, then Clive James is it. . . . after being diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, he wondered if it was worth the effort of going on reading; the cure for this was an invigorating plunge into Boswell's Life of Johnson.  The great pleasure he derived from that great work, which he had not read in its entirety until then, showed him what he would be missing, in even the short span he believed was left to him, if he gave up on books.