"even His infirmity was the consequence of His power."

"cuius et infirmitas fuit ex potestate."

     St. Augustine, City of God xiv.9, trans. Dods.  Latin from CAG (428/83).

Scheeben on metaphysics

"without metaphysics and speculation one cannot treat at all, worthily and exhaustively, things that by their nature belong to the highest metaphysics and at the same time contain the richest, noblest, and most fruitful material for spiritual meditation.  Moreover these same truths are also eminently practical—if not in the colloquial sense that they are immediately related to the usual practices of moral life, then nonetheless in the sense that they contribute mightily to the elevation and edification of the mind and reveal the inmost essence of Christian truth in its beauty and glory."

"ohne Metaphysik und Spekulation kann man nun einmal Dinge, die ihrem Wesen nach der höchsten Metaphysik angehören und die zugleich den reichsten, edelsten und fruchtbarsten Stoff geistiger Betrachtung enthalten, gar nicht in würdiger und erschöpfender Weise behandeln.  Zudem sind eben diese Wahrheiten auch in eminenter Weise praktisch — wenn schon nicht in dem vulgären Sinne, daß sie in unmittelbarer Beziehung zu den gewöhnlichen Uebungen des sittlichen Lebens stehen, so doch in dem Sinne, daß sie zur Erhebung und Erbauung des Geistes mächtig beitragen und das innerste Wesen der christlichen Wahrheit in seiner Schönheit und Herrlichkeit aufschließen."

     Matthias Joseph Scheeben, "Author’s Preface" (1874), Handbook of Catholic dogmatics I.1, trans. Michael J. Miller (Steubenville, OH:  Emmaus Press, 2019).  =vol 1, p. ix in the original 4-vol. German edition (Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatik (Freiburg im Breisgau:  Herder’sche Verlagshandlung, 1873)) on my shelf.

"For an animal such as man, what is natural is affirmed by culture." Or, perversely, not affirmed by culture.

"money and the resurrection are opposed as two systems of possibility:  the system of the virtual and the system of the living.  I am using the word 'virtual' in a very specific [negative] sense that does not encompass all sorts of virtuality or fiction:  there is a good virtuality and even an excellent kind of dreaming that turns us away from reality only to lead us back more deeply into it.  The idea that we would relate immediately and perfectly to existence from the start is the fantasy of people who are sickened by their excessive consumption of artificial things.  For an animal such as man, what is natural is affirmed by culture.  We need myths in order to enter into the logic of the living.  We need fairy tales in order to become realists.  And, in order to reach the soul of reality, we need what at first glance may seem to be a fairy tale but is really the Fact that surpasses all accounting—what may seem to be a myth but is the adventure of the Logos himself:  the News about the Nazarene who died and rose again in Judea during the governorship of Pontius Pilate.
     "What I am calling 'virtual' here refers instead to 'virtual reality,' in other words, to the opposite of myth, poetry, and novels:  a virtuality that tends to substitute itself for reality and to exert its influence over it.  Digital technology is in fact the ultimate stage of cash.  The digitalization of the world through the Internet is the final step in the monetization of the world through money."

     Fabrice Hadjadj, The resurrection:  experience life in the risen Christ, trans. Michael J. Miller (Paris:  Magnificat, 2016;  Résurrection:  mode d'emploi, Paris:  Magnificat, 2016), 41-42.  I'm interested in the claim in the headline (which strikes me as eminently Thomistic), but have set it in context.

"The good use the world that they may enjoy God; the wicked . . . that they may enjoy the world would fain use God"

"The good use the world that they may enjoy God:  the wicked, on the contrary, that they may enjoy the world would fain use God [(boni quippe ad hoc utuntur mundo, ut fruantur deo; mali autem contra, ut fruantur mundo, uti uolunt deo)]—those of them, at least, who have attained to the belief that He is and takes an interest in human affairs.  For they who have not yet attained even to this belief are still at a much lower level."

     St. Augustine, City of God xv.7, trans. Dods.  Latin from CAG as reproduced in Past Masters.

"May our hearts dream of you, | May they perceive you in sleep"

Georges de la Tour (detail)

"May our hearts dream of you,
May they perceive you in sleep. . . ."

"Te corda nostra somnient,
te per soporem sentiant, . . ."

May our hearts dream of you,
May they sense you throughout [their] slumber. . . .

     Stanza from the 6th(?)-century hymn Christe precamur adnue (Christe precamur annue) interpolated into the Te lucis ante terminum of Compline in Liturgia horarum.  I must find the time to research the use of this stanza exhaustively.  Cf., for example, this "Oratio in dormitorio," as printed on pp. 223-224 of The Gregorian sacramentary under Charles the Great, as edited in 1915 by H. A. Wilson:

Benedic domine hoc famulorum tuorum dormitorium . qui non dormis neque dormitas qui custodis israhel.  famulos tuos in hac domo quiescentes post laborem  custodi ab inlusionibus fantasmaticis satanę . uigilantes in praeceptis tuis . meditentur dormientes . te per soporem sentient . et hic et ubique defensionis tuę auxilio muniantur . per.

My translation:

Bless, O Lord, this dormitory [(dormitorium:  house of sleep, bedroom)] of the servants [of] your [household], resting in this house after [their] labor, you who neither slumber nor sleep, that keepeth Israel [(Ps 120:4 Douay-Rheims; Vulgate:  non dormitabit neque dormiet qui custodit Israel)].  Protect them from the phantasmic deceits [(illusionibus)] of Satan.  Awake [(uigilantes:  keeping vigil)], may they meditate upon your precepts; asleep, may they sense you throughout [their] slumber.  And may they be, here and everywhere, fortified as within/behind a wall [(muniantur:  walled (round) about, defended)] by the succor [(auxilium:  aid, military auxiliary, troop, or power)] of your defence.

The only problem with this translation is that famulos tuos . . . quiescentes does not match famulorum tuorum in case, as I make it do here.

That last sentence reminds me a lot of the counter-circumvallation of 2 Kings 6:8-23:

So [the king of Syria] sent there horses and chariots and a great army; and they came by night, and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was round about the city. And the servant said, 'Alas, my master! What shall we do?'

Etc.

This is also one of the "Benedictiones in monasterio" given in the on p. 277 of The Missal of Robert of Jumièges, as edited in 1896 by the same.  Etc., etc.:

Benedic domine hoc famulorum tuorum dormitorium qui non dormis neque dormitas qui custodis israhel.  famulos tuos in hac domo quiescentes post laborem.  custodi ab illusionibus satanae phantasmaticis uigilantes in praeceptis tuis meditentur.  dormientes te per soporem sentient et hic et ubique defensionis tuae auxilio muniantur.  per.

Etc., etc.
     Cf. this line (which could, I suppose, be entirely eschatological) in the 10th or 11th century Irish hymn "Be thou my vision" ("Rop tú mo baile"), as trans. Murphy (basically Nevin, pp. 42-45 & 190-191):

may it be thou that I behold for ever in my sleep.
rop tú ad-chër im chotlud caidche.

St. Augustine on gravity

"I don't care to inquire why they cannot believe an earthly [human] body can be in heaven, while the whole earth is suspended on nothing.  For perhaps the world keeps its central place by the same law that attracts to its centre all heavenly bodies."

     St. Augustine, City of God XIII.18, trans. Dods.  Latin from CAG.

"nolo . . . quaerere, cur non credant terrenum esse posse corpus in caelo, cum terra uniuersa libretur in nihilo. fortassis enim de ipso medio mundi loco, eo quod in eum coeant quaeque grauiora, etiam argumentatio ueri similior habeatur."

I am unwilling to ask why they do not believe that an earthly [human] body can be in heaven, though the whole earth is suspended in [and from] nothing.  For as for that central place of the world:  by that thing [(quod) by which] all heavy [bodies] come together in it, so, it may be, a like proof of what is true [of it itself] may be had.

     "But let our adversaries a little more carefully consider this subject of earthly weight [(pondera ipsa terrena)], because it has important bearings, both on the ascension of the body of Christ, and also on the resurrection body of the saints."  Etc.