"orientation, tendency, disposition and activity"

Zephyr Institute

"the expression used in official Roman documents and in Papal addresses on the issue . . . is not 'orientation' but 'deep seated tendencies'—in Italian originals tendenze omosessuali profondamente."
"between orientation and habitual action lies disposition."
"bishops, religious superiors, and directors of seminaries need to attend to the fourfold distinction:  orientation, tendency, disposition and activity (which in terms of the scholastic Aristotelian categories some might once have been taught correspond to different levels of potentiality and actuality:  for Aristotle dunamis and energeia).  And having learned that, the task is to apply it practically to establish a barrier so as to inhibit the occurrence of the fourth.  That wall needs to be placed after orientation, for by the time tendencies and dispositions have developed it is likely to be too late. . . ."
"At any rate, no good outcome can be hoped for until this painful nettle is grasped. . . ."

     John Haldane, "It’s Déjà vu all over again," New Blackfriars 100, no. 1087 (May 2019):  258-261 (249-263).  

Theology 101 from the prominent Scottish philosopher John Haldane

Zephyr Institute

"In general it is a mistake to infer from the principle of creation that God made everything to be as it is.  God creates and sustains a world of natural agents, but those agents then interact with one another according to their abilities and liabilities in ways that have consequences which God allows but need not directly will. . . .  From the fact that God made nature it does not follow that God made creatures this or that way, though it does follow from His sustaining creation that He permitted such things to occur.  Anyone regarding that as an unacceptable position had better have some other account of how things are not perfect.  Besides which, it does not follow from the fact that God permits a condition that he endorses or values it or wishes to see it lived out, or that he is indifferent to these issues."

     John Haldane, "It’s Déjà vu all over again," New Blackfriars 100, no. 1087 (May 2019):  259 (249-263).  The first "He" appears as "HE," but that looks like a typo to me.  Nothing new here, of course, just Theology 101.

omissione

"Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, 'Behold, we did not know this,' does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not requite man according to his work?"

     Prov 24:11-12 RSV.  I was put onto this by David French (ultimately Luke Glanville).

"What you hold, may you [always] hold. What you do, may you [always] do and never abandon."

"What you hold, may you [always] hold.  What you do, may you [always] do and never abandon.  But with swift pace, light step, [and] unswerving feet, so that even your steps stir up no dust, go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness, believing nothing, agreeing with nothing which would dissuade you from this resolution or which would place a stumbling block for you on the way, so that you may offer your vows to the Most High in the pursuit of perfection to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you."

"quod tenes teneas, quod facis facias, nec dimittas sed cursu concito, gradu leui, pedibus inoffensis ut etiam gressus tui puluerem non admittant, secura gaudens et alacris per tramitem caute beatitudinis gradiaris, nulli credens, nulli consentiens, quod te vellet ab hoc proposito reuocare, quod tibi poneret in uia scandalum, ne in illa perfectione, qua spiritus Domini te uocauit, redderes Altissimo uota tua."

     St. Clare of Assisi, Second letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague, secs. 11-14, as trans. Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., and Ignatius C. Brady O.F.M. (Francis and Clare:  the complete works, Classics of western spirituality (New York and Mahwah:  Paulist Press, 1982), 196), but without the versification.  Latin from Walter Seton, "The letters from Saint Clare to blessed Agnes of Bohemia," Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 17 (1924):  515 (509-519).  St. Clare is here encouraging perseverence in the "life of the highest poverty" (sec. 1) in imitation of "the poor Christ" (sec. 15).

PSEUDO St. Clare of Assisi: "We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become," etc.

"We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others."

     We have but "five known writings" from the pen of St. Clare of Assisi:  "her Rule and four letters to Blessed Agnes of Prague.  The authenticity of the other writings—the Testament, Blessing, and the Letter to Ermentrude of Bruges—has been contested; they may be the conceptions of authors in the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries" ("Introduction" to the section on Clare of Assisi in Francis and Clare:  the complete works, translation and introduction by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap. and Ignatius C. Brady, O.F.M., Classics of Western spirituality (New York & Mahwah:  Paulist Press, 1982), 174).  But in none of those eight does anything like this passage appear.  Indeed, only recently was it composed and then mistakenly or maybe even falsely attributed to her.
     Where does it come from?   Undoubtedly the scholar Ilia Delio, "Clare of Assisi and the mysticism of motherhood," Franciscans at Prayer, ed. Timothy J. Johnson, Medieval Franciscans 4 (Leiden and Boston:  Brill, 2007), 54, 47 (31-62):

"This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others" (47).

"We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.  Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ; rather, it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation" (54).

Clearly someone mistook someone's notes on Delio for the words of St. Clare herself.
     One of those who did was apparently the now doubly notorious David Haas, who, on 9 July 2020, apologized for having "caused great harm to a variety of people."  Hopefully this will now kill the song quicker than its intrinsic demerits would have otherwise.

     5 September 2021:  I'm now noticing that I wasn't the first to catch this gaffe.  See, for example, francisjon on 6 May 2019, FATHERHORTON of Fauxtations on 11 August 2019, and so forth.

Mary full by grace: It was given to her to be made holy.

     "To put it another way, how could the Angel have addressed her as full of grace if any, even a little, of these virtues [(si quidpiam, vel parum boni)] had been present in her already and not given to her by grace?  It was given to her to be made holy.  She, who was to conceive and give birth to the Holy of holies, was made holy in body by the gift of virginity and holy in mind by the gift of humility."

     St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Homily 2.1-2 in praise of the Virgin Mother, Office of readings for Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary time, trans. (with the unjustified insertion of "It as given to her to be made holy") Universalis.  Trans. Liturgy of the hours:

     "Otherwise, how could the angel afterward pronounce her full of grace, if she had the slightest good quality which did not come from grace?  Thus she, who was to conceive and bring forth the holy of holies, must be sanctified physically and so she received the gift of virginity; that she might be sanctified spiritually, she received the gift of humility."

     "Alioquin quomodo Angelus eam in sequentibus gratia plenam pronuntiat, si quippiam vel parum boni, quod ex gratia non esset, habebat?
     "Ut igitur, quae Sanctum sanctorum conceptura erat pariter et paritura, sancta esset corpore, accepit donum virginitatis; ut esset et mente accepit et humilitatis."

Earlier (as trans., this time, more accurately in Universalis):

"The maker of mankind, if he was to be made man and destined to be born of man, would have to choose, to create [(debuit deligere, immo condere, would have to choose, no, rather, would have to fashion/produce/make/create)] a mother whom he knew to be worthy of him, who he knew would be pleasing to him."

Mercifully grant that, saved like her by the mystery of your redemption, we may, through her prayers and in imitation of her humility, merit to be exalted by you on high.

Fra Angelico, Gardner Museum

"O God, who, looking on the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary, raised her to this grace, that your Only Begotten Son was born of her according to the flesh and that she was crowned this day with surpassing glory, grant through her prayers, that, saved by the mystery of your redemption, we may merit to be exalted by you on high.  Through."

"Deus, qui beatam Virginem Mariam, eius humilitatem respiciens, ad hanc gratiam evexisti, ut Unigenitus tuus ex ipsa secundum carnem nasceretur, et hodierna die superexcellenti gloria coronasti, eius nobis precibus concede, ut, redemptionis tuae mysterio salvati, a te exaltari meremur.  Per."

     Collect for the Vigil of the Assumption, current Missale Romanum.  This, which replaced the Collect of 1962, first composed in 1950 (?), is a modification of that assigned to the Day (without distinction) on p. 421 of the Missale Cluniacense (Missale monasticum, ad usum sacri ordinis Cluniacensis) of 1733 (Cuthbert Johnson, OSB, "The sources of the Roman Missal (1975):  Proprium de tempore, Proprium de sanctis," Notitiae 32, nos. 1-3 =354-356 (Ian.-Mar. 1996), 135 (7-179):  135).  Here are the two prayers as translated and boldfaced by Lauren Pristas ("The post-Vatican II revision of collects:  solemnities and feasts," Liturgy in the twenty-first century:  contemporary issues and perspectives, ed. Alcuin Reid (London:  T & T Clark, Bloomsbury, 2016), 63-64 (51-90)):

1733:

O God, who, looking upon her humility, brought the Virgin Mary to this grace, that as your Only-Begotten Son was from her according to the flesh, and on this day have crowned her with surpassing glory:  mercifully grant that as, through her prayers and in imitation of her, we humble ourselves in all things, we may be deemed worthy to be glorified/raised up by you.

Deus, qui Virginem Mariam, ejus humilitatem respiciens, ad hanc gratiam evexisti, ut Unigenitus tuus ex ipsa secundum carnem nasceretur, & hodierna die superexcellenti gloria coronasti:  concede propitius, ut ejus precibus & imitatione, nosmetipsos in omnibus humiliantes, a te exaltari mereamur.  Per.

1962:

1975 and following (above):

O God, who, looking upon her humility, brought the Blessed Virgin Mary to this grace, that as your Only-Begotten Son was from her according to the flesh, and on this day have crowned her with surpassing glory:  grant us through her prayers that, having been saved through the mystery of your redemption, we may be made worthy to be glorified/lifted up/exalted by you.

     Pristas gives her own summary of the modifications, but this is what stands out to me:  1) the emphasis has been placed on salvation by Christ, while 2) that on the graciously gifted merit of an analogous assumption has been detached from the meritorious humilitas of both a) Mary and b) ourselves, not to mention c) her prayers to that specific end in our lives.  Yet, as my headline indicates, the construction of a both-and would not have been impossible.