"far be it from me to glory except in the cross"

"We want to be powerful in the world, that is why we are weak according to Jesus Christ; and the love of the cross of Jesus being extinguished among the faithful, the whole force of Christianity has vanished [(toute la force chrétienne s'est évanouie)]."

     Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, "Panégyrique de l'apotre saint Paul" (30 June 1657), Bossuet:  oraisons funèbres panégyriques, ed. L’Abbé Bernard Velat, Biblioteque de la Pleiade 33 (Paris:  Librairie Gallimard, 1950), 402 (385-407), translation mine.  "I will be restricting myself [(me réduis)] to making you see the weaknesses of this great apostle" (386).