"an extremely demanding one, fraught with difficulties"

"The inheritance of salvific truth is an extremely demanding one, fraught with difficulties.  Inevitably the Church’s activities, and those of the Supreme Pontiff in particular, often become a 'sign of contradiction'.  This too shows that her mission is that of Christ, who continues to be a sign of contradiction."

     Karol Wojtyła, Sign of contradiction, trans. St Paul Publications (New York:  A Crossroad Book, The Seabury Press, 1979 [1977]), 124.

"God made man right" from the beginning

"Such a revisionist Christology seems to exert a considerable attraction on contemporary theology.  With the past having been occupied by evolutionary science, so to speak, all that seems to be left for theology is the future.  Yet this is a dangerous illusion.  Because without a distinct salvation-historical beginning there is no terminus a quo that would give orientation to the terminus ad quem.  Emergentism would make Christ himself the figure of some future God-man, the typos for an antitypos still to come.  Yet such a construal would flatly contradict the [web?] of salvation history between the primordial past of a definite terminus a quo and the promised future of a terminus ad quem, the theological center and middle point being the Incarnation.  This is unequivocally affirmed by Gaudium et spes 22:  Christ’s mission is to restore the likeness of God.  Yet a restoration presupposes a loss or a privation, an original state in which the divine likeness obtained."

     Reinhard Hütter, “Humanity’s original state,” annual Aquinas lecture, Dominican House of Studies, Washington, DC, 23 January 2023, 8:15.  Aquinas:  "God made man right [(fecerit Deus hominem rectum)]" (Ec 7:30 Vulgate)] from the beginning.

"Every creature prays"

Salaam Halila

"All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they emerge [(egredientes)] from their barns and caves they look up to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirit in their own fashion. At that time the birds too [(Sed et . . . tunc)] rise and lift themselves up to heaven: they unfold a cross of wings instead of hands [(alarum crucem pro manibus expandunt)], and give voice to what seems to be a prayer."

     Tertullian, On prayer 28-29, modifications on the translation offered by DivineOffice.org (I haven't checked the Liturgy of the hours) mine.  (These seem worth noting because the effect is to capture the creatures at morning prayer specifically.)  From DivineOffice.org:

All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come from their barns and caves they look out to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirit in their own fashion. The birds too rise and lift themselves up to heaven: they open out their wings, instead of hands, in the form of a cross, and give voice to what seems to be a prayer.

Latin from Universalis (=CCL 1, 273-74).
     My thanks to Brian Lugioyo for directing my attention to this passage.