'Orthodox' means orthodox in life as well as faith

"It was a sign of the times that in the discussion about the vertical and horizontal aspects of the faith, not only [at the W.C.C. Assembly] in Uppsala [in 1968] but also after the Assembly, the most frequently quoted sentence from this [(from my)] address was: 'It must become clear that church members who deny in fact their responsibility for the needy in any part of the world are just as much guilty of heresy as those who deny this or that article of the faith.' If I had known beforehand that this sentence would become so popular, I would have added a complementary phrase such as: 'And church members who deny that God has reconciled men to himself in Christ are just as much guilty of heresy as those who refuse to be involved in the struggle for justice and freedom for all men and who do nothing to help their brethren in need.' For it seems to me that the health of the ecumenical movement depends on our readiness to stand with equal firmness for these two convictions at the same time."

     W. A. Visser't Hooft, Memoirs (London: SCM Press; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973; 2nd ed., unchanged, Geneva: WCC Publications, 1987), 363.  The address in question was entitled "The Mandate of the Ecumenical Movement".

'Orthodox' means orthodox in life as well as faith

Index of Medieval Art (Public Image)

"orthodoxus est recte credens, et ut credit [recte] vivens."

The orthodox man is [the one who is] believing rightly, and, as he believes, living [rightly, too].

     St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) in Etymologies 8.14.5.  Latin ed. (with the interpolation of that second recte) Lindsay, Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1911), vol. 1, n.p. (there are more recent critical editions that I haven't consulted).  Cf. PL 82, col. 294, which leaves that second recte out.  M. Sesan, "'Orthodoxie': histoire d’un mot et de sa signification," Istina 15, no. 4 (1970):  428 (425-434), cites PL 82, col. 388, but that is wrong.  The whole of sub-section 5 as trans. Barney, Lewis, Beech, & Berghof (Cambridge University Press) in 2006:

An 'orthodox person' (orthodoxus) is one who believes rightfully, and who lives [righteously] as he believes.  Now ὀρθῶς in Greek means 'rightly' (recte), δόξα is 'good repute' (gloria):  an orthodox person is a man 'of good and right repute' (recta gloria).  He who lives otherwise than as he believes cannot be called by this name.

And St. Isidore is right, both on the etymology (OED), and on the senses of δόξα; which, according to LSJ, can mean both opinion and repute.

 

"Nor did He stand in need of our service when He ordered us to follow Him; but He thus bestowed salvation upon ourselves."

"Not needing our service, but, bestowing salvation upon us [(nobis ipsis)], He commanded that we follow Him."

"Neque nostro ministerio indigens, iussit ut eum sequeremur, sed nobis ipsis attribuens salutem."

     St. Irenaeus, Adv. haer. IV.xiv.1, translation mine.  Latin from Liturgy of the hours (SC 100, 534-540); Ed. Harvey (1857), vol. 2, p. 184.  ANF 1:

"Nor did He stand in need of our service when He ordered us to follow Him; but He thus bestowed salvation upon ourselves."
 
Liturgy of the hours for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday:

"Nor did the Lord need our service. He commanded us to follow him, but his was the gift of salvation."

"A thirsty man is . . . not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring"

Source

"A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. . . .
     "Be thankful then for what you have received, and do not be saddened at all that such an abundance still remains. What you have received and attained is your present share, while what is left will be your heritage. For what you could not take at one time because of your weakness, you will be able to grasp at another if you only persevere. So do not foolishly try to drain in one draught what cannot be consumed all at once, and do not cease out of faintheartedness from what you will be able to absorb as time goes on."

     St. Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on the Diatessaron 1.19, as trans. Office of readings for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Liturgy of the hours.  SC 121 (1966), 53 (no Syriac; this volume contains, unusually for SC, a French translation only).  Cf. Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron:  an English translation of Chester Beatty Syriac MS 709, trans. Carmel McCarthy,  Journal of Semitic studies. Supplement 2 (Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of Manchester, 1993), 49:

The thirsty one rejoices because he can drink, but is not upset because he is unable to render the source dry. . . .  Give thanks for what you have taken away, and do not murmur over what remains and is in excess.  That which you have taken and gone away with is your portion and that which is left over is also your heritage.  That which you were not able to receive there and then because of your weakness, receive it at another time by means of your perseverence.  And do not, in your impudence, attempt either to obtain in one moment that which cannot be taken up in one moment, or to desist from that which you are able to take up little by little.

"the more perfect a virtue is, the more does it cause passion"

"it is not the function of virtue to deprive the powers subordinate to reason of their proper activities, but to make them execute the commands of reason by exercising their proper acts"; to "direct the sensitive appetite to its proper regulated movements" of ordered or "moderated passion."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.59.5.Resp. & ad 1-2, trans. FEDP (i.e. Shapcote).  Virtue calls for the moderated or ordered passion that both 1) "helps towards the execution of reason's command" and 2) "results from" the said acts or execution.

It is not virtuous to be resisting temptation

"disorderly passions abound in the continent and persevering man [(in continente et perseverante)], which would not be the case if his sensitive appetite were perfected by a habit making it conformable to reason. . . .  Continence and perseverence . . . withstand the [inordinate] passions lest reason be led astray.  But they fall short of being virtues", because it is not virtuous to be withstanding disordered passions; rather, it is virtuous to have no disordered passions (no unruly sensitive appetite) to be withstood.

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.58.3.ad 2, FEDP (i.e. Shapcote), italics mine (for .  "the impediment [or threat] of the [inordinate] passions" to "the judgment and command of prudence" is "removed [removeatur] . . . by moral virtue" (I-II.58.5.ad 3).  "But when [a passion] follows th[e] judgment [of reason], as though commanded by reason, it helps toward the execution of reason's command" (I-II.59.2.ad 3).

"Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past"

Duccio di Buoninsegna

"Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know thee as thou art revealed in Scripture and the breaking of the bread."

"Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread."

"Mane nobiscum, Domine Iesu, quoniam advesperascit, et nos comitans in via, refove corde, spem excita miseratus, ut te in Scripturis et in fractione panis cum nostris fratribus agnoscamus."

     Oratio for Vespers of the Fourth Monday in Ordinary Time, Liturgia horarum 3, as trans. on pp. 70 and 124 of the 1979 BCP, where it is called "A Collect for the Presence of Christ."  Hatchett is right about its source in "the Roman breviary of Paul VI" (143), but you could never confirm that from the abominable "translation" that appears in that position on p. 148 of vol. 3 of the 1975 Liturgy of the hours.  Utterly despicable:

"Lord our God, help us to love you with all our hearts and to love all men as you love them."

Next:  follow up on the presence of V&R fragments of this throughout Liturgia horarum 3, long antedated by its prominence historically in the CANTUS database from (as of 12 Feb 2026) c. 890 (Cantus Siglum F-AI 44 =Albi, Bibliothèque municipale Rochegude, 44).

"the creature without the Creator melts into thin air"

Philip Halling

"If by the autonomy of earthly affairs we mean that created things and societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values which must be gradually deciphered, put to use, and regulated by men, then it is entirely right to demand that autonomy. . . . For by the very circumstance of their having been created, all things are endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order. Man must respect these as he isolates them by the appropriate methods of the individual sciences or arts. . . .
     "But if the expression 'the independence of temporal affairs' is taken to mean that created things do not depend on God, and that man can use them without any reference to their Creator, anyone who acknowledges God will see how false such a meaning is [(nemo qui Deum agnoscit non sentit quam falsa huiusmodi placita sint)]. For without the Creator the creature would disappear [(Creatura enim sine creatore evanescit, For the creature without the Creator melts into thin air)]. . . ."

     Gaudium et spes 36, as trans. Liturgy of the hours.  Tanner, vol. 2, pp. 1090-1091:  "And all believers of whatever religion have always sensed the voice and manifestation of the creator in the utterances [(loquela)] of creatures.  If God is ignored the creature itself is impoverished [(Immo, per oblivionem Dei ipsa creatura obscuratur, So no, by [its] forgetfulness of God the creature itself is rendered indistinct)]."

"those who in this our generation speak where many listen, and write what many read"

1940:  Book of common order of the Church of Scotland by authority of the General Assembly (Edinburgh:  Oxford University Press, 1940), 299:

"For arts and letters"

"DIRECT and bless, we beseech Thee, Lord, those who in this our generation speak where many listen, and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of the people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honour of Jesus Christ our Lord.  AMEN."

1979:  Book of common prayer (New York:  Church Publishing Incorporated, 1979), 827:

"For those who influence public opinion"

"Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices:  direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of the people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen."

"Dominus illuminatio mea"

"We should then in the fullest sense not only with our voice but with our very soul cry out, The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? If he enlightens and saves me, whom shall I fear? Even though the dark shadows of evil suggestions crowd about, The Lord is my light [(Veniant caligines suggestionum, Dominus illuminatio mea)]. They can approach, but cannot prevail; they can lay siege to our heart, but cannot conquer it. Though the blindness of concupiscence assails us, again we say: The Lord is my light [(Veniat caecitas cupiditatum, Dominus illuminatio mea)].  For he is our strength. . . ."

     St. John the Serene (sometimes Peacemaker; Giovanni Scriba or Giovanni d'Acquarola?), Bishop of Naples (Iohannes Mediocris episcopus Neapolitanus, CPL no. ), late 8th century-17 December 849, Sermon 7 =PLS 4, cols. 785-786, as trans. Office of readings for the Thursday of Week Three in Ordinary time, Liturgy of the hours.

"Motivations for positing 'Celtic Christianity'"

Source

 "[2] A vision of 'Celtic Christianity' which was not so [1] determined by denominational politics was promulgated by the Breton scholar Ernest Renan, . . . in an essay published in 1854.  Renan, estranged from his Roman Catholic roots, held that 'to the Celts . . . Christianity did not come from Rome; they had their native clergy, their own particular usages, their faith at first hand.'  Furthermore,

The Church did not feel herself bound to be hard on the caprices of religious imagination, but gave fair scope to the instincts of the people, and from this liberty there resulted a cult perhaps the most mythological and the most analogous to the mysteries of antiquity to be found in the annals of Christianity.

Allowing for the nuances of of individual expression, Renan's conception has survived virtually unmodified down to the present day, and doubtless has a long future still before it:  the progress of scholarship has, however, rendered it increasingly unacceptable to most specialists.  For others, such a conception of 'Celtic Christianity' offers an alternative to aspects of actual Christian practice and belief with which they have become disenchanted, and draws added strength from deeply entrenched romantic ideas concerning the 'Celtic character' more generally."

     John Carey, with Thomas O'Loughlin, "Christianity, Celtic. §4. Motivations for positing 'Celtic Christianity," in Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia, ed. John T. Koch, 5 vols. (Santa Barbara:  ABC-CLIO, 2006), vol. 2, pp. 434-435.

"little of what was once thought distinctive about the nature of the church in Celtic lands is any longer accepted"

University of Glasgow

"The idea of a Celtic church has its roots in the Reformation.  For Protestants, the early Celtic saints embodied evangelical purity and a church wholly independent of Rome; the Reformation represented a return to the values of the indigenous British Christianity of a golden age.  This interpretation came to dominate historical perceptions in the succeeding centuries, and from it was born, in the 19th century, the concept of the 'Celtic church'. . . . [But] The concept of the Celtic church can no longer easily be defended. . . .  little of what was once thought distinctive about the nature of the church in Celtic lands is any longer accepted. . . .  All this being said, we may nevertheless notice a number of striking common features among the churches of the Celtic peoples. . . ."

     John Reuben Davies, Oxford dictionary of the Middle Ages, sv Celtic church (vol. 1 (2010), pp. 358-359, with starter bibliography).

"When some one inquired which were more in number, the living or the dead, [Anacharsis] rejoined, 'In which category, then, do you place those who are on the seas?'"

     Diogenes Laertius, Lives of eminent philosophers I.8 (Anacharsis).103-105, trans., R. D. Hicks, Loeb classical library, vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press, 1959), 109.  Jan Fredrik Kindstrand, Anacharsis:  the Legend and the Apophthegmata, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis:  Studia Graeca Upsaliensis 16 (Stockholm:  Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1981), 145 (A33) on 116 (A33A-D):  "This apophthegma is also attributed to Dio of Prusa (Gnom. Bas. p. 177 and cod. Pal. Gr. 122 f. 157r) and in a very similar form to Bias (Ps-Plato Axiochus 368 B and Stobaeus Flor. 4.34.75).  Moreover the same question recurs in a dialogue between Alexander the Great and a Gymnosophist, although the answer is different . . . (Plutarch Alexander 64.2; more cases will be found in Sternbach's note on Gnom. Vat. 130)."
     Image:  Diogenis Laertii De vitis, dogmatibus et apophthegmatibus clarorum philosophorum libri x, vol. 1, ed. M. Meibom (Amsterdam:  apud Henricum Wetstenium, 1692), 64.

"'Think of all the great songs and epics you have known and the men who wrote them. And think how few of them, how very few, were ever worthy of what they sang or said. Far away upon the terraces of Antiquity, the voice of our father Ovid cries aloud for all the poets, his children: Video meliora proboque; deteriora sequor—"The better things I see and I approve them; but it is the baser that I follow". The sin I would not, that I do—and through the ages there have been prophets prophesying and poets testifying to eternal truths; but hardly ever a man behind them; hardly ever a strong, sane, balanced, complete man to follow them. The poets sit in the throne of Dante; whatsoever they command you to do, that do; but do not after their works. For they say and do not.'"

     The poet in G. K. Chesterton's The surprise (1932; first pub. 1952), act 2, scene 3; The collected works of G. K. Chesterton 11, Plays and Chesterton on Shaw, compiled and introduced by Denis J. Conlon (San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 1989), 330 (52 in the original, New York:  Sheed & Ward, 1952).  I have not yet read the whole play.

Creative single agency, redemptive double agency

   "Obj. 6: Further, man is justified by virtue. But Augustine commenting on Jn. 15:11: He shall do greater things than these, says: He who created thee without thee, will not justify thee without thee [(qui . . . fecit te sine te, non te iustificat sine te)]. It is therefore unsuitable to say that God works virtue in us, without us. . . .

   Reply Obj. 6: Infused virtue is caused in us by God without any action on our part, but not without our consent. This is the sense of the words, which God works in us without us. As to those things which are done by us, God causes them in us, yet not without action on our part, for He works in every will and in every nature."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.55.4, trans. Aquinas Institute, but with the Latin of Augustine, Sermon 169.13, supplied by the Past Masters version of CAG, which has fecit rather than Aquinas' creauit, following (strangely) PL 38, p. 923 ll. 17-18, not CCSL 41Bb (2016), pp. (400-425), as given in Clavis Clavium.

"in us love is set in order by virtue"

"per virtutem enim ordinatur amor in nobis."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, following St. Augustine, Summa theologiae I-II.55.1.ad 4, trans. FEDP (i.e. Shapcote).

The person who does the right thing habitually is more admirable than the one who manages to do it occasionally

"We are said to merit . . . in two ways.  First, . . . by merit itself . . . [i.e.] acts [(merit by meriting)].  Secondly, . . . by the principle by which we merit [i.e. act (merit by the power of meriting, i.e. virtue or habit)]."

"aliquo dicimur mereri dupliciter. Uno modo, sicut ipso merito, eo modo quo dicimur currere cursu, et hoc modo meremur actibus. Alio modo dicimur mereri aliquo sicut principio merendi, sicut dicimur currere potentia motiva, et sic dicimur mereri virtutibus et habitibus."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.55.1.ad 3, trans. FEDP (i.e. Shapcote).  Latin from Corpus Thomisticum.

Determinatively, i.e. not just privatively, evil

"the evil that constitutes a difference of habits is not [the] pure privation [common to every fallen being], but something determinate [that is] repugnant to a determinate nature", in this case human nature.

"malum quod est differentia constitutiva habitus, non est privatio pura, sed est aliquid determinatum repugnans determinatae naturae."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.54.3.ad 2, as trans. FEDP (Shapcote).  Latin from Corpus Thomisticum.

Ways of knowing

"The physicist proves the earth to be round by one means [(medium)], the astronomer by another: for the latter proves this by means [(media)] of mathematics, e.g., by the shapes of eclipses, or something of the sort; while the former proves it by means [(medium)] of physics, e.g., by the movement of heavy bodies towards the center [(medium!)], and so forth. Now the whole force of a demonstration, which is a syllogism producing science, as stated in Poster. i, text. 5, depends on the mean [(medio)]. And consequently various means [(media)] are as so many active principles, in respect of which the habits of science are distinguished."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.54.2.ad 2, FEDP as modified by (?) the Aquinas Institute translator.

"'It is not good that the man should be alone'"

"All things are twofold, one opposite the other,
    and he has made nothing incomplete. 
One confirms the good things of the other,
    and who can have enough of beholding his glory?"

πάντα δισσά, ἓν κατέναντι τοῦ ἑνός,
καὶ οὐκ ἐποίησεν οὐδὲν ἐλλεῖπον·
ἓν τοῦ ἑνὸς ἐστερέωσεν τὰ ἀγαθά,
καὶ τίς πλησθήσεται ὁρῶν δόξαν αὐτοῦ;

     Sir 42:24-25, RSV.  NETS:    

"Everything is in pairs, one opposite one,
     and he did not make anything deficient.
One firmed up the good things of the other—
     and who will be filled when he sees his glory?"

Three words for "to kindle"

accendere:  to set fire to from above, such that what burns burns downwards.

succendere:  to set fire to from below, such that what burns burns upwards.

incendere:  to set fire to on every side, such that what burns burns inwards.

Lewis & Short; the OLD says this for succendere only.

Ps 18 (17):29, Nova Vulgata (1979):  "you light [(accendis)] my lamp, O Lord: my God illuminates [(illuminat)] my darkness."

Ps 17 (18):29, Vulgata:  "thou lightest [(illuminas)] my lamp, O Lord: O my God enlighten [(illumina)] my darkness."

According to Sabatier, anyway (for the Psalms volume of Vetus Latina has not yet been completed), the Old Latin, too, has inluminas/inlumina.

Apparently eccendere (or extercendere) something would be impracticable, a "non-starter," as it were ☺.

A word to the wise

"repeated acts cause a habit to grow.  If, however, the intensity of the act falls short proportionately of the intensity of the habit, such an act does not dispose to an increase of that habit, but rather to a lessening of it."

"multiplicatis actibus, crescit habitus. Si vero intensio actus proportionaliter deficiat ab intensione habitus, talis actus non disponit ad augmentum habitus, sed magis ad diminutionem ipsius."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.52.3.Resp.  Latin from Corpus Thomisticum.

What a relief

"the nature of virtue does not require that man should reach [(attingat)] the mean of right reason as though it were an indivisible point, as the Stoics thought, but it is enough that he should approach [(propre . . . esse, that he be near)] the mean, as stated in the Ethics [(II.9 (1109b18))]." 

"Non enim exigitur ad rationem virtutis, quod attingat rectae rationis medium in indivisibili, sicut Stoici putabant, sed sufficit prope medium esse, ut in II Ethic. dicitur."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.66.1.Resp.  Latin from Corpus Thomisticum.

Too bad Lincoln met his Maker unshriven (as it were)

"Surely, the Judge of all the earth, would, by the solemnities and atrocities of this astounding event, teach us as a people, lessons from which we must not fail to learn, if we would not have something yet more terrific befal us.  Yesterday afternoon, [Lincoln’s] funeral procession passed from City Hall, through Broadway and Fifth avenue, to 34^th st., occupying several hours. . . .  Solemnity and order marked the mournful obsequies.  One cannot but think, amid all of this, where is the soul of the departed chieftain, so suddenly called to leave the poor body tenantless?  Would that our dear President had not received his death wound in the theater."

     Phoebe Palmer, as quoted in Richard Wheatley, ed., Life and Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Palmer (New York: W.C. Palmer, 1881), 60, possibly in the letter of "July 27, 1874" to "My Beloved Sister Hamline."  Note that in the second paragraph of this excerpt, which extends onto p. 61, Palmer quotes "a minister friend who said that in going to the theater the evening when he was shot, Abraham Lincoln had departed from the 'shadow of the Almighty' (Ps. 91:1), which would [otherwise] have protected him" (Charles Edward White, The beauty of holiness:  Phoebe Palmer as theologian, revivalist, feminist, and humanitarian (Grand Rapids, MI:  Francis Asbury Press, Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 153.
     If these paragraphs do occur in the aforementioned letter of 1874, then 1874 was the date of Palmer's (in this sense unshriven) death as well (!).
     My thanks to Dr. Douglas M. Strong for the quote-sleuthing occasion.

"no angel attains to the perfection of God, but all are infinitely distant from Him"

"nullus Angelus pertingit ad perfectionem Dei, sed in infinitum distat"

no angel attains to the perfection of God, but is forever infinitely distant from [it]

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.50.6.Resp., trans. FEDP (i.e. Shapcote).  "in infinitum" can have a temporal as well as a "spatial" sense.

"energivorous and lifeless repositories of the creative products of our true[ly] intellectual activity"

Source

"The machines dubbed ‘artificial[ly] intelligent’ are the energivorous and lifeless repositories of the creative products [(résultats formulés)] of our true[ly] intellectual activity, which they [do no more than simply] recombine ad infinitum.  They lack only the essential thing:  [admiration.]  'Admiration issues in the quest, and the quest attains to understanding,' writes Isaac of Stella in his Letter on the soul.  Abiding at the edge of the world, [human] intelligence is the sentinel that mounts a watch and keeps vigil in the presence of all the mysteries.  Let admiration and wonder in the face of [such] escape [(désertent)] our regard, and the source of all knowledge will be dried up.  Let them, on the contrary, continue to shimmer [before us ((à y briller))], and our fascination with machines [like these], however advanced, will melt away like snow in the sunshine."

     Laure Soignac, "Irréductible intelligence:  les leçons du Moyen Âge," Communio:  revue internationale catholique 50, no. 5 =301 (septembre-octobre 2025):  111 (97-111).