"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.

"'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.  I am told that this is p. 52 in the original of 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.

Positively, 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 [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).