Neue Quäckerey in der Quietisterey

"The theologia mystica has been still more fruitful in the present century and spread [abroad] a pile of Schwärmer [(ein Hauffen Schwärmereyen)].  From this platonic egg were hatched [(hervorgefrochen) untranslated:] the Weigelianer, Rosenkreutzer, neueren Propheten, Stifelianer, Methisten, Hoburgianer, Böhmisten, Widertauffer, Quäcker, Bourignisten, Quietisten, [and] Septenisten. . . . [T]he Quaker Barclay cited the experience of Bernard, Bonaventure, Tauler, Thomas à Kempis, and other mystical teachers."

     Ehregott Daniel Colberg, Platonistich-hermenetisches Christenthum, begreiffend die historische Erzehlung vom Ursprung und vielerley Secten der heutigen Fanatischen Theologie, unterm Namen der Paracelsisten, Weigelianer, Rosencreutzer, Quäcker, Böhmisten, Widertäuffer, Bourignisten, Labadisten and Quietisten (Frankfuhrt:  1690) 1.16 (vol. 1, pp. 75-76).  The reference seems to be to Apology 11.5.  I was put onto this by Bern Roling, “Mittelalterliche Mystik im Kreutzfeuer des Pietismusstreites:  der Wittenberger Theologe Martin Chladni (1669-1725) und seine Auseinandersetzung mit der Frauenmystik des Hochmittelalters, Pietismus und Neuzeit 46/47 (2020/2021):  40 (38-84):

War es Zufall, so hatte Colberg gefragt, das ein Quäker wie Robert Barclay (1648-1690) sich auf Bernhard von Clairvaux (1090-1153) and Bonaventura (1221-1274) hatte befufen können?

Cf. the title cited in n6:  Conrad Tiburtius Rango, Neue Quäckerey in der Quietisterey (Frankfurt:  1688).  For what very little it may be worth, neither Colberg nor Rango are listed in Smith's 1873 Bibliotheca anti-Quakeriana.

Ordo naturae

Universität Wien

"For this reason one may not confuse the phrase order of nature with [the phrase] biological order, much less . . . [(gleichsetzen)] the realities they signify.  Biological order is [only] the order of nature to the degree that [the latter] is amenable to the empirical and descriptive methods of the natural sciences.  But to the extent that the order of nature is a specific order of existence that stands in [an] obvious relation to the causa prima (to God, the Creator), it is no longer a [merely] biological order."

     Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, "Die Bibel queer lesen?  Zu einem umstritten Heft des katholischen Bibelwerks," Communio blog, 29 May 2026.

"the gate is narrow and the way is hard [(einfaltig)], that leads to life [(Fülle)]"

Universität Wien

"The religious symbol-system of Israel was, with reference to the multiplicity [(Vielfalt)] of Ancient [Near] Eastern [polytheism]—indeed ancient polytheism [more generally]—comparatively simple:  YHWH is one and . . . unique (Dt 6:4), exclusive, shuts out all other gods. . . .  The God of the Bible is no fan of [riotous] diversity [(Vielfalt)]."

"Against the background of the genesis and phenomenology of the religious symbol system attested to in the Bible, [our contemporary] praise of [sexual] diversity looks to me like a surreptitious praise of polytheism.  It is [well-]suited to the self-understanding of the postmodern, [and] stands for all of that in opposition to the biblical tradition.  The God of Israel is one; he is constant [(true)], does not dissemble, wears no masks, has nothing evil up his sleeve.  The fulfillment [(Fülle)] that the biblical faith promises is not to be confused with the profusions [(Vielfalt)] of ancient cosmotheism.  [It is] only through the needle's-eye of simplicity [(Einfalt)] that man acquires access to the plenitude [(Fülle)] of the God attested to in the Bible:  so confess both Judaism and Christianity together (cf. Mk 12:28-34, 1 Thess 1:9, Rom 6:21)."

     Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, "Die Bibel queer lesen?  Zu einem umstritten Heft des katholischen Bibelwerks," Communio blog, 29 May 2026.

The Differentiation

"Blessed are You, L‑rd our G‑d, King of the universe, who makes a distinction between sacred and mundane, between light and darkness, between Israel and the nations, between the Seventh Day and the six workdays. Blessed are You, L‑rd, who makes a distinction between sacred and mundane."

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחוֹל בֵּין אוֹר לְחֹשֶׁךְ בֵּין יִשְׂרָאֵל לָעַמִּים בֵּין יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי לְשֵׁשֶׁת יְמֵי הַמַּעֲשֶׂה בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחוֹל

     The Havdalah.

queer, quer

Universität Wien

"The queer [(queere)] reading of the Bible appears to be in fact a form of reading that stands in opposition [(quer)] to Holy Scripture."

     Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, "Die Bibel queer lesen?  Zu einem umstritten Heft des katholischen Bibelwerks," Communio blog, 29 May 2026.  As I don't have an etymological dictionary of German ready-to-hand, here is the etymology the OED gives for the adjective "queer":  "perhaps < (or perhaps even cognate with) German quer transverse, oblique, crosswise, at right angles, obstructive, (of things) going wrong (now rare), (of a person) peculiar (now obsolete in this sense), (of a glance) directed sideways, especially in a surreptitious or hostile manner (now rare), (of opinion and behaviour) at odds with others (see thwart adv.), but the semantic correspondence is not exact, and the figurative senses in German are apparently much later developments than the English word."

Frequent Communion

© Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY 2.5

 "Qui tribus dominicis non communicaverint, excommunicantur."

"Those who have not partaken of Holy Communion for three Sundays [running] are excommunicated." 

     The c. 8th-century Bigotian Penitential (so-called), as quoted by Fr. Edmond Dublanchy, S.M., citing Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche, ed. Wasserschleben (Halle:  1851), 448, in "Communion eucharistique. II. Communion fréquente,” in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 3 (1908), col. 522 (cols. 515-552).  For the context, see The Irish penitentials, ed. Bieler, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 5 (Dublin:  Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1963), 219:

9. CONCERNING THE LORD'S DAY
     1. If anyone by negligence fasts on the Lord's Day, he must fast for the entire week; if (he does so) a second time, forty days; if, after that, sixty days.  2. Those who have not communicated for three Sundays, are excommunicated.

     communicaverit is PAS3P.  Cf. Penitential of Theodore I.xii.1, as quoted in the DMLBS, sv communicare:  "qui iij Dominicis non [communic]averint, excommunicentur" (excommunicentur being pPS3P).
     Presumably that "Qui" would have to be "Worthies who".  I.e. presumably in context it would not be directed against those who, say, haven't been able to get to confession.

Frequent communion

"In the current language of the theologians, above all since the time of St. Alphonso Liguori, there has been a consensus around reserving [(on est convenu de, one has agreed to reserve)] the phrase [(nom)] 'frequent communion' for that which is received [(faite)] at least many times per week."

     Fr. Edmond Dublanchy, S.M., "Communion eucharistique. II. Communion fréquente,” in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 3 (1908), col. 515 (cols. 515-552).

From "once in the yeare at the least" (1549 Book of common prayer) to "at the least three tymes in the yeare, of whiche Easter to bee one" (1552 Book of common prayer and following)

     This (unless I've missed something) in correction of the usually reliable Oxford dictionary of the Christian church, which since the 1st edition of 1957 right on up through the 4th edition of 2022 has claimed that "the BCP in 1549 and later editions fixed the minimum at three times a year" (1957).

"Firmly I believe and truly"

Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,
     De profundis oro te,
Miserere, Judex meus,
     Parce mihi, Domine.
Firmly I believe and truly
     God is Three, and God is One;
And I next acknowledge duly
     Manhood taken by the Son.
And I trust and hope most fully
     In that Manhood crucified;
And each thought and deed unruly
     Do to death, as He has died.
Simply to His grace and wholly
     Light and life and strength belong,
And I love, supremely, solely,
     Him the holy, Him the strong.
Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,
     De profundis oro te,
Miserere, Judex meus,
     Parce mihi, Domine.
And I hold in veneration,
     For the love of Him alone,
Holy Church, as His creation,
     And her teachings, as His own.
And I take with joy whatever
     Now besets me, pain or fear,
And with a strong will I sever
     All the ties which bind me here.
Adoration aye be given,
     With and through the angelic host,
To the God of earth and heaven,
     Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,
     De profundis oro te,
Miserere, Judex meus,
     mortis in discrimine.

     John Henry Newman, The dream of Gerontius (January 1865) 1.

re-cord-atio as an act of the heart (cor, cordis)

"Grant, almighty God, that we may celebrate with heartfelt devotion these days of joy, which we keep in honour of the risen Lord, and that what we relive in remembrance we may always hold to in what we do. Through".

"Fac nos, omnipotens Deus, hos laetitiae dies, quos in honorem Domini resurgentis exsequimur, affectu sedulo celebrare, ut quod recordatione percurrimus semper in opere teneamus.  Per".

     Collect for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Roman missal.  =Corpus orationum .  This incipit does not occur in Bruylants, though there is an occurrence of recordatio (recordationibus) at 998 in vol. 2.  But on p. 81 in the mid-8th-century Gelasian as ed. Mohlberg in 1960, we get no. 504, which is even better (translation from pp. 179-180 of Peter John Cramer, Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages, c. 200-c. 1150 (Cambridge University Press, 1993), which covers "this remembering" on pp. 89-98):

Vat.Reg.Lat.316 fol. 82r

Deus, per cuius prouidentiam nec praeteritorum momenta deficiunt nec ulla superest expectacio futurorum, tribue permanentem peractae quae recolimus solemnitatis effectum, ut quod recordatione percurrimus, semper in opere teneamus.

God, in whose foresight are present all times gone by, and who does not wait for what will be, give lasting effect of solemnity to the action we once did and now remember, that what we pass through in our memory we may hold to in the things we do.

My translation (given that this falls under "Orationes et praeces de pascha annotina," "Orations and prayers for the anniversary of a baptism"):

O God, by whose providence no moments of [times] gone by are lost and no expectation of [times yet] to come remains [unfulfilled], give to/bestow upon the-completed/traversed-[baptism]-that-we-[now]-recall [(recolimus)] the perduring effect of the rite/solemnity, that what we run back through in re-cord-ation [(recordatione, recollection)] we may preserve always a fidelity to [(teneamus, incl. recollect)] in deed.

And my paraphrase:

O God, by whose providence no moments of times-past are lost, and no expectations of times-future remain unfulfilled, bestow upon the-accomplished-[baptism]-that-we-[now]-recall the perduring effect of the rite, that what we run back through in heartfelt recollection we may preserve always a fidelity-to in all we do.

A. Ernout & A. Meillet, for the Centre National de la recherche scientifique, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue Latine:  histoire des mots, 4th ed. (Paris:  Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1959), sv cor, cordis, on p. 142 of vol. 1:  "recordor, recordaris : se remettre dans l’esprit, M. L. 7129", to put/place oneself again in mind of (go back and figure out what "M. L." is).  The OED under the etymology for recordation:  "recordātiō act of calling to mind, recollection, faculty of recollection".

William Barclay (it would appear), as prefaced by Lancelot Andrewes

"Take away, O Lord, the veil of our hearts while we read the scriptures. Help us to study your word, not only to know about our blessed Lord, but also to know him; not only to learn about him, but also to encounter him; not only to grow in knowledge, but also to increase in love; not only to love him with our hearts, but also to obey him with our lives.  So that in knowing him, and loving him, and obeying him, we too may say with the Apostle Paul: For me to live is Christ. This we ask for your love’s sake. Amen."

Here’s a link to the presence of all but the incipit from Lancelot Andrewes in William Barclay’s Introducing the Bible (London:  Bible Reading Fellowship; Nashville:  Abingdon, 1972), p. [7] (I've checked both, the Nashville printing on paper, and the original London printing via Google Books).

As I said back in early December of 2023, "the incipit [(at least)] is clearly Andrewes (riffing, of course, on 2 Cor 3:15), as translated by F. E. Brightman from the 1675 Oxford edition of the Preces privatae, as also edited by him (i.e. Brightman)." 

"Take away, o Lord, the veil of my heart while I read the Scriptures" (in your prayer this is changed only from the first person singular into the first person plural).

And here is Andrewes' original Latin:

"Tolle, Domine, velamen cordis mei, dum lego Scripturas"  (2 Cor 3:15 Vulgate:  "velamen est positum super cor eorum").

If, on the other hand, you compare the Preces privatae as they appear on p. 354 of vol. 10 of the standard 1841-1854 edition of Andrewes' Works, you’ll see stuff in Brightman’s English that doesn’t appear at that very point in the Latin:  not at this point in particular, but on that same page in Brightman’s English.  And in Brightman’s Preface there are some comments about moving things around a bit.

But because Andrewes had to modify the Latin of the Vulgate to turn it into a private prayer, that part, translated faithfully by Brightman, does indeed seem to come from Andrewes rather than the Vulgate directly (unless somebody else so modified it independently exactly as did Andrewes).

     My thanks to Dr. David Nienhuis for the diversion.

"actions belong to supposits and wholes and, properly speaking, not to parts and forms or powers"

 "Actiones . . . sunt suppositorum et totorum, non autem, proprie loquendo, partium et formarum, seu potentiarum".

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.58.2.Resp., as trans. Aquinas Institute.

"A monastic pedagogy of self-knowledge differs from manoeuvering within the number-coded web of the Enneagram."

Source

     Bishop Eric Varden, OCSO, "The Monastery as Schola Dei," 26 October 2024, Aquinas Institute, Princeton, 23:15.

Sating one's hatred under cover of correction

"Third, he should strive in all charity to correct the sins of others, and this is indicated by the words judging without dissimulation, lest he should purpose to sate his hatred under cover of correction."

"Tertio requiritur ut caritative emendare peccata satagat, et hoc est quod dicit, iudicans sine simulatione, ne scilicet, correctionem praetendens, odium intendat explere."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.45.6.ad 3.

"It belongs to charity to be at peace, but it belongs to wisdom to make peace by setting things in order"

 "caritatis est habere pacem, sed facere pacem est sapientiae ordinantis."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.45.6.ad 1, "Whether the seventh beatitude corresponds to the gift of wisdom."

'Orthodox' means orthodox in life as well as faith

"Orthodoxy isn’t up for negotiation, and it isn’t subject to member surveys. Nor is it cleanly detachable from moral and social questions. The one clear case of excommunication we have from Paul’s letters involves a man who was sleeping with his stepmother. Sexual ethics, like other moral matters, is part of the Church’s witness and has been from the beginning."

     Brad East, "Mainlining nostalgia," a review of The vanishing church, by Ryan P. Burge, First things no. 362 (April 2026):  51.

for His own sake, for my sake

"one may adhere to a thing in two ways: first, for its own sake; second, because something else is attained thereby. Accordingly charity makes us adhere to God for His own sake, uniting our minds [(mentem hominis, the mind of a man)] to God by the emotion of love [(affectum amoris)]. On the other hand, hope and faith make man adhere to God as to a principle wherefrom certain things accrue to us. Now we derive from God both knowledge of truth and the attainment of perfect goodness. Accordingly faith makes us adhere to God, as the source whence we derive the knowledge of truth, since we believe that what God tells us is true: while hope makes us adhere to God, as the source whence we derive perfect goodness, i.e., insofar as, by hope, we trust to the Divine assistance for obtaining [eternal] happiness" or "eternal life, which consists in the enjoyment of God Himself", plus the "other things . . . for which we pray God, . . . secondarily and as referred to eternal happiness."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.17.6.Resp., as supplemented at the end by 17.2.Resp. & ad 1, trans. FEDP as modified (?) by the Aquinas Institute, italics mine.

"It is impossible to trust too much in the Divine assistance" properly understood (below)

"Thus faith can have no mean or extremes in the point of trusting to the First Truth [(in hoc quod innitatur primae veritati, in this, that it leans upon the First Truth)], in which it is impossible to trust too much; whereas on the part of the things believed [(ex parte eorum quae credit)], it may have a mean and extremes; for instance one truth is a mean between two falsehoods. So too, hope has no mean or extremes, as regards its principal object [(ex parte principalis obiecti)], since it is impossible to trust too much in the Divine assistance; yet it may have a mean and extremes, as regards those things a man trusts to obtain [(quantum ad ea quae confidit aliquis se adepturum, with respect to the things that a man trusts himself to obtain)], insofar as he either presumes above his [(suam)] capability, or despairs of things of which he [(sibi)] is capable."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.17.5.Resp., trans. FEDP (i.e. Shapcote).  "It is impossible to trust too much in" God's ability to "lead [us] to an infinite good", i.e. "eternal life, which consists in the enjoyment of God himself" (17.2.Resp.:  "we should hope from Him for nothing less than Himself"), as well as the "other things . . . for which we pray to God, . . . secondarily and as referred to eternal happiness" (ad 2).

Liberal Christian nationalism

       "There is a name for [Ryan P.] Burge's preferred cocktail of religion and civics, Church and state.  It's Christendom.  Burge's book [The vanishing church] is one long lament for the passing of mainline Christendom in America.  You might even say it is both a paean and a dirge for a certain style of Christian nationalism—liberal Christian nationalism.  Make the mainline great again!"

     Brad East, "Mainlining nostalgia," a review, First things no. 362 (April 2026):  52. 

"many who are in a state of grace suffer from dullness of mind"

"multi habentes gratiam adhuc patiuntur mentis hebetudinem."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II.8.4.Praet 1, trans. FEDP (Shapcote).  Ad 1:  "Some who have sanctifying grace may suffer from dullness of mind with regard to things that are  not necessary for salvation; but with regard to those that are necessary for salvation, they are sufficiently instructed by the Holy Ghost, according to 1 John 2:27, His unction teacheth you of all things."

Faith is enigmatic knowledge

FEDP (i.e. Shapcote): "faith is knowledge in a dark manner."

"est . . . fides cognitio aenigmatica."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.67.5.Praet. 1.  Cf. the Resp.:  "faith is of the same genus, namely knowledge, as the beatific vision [(fides . . . cum visione patriae convenit in genere, quod est cognitio, faith comes together with the visio patriae in the genus cognition)]."
     But note the "But"!  For this is an impressively difficult Resp.  And most especially, "when you remove a specific difference, the substance of the genus does not remain identically the same".

 

 

Richard Rohr, Andreas Ebert, and the Enneagram

For what it's worth:

• Huggins, Ronald V. "The Enneagram’s False History and Occult Roots." Bibliotheca sacra 179, no. 714 (2022): 146–162.
• Cusack, Carole M. "Ṣūfism and the Gurdjieff 'Work': A Contested Relationship." In Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements, edited by Carole M. Cusack and Muhammad Afzal Upal. Brill, 2021.
• etc. (I stopped here, though there is more to be found).

The Blessed, "who have the glory of the soul[,] are not, properly speaking, said to hope for the glory of the body, but only to desire it."

Source

"illi qui habent gloriam animae, non proprie dicuntur sperare gloriam corporis; sed solum desiderare."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.67.4.ad 3.  For "a good whose unerring cause [(inevitabilem causam)] we already possess is not related to us as something difficult."

"without thee we are not able to please thee"

Vat. Reg. lat. 316, fol. 178v

"May the working of your mercy, O Lord, we pray, direct our hearts aright, for without your grace we cannot find favor in your sight.  Through".

"Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine, tuae miserationis operatio, quia tibi sine te placere non possumus."

My translation: 

May the work of your compassion, O Lord we pray, set our hearts in order, because without you we cannot please you.

     Prayer for Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent, Liturgia horarum.  =Corpus orationum no. 2234, going back to the mid-8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary (Vat. Reg. lat. 316, fol. 178v, representing mid-7th-century practice) at least. 

BCP 1549:

"O GOD, for asmuche as without thee, we are not able to please thee; Graunte that the workyng of thy mercie maye in all thynges directe and rule our heartes; Through".

BCP 1662:

"O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through".

BCP 1979:

"O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee, mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through".

"O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through".

"the [twentieth-century] narrative concerning the medieval [Christian] reaction to [Hindu-Arabic numerals] and the number zero" constitutes "a bizarre funhouse mirror image of the Middle Ages"

Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 3 (1905), 155–195

"the way the introduction of the number zero as well as the whole system of Hindu-Arabic numerals into medieval Europe has been represented in modern scholarship and popular media" constitutes "a bizarre funhouse mirror image of the Middle Ages", "a rather depressing case study of the way careless scholarship and failure to check one’s sources can allow false narratives and made-up ‘facts’ to proliferate in the modern world."

     From a pre-pub version of C. Philipp Nothaft, "Medieval Europe’s satanic ciphers: on the genesis of a modern myth," British journal for the history of mathematics 35, no. 2 (2020): 107–136.

Friendship with God is unavailable to those who find the idea incredible and/or despair of it

"just as friendship with a person would be impossible if one disbelieved in, or despaired of, the possibility of his fellowship or familiar intercourse, so too, friendship with God, which is charity, is impossible without faith, so as to believe in this fellowship and intercourse with God, and to hope to attain to this fellowship."

"sicut aliquis non posset cum aliquo amicitiam habere, si discrederet vel desperaret se posse habere aliquam societatem vel familiarem conversationem cum ipso; ita aliquis non potest habere amicitiam ad Deum, quae est caritas, nisi fidem habeat, per quam credat huiusmodi societatem et conversationem hominis cum Deo, et speret se ad hanc societatem pertinere."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.65.5.Resp., in the FEDP (or Shapcote) translation.  On the other hand, the requisite faith and hope must be infused!

Faith and works

"Deus, innocentiae restitutor et amator, dirige ad te tuorum corda servorum:  ut, spiritus tui fervore concepto, et in fide inveniantur stabiles et in opere efficaces."

God, restorer and lover of innocence, direct the hearts of [your] servants to you, in order that, seized by the fervor of your Spirit, they may be found steadfast in faith and effectual in deed.

     Prayer for Thursday of the Second Week in Lent, Liturgy of the hours.  Corpus orationum =Bruylants, no. 235 on p. 72 of vol. 2.  From the 9th century, but the incipit ("Deus, innocentiae restitutor et amator, dirige ad te tuorum corda") from the earlier Gelasian.  On the other hand, shouldn't concepto, if modifying servorum (genitive masculine plural) or corda (accusative neuter plural), be plural?   For what else could concepto be modifying?  Innocentia?  But innocentia would require concepta.
     Universalis:

God of love, bring us back to you.  Send your Spirit to make us strong in faith and active in good works.

'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 inclinata est iam dies, 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, p. 1019, as trans. on pp. 70 and 124 of the 1979 BCP, where it is called "A Collect for the Presence of Christ."  Hatchett (143) is thus right about its source in "the Roman breviary of Paul VI" (where, however, it occurs without the "et inclinata est iam dies" that I've struck out above; which, however, does occur with the whole of the incipit as the antiphon to the Magnificat for Year A at First Vespers to the Third Sunday of Easter (vol. 2, p. 570)).  Here is the collect in English at Liturgy of the hours 3 (1975), p. 1164:

"Stay with us, Lord Jesus, for evening draws near, and be our companion in the way to set our hearts on fire with new hope.  Help us to recognize your presence among us in the Scriptures we read, and in the breaking of bread, for you live and reign".

Next:  follow up on the presence of the much older V&R fragments of the incipit of this 20th-century (?) collect throughout Liturgia horarum 3 (and elsewhere), 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).  Since the Cantus database doesn't yet link to that page, here is how it appears on p. 40 of the late 10th-century Sankt-Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 391 ("Hartker Antiphoner - Summer Volume"), Cantus Siglum CH SGs 391 ("Mane nobiscum quoniam advesperascit et inclinata est iam dies"):

"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).