PSEUDO-E. A. Milne, or No, it ain't in Winnie the Pooh

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.

     The only form of grat* that occurs anywhere in the Winnie the Pooh deluxe gift box =The world of Winnie-the-Pooh five-book collection (Dutton Children's Books, an imprint of Penguin Group [USA] Inc., 2009), which includes Winnie the Pooh, The house at Pooh corner, When we were very young, Now we are six, and Return to the hundred acre wood, and which I searched via the OverDrive eBook version available thanks to my public library, is gratifying, and that but once, in chap. 10 ("In which Christopher Robin and Pooh come to an enchanted place, and we leave them there") of The house at Pooh corner.

Bossuet on St. Peter

Friedsam Collection,
Metropolitan Museum

Peter’s "love, put to the greatest test that man can undergo, triumphed over agonies and death itself.  Neither attachment to life, nor the shame of an ignominious execution [(supplice)], nor the agony of a long and cruel martyrdom can temper his ardour.  What am I saying?  [That] they serve only to animate him more and more, by the desire by which his heart is possessed, to sacrifice himself for him who loved him so much.  And far from finding anything too painful in the bitterness of his sufferings, he yet wishes to add to them on his own initiative a circumstance no less severe, in order to express more vividly his profound sense of abasement before his Master, in order to make to him, as it were, a final public apology [(une dernière amende honorable)] for his past infidelities, and to adore him in the most perfect prostration [(anéantissement)] of himself.  So true is it that the love of St. Peter is at present as strong as death that his zeal is as obdurate [(inflexible)] as hell, that his eyes [(lampes)] are eyes of fire, that that [(sa)] flame is wholly divine; and that, if he failed formerly the weakest test, henceforth the great waters will not be able to extinguish him, and the large rivers of all temptations combined will have no power to smother him.
     "What [a] contrast, my brethren, between us and this great apostle!  Were Jesus Christ to ask us, as him, 'Do you love me?' ('Amas me?'), who will respond, 'Lord, I love you?'  All will say it, but take care.  Hypocrisy says it, but it is a feint.  Presumption says it, but it is an illusion.  The love of the world says it, but it is an interest that loves Jesus Christ only in order to be happy on earth.  Who are those who will say so truly?  Those who love him to the point of crucifixion [(jusque sur la croix)], those who are ready to lose everything in order to remain faithful to him, to suffer everything in order to be consumed in his love."

     Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, "Panégyrique de l'apotre saint Pierre" (c. 29 June 1661), Bossuet:  oraisons funèbres panégyriques, ed. L’Abbé Bernard Velat, Biblioteque de la Pleiade 33 (Paris:  Librairie Gallimard, 1950), 569-570 (561-572), translation mine.

"he imagined that he was steadfast, because he experienced himself as ardent"

St. Peter "imagined that he was steadfast, because he thought of himself as [(expérimentait qu’il était)] ardent; but he did not consider that steadfastness comes from grace, and not from the efforts of nature.  [And all of this] to such a degree that, being altogether both weak and presumptuous, and duped by self-regard [(son propre amour)], he promised much, yet [(et)], overtaken by an unforeseen weakness [(surprise par sa faiblesse)], accomplished nothing.  On the contrary, he [thrice] repudiated his Master, and while the cowardice of others allowed them to avoid the shame of repudiating him by th[e shame] of flight, the feeble courage of St. Peter induced him to follow him, only to abandon him [yet] more shamefully, in such a way that it seems that his love enlisted him in a greater struggle only to cause him to fall in a manner more ignominious.
     "In this way they seduce themselves, they who love Jesus-Christ not with the emotions [(sentiments)] that he demands, that is to say, they who love not the cross; who expect from him temporal prosperity; who praise him when they are content; who abandon him on the cross and in agony.  Their love comes not from the charity that seeks God alone, but from an accommodation that they make [(complaisance qu’ils ont)] for themselves.  This is why they are rash [(téméraires, temerarious)]:  because nature is always conceited [(orgueilleuse, orgulous)], just as charity is always modest [(modeste)]. . . .  But we [will] see St. Peter’s love purified and fortified by the tears of repentance."

     Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, "Panégyrique de l'apotre saint Pierre" (c. 29 June 1661), Bossuet:  oraisons funèbres panégyriques, ed. L’Abbé Bernard Velat, Biblioteque de la Pleiade 33 (Paris:  Librairie Gallimard, 1950), 568 (561-572), translation mine.  Cf. also Pascal.  And yet St. Peter, having become humble, became therefore invincible.

"having become humble, he then becomes invincible"

"étant devenu humble, il devient ensuite invincible."

     Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, "Panégyrique de l'apotre saint Pierre" (c. 29 June 1661), Bossuet:  oraisons funèbres panégyriques, ed. L’Abbé Bernard Velat, Biblioteque de la Pleiade 33 (Paris:  Librairie Gallimard, 1950), 568 (561-572), translation mine.  Background.

"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).

"life has dominion over them

"That is why the dead, now under the dominion of one who has risen to life, are no longer dead but alive.  Therefore life has dominion over them. . . ."

"Igitur mortui quibus, qui vixit, dominatur, non sunt amplius mortui, sed viventes; et idcirco dominatur eis vita. . . ."

     Anastasius I of Antioch (d. 598), Oratio 5 de resurrectione Christi 6, as trans. in the Office of readings for the dead, Liturgy of the hours.  Latin (translation?) from PG 86, col. 1358C.  vixit is a challenging perfect here, but the reference is clearly to Rom 6:9, not to mention vv. 2, 8, 1-11, and 13, where vivo also occurs in the context of a discussion of the resurrection:

Therefore the dead over whom he has dominion who lives are no longer dead, but living; and for that reason life has dominion over them. . . .

"the infirmities of that great apostle"

St. Paul "knew that if this great world, and what it encloses in its vast bosom, is the work of [God's] power, he made a new world, a world redeemed by his blood and regenerated by his death, that is to say, his holy Church, which is the work of his weakness."

     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), 387 (385-407), translation mine.  "I will be restricting myself [(me réduis)] to making you see the weaknesses of this great apostle" (386).