Thursday, December 26, 2013

"I was certainly cleverer than they, but they had the immeasurable advantage that they were right—an advantage that they did not throw away by resorting to the bad philosophy and apologetics then sometimes taught in Catholic schools.

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      Peter Geach, as quoted by John Schwenkler on dotCommonweal, 24 December 2013.  Schwenkler cites "Philosophical Autobiography,...
Monday, December 23, 2013

"The confessor . . . is always in danger of being either too much of a rigorist or too lax. Neither is merciful. . . ."

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" the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all. The confessor, for example, is always in danger of being either too...
Monday, December 16, 2013

Joseph "yields, rather than rejects. He releases (apolūsai) Mary, rather than casts her out (apolūsai)."

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Annunciation to Joseph "Joseph [was] 'just' [not in the spirit of Caiaphas, but] in the prophetic spirit of [John] the B...

"you first loved us so that we might love you—not because you needed our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you."

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     William of Saint Thierry, On the contemplation of God 9-11, as quoted in Liturgy of the hours, vol. 1, p. 271 (Office of readings for ...

"I shall make all your sons learned in the Lord"

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R/.  Misericordia mea non recedet a te, et fœdus pacis meæ non movebitur;  *  Universi filii tui erunt discipuli Domini, et magna erit pax ...
Saturday, December 14, 2013

"love is a union between two alone."

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     St. John of the Cross,  The spiritual canticle,  Stanza 36.1.   The collected works of St. John of the Cross,  trans. Kieran Kavanaugh,...

"And let us go forth to behold ourselves in Your beauty [(hermosura)],"

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     "This means:  Let us so act that by means of this loving activity we may attain to the vision of ourselves in Your beauty in ete...