"[Jesus] importunes for us by exhibiting before the Paternal conspection the humanity [he] assumed for us and the mysteries [he] celebrated in it."

"interpellat pro nobis humanitatem pro nobis assumptam et mysteria in ea celebrata conspectui paterno repraesentando."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Super Rom. 8.7.

     I was put on to this by John Saward, Cradle of redeeming love:  the theology of the Christmas mystery (San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 2002), 93:  "As St Thomas says, our Lord 'makes intercession' for us in Heaven, not by offering up petitions, but 'by making present (repraesentando) in the sight of the Father the humanity assumed for us and the mysteries celebrated in that humanity'."
     Aquinas goes on to cite Heb 9:24.

"Clear thinking about God purifies the soul!"

     Fr. Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P., on the importance of a steady diet of Aquinas.  Note to me dated 15 December 2015.

Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I say, rejoice.
Indeed, the Lord is near.

Gaudete in Domino semper:
iterum dico, gaudete.
Dominus enim prope est.

     Entrance antiphon, Third Sunday of Advent ("Gaudete Sunday").  Image from one of the two earliest antiphonaries in which it still appears, the 8th/9th-century (c. 800) Antiphonary of Mont-Blandin.  Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale 10127-10144, fol. 90v (=image no. 187 in the digitization), ll. 11-14, where the text, according to Hesbert (Antiphonale missarum sextuplex (Brussels:  Vromant & Co., 1935), no. 4, p. 6), reads as follows:

AN[T]. Gaudete in D[omi]no semp[er] iterum dico gaudete modestia v[est]ra nota sit omnibus hominibus D[omi]n[u]s p[ro]pe e[st] nihil solliciti sitis sed in omni oratione petitiones v[est]re innotescant apud D[eu]m.  PSAL[M]. Benedixisti D[omi]ne.

"Be strong for us in the flesh!"

Streite, siege, starker Held!
Sei vor uns sim Fleische kräftig!
Sei geschäftig,
Das Vermögen in uns Schwachen
Stark zu machen!

Contend, conquer,
     mighty champion!
Be strong for us in the flesh!
Strive
To strengthen the power
In us who are weak!

     "Streite, siege, starker Held!", a paraphrase of stanza 6 of "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland," by Martin Luther (1523), who was translating "Veni Redemptor gentium," by St. Ambrose.   According to the liner notes to the Gardiner recording above, "Streite, siege starker Held!" was composed by an unknown librettist for J. S. Bach's Cantata for the First Sunday in Advent BWV 62 (Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland).  Luther's sixth stanza, as reproduced in The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology (I haven't checked this against Jenny), ran as follows:

Der du bist dem vater gleich, 

fur hynnaus den syeg ym fleisch,

das dein ewig gots gewalt

ynn unns das kranck fleysch enthallt.

"a god who had sacrificed himself to men"

"'One can only imagine the astonishment of the hundreds and thousands of Indians who asked for baptism as they came to realize that they were being asked to adore a god who sacrificed himself for men instead of asking men to sacrifice themselves to gods, as the Aztec religion demanded.'"

     Carlos Fuentes, as quoted by Robert Royal in

• 2014 January 11 (no citation)
• 2006:  The God that did not fail (New York:  Encounter Books, 2006), 158 and 288n13, citing "The buried mirror:  reflections on Spain and the New World ([Boston and] New York:  Mariner, [Houghton Mifflin Company,] 1999)" (no page number).  There I have have found only this so far, on p. 146 (pp. 156-157 in the Spanish edition of 1992).  It's comparable, but note that it comes up (in this book) readily in a Google search, while the Royal wording (above) returns only publications by Royal:

In a universe accustomed to seeing men sacrificed to the gods, nothing amazed the Indians more than the sight of a god who had sacrificed himself to men.  It was the redemption of humankind by Christ that fascinated and really defeated the Indians of the New World.  The true return of the gods was the arrival of Christ.  Christ was the recovered memory that in the beginning it was the gods who sacrificed themselves for the benefit of humankind.  This misty memory, engulfed by the somber human sacrifices ordained by Aztec power, was now rescued by the Christian church.  The result was flagrant syncretism, the blending of Christian and aboriginal faiths, one of the cultural foundations of the Spanish American world.

• 2001 (no citation)
• 1999 May (no citation)

     In actual fact, it comes from near the end of the second episode of the documentary The buried mirror:  reflections on Spain and the New World (the episode entitled The conflict of the gods), where it follows some comments on the adoption of the Blessed Virgin as mother (cf. "The conquered people now had a mother.  They also found a father" (p. 146)), and is worded somewhat differently:

This new world wanted a father.  It did not find him in the figure of the conquistador, but in that of Christ.  One can only imagine the astonishment of the hundreds and thousands of Indians who asked for baptism as they came to realize that they were now to adore a god who sacrificed himself for men instead of asking men to sacrifice themselves to the gods, as the Aztec religion had demanded.  It is surely no accident that on this statue it is the heart, the ultimate gift of sacrifice, that is so prominently displayed.

In the book this is anticipated by the opening pages of chapter five ("The rise and fall of the Indian world"):  "Because the gods had sacrificed themselves so that the world and humanity might exist, humanity was obligated to plunge, if needed, into the great, permanent bonfire of life and death", such that "The need for sacrifice was an undoubted thing in Indian society, not subject to discussion or skepticism of any sort" (p. 94).  Whether it is anticipated in quite this way in the documentary, I have not yet determined.

"The strangely conservative French"

"the French have never gotten over killing God during the Enlightenment, and cope with it in one of two ways:  by ritually reenacting the murder through radical atheism, or by searching for something to fill the now empty tabernacle."

     Mark Lilla, "The strangely conservative  French," The New York review of books 62, no. 16 (October 22, 2015):  51 (50-52).

Faith, hope, and charity, but not without patience

     "Dear brethren, we must endure and persevere if we are to attain the truth and freedom we have been allowed to hope for; faith and hope are the very meaning of our being Christians, but if faith and hope are to bear their fruit, patience is necessary."

And "charity can be steadfast and persevering because it has learned how to endure all things."

     St. Cyprian, On the value of patience 13 and 15, as translated in Liturgy of the hours 1, pp. 192-193 (Office of readings, Saturday, First week of Advent).  Cf. Thornton, LF 3 (139), pp. 257 and 259 (250-265); Wallis, ANL 5, 484-491/ANF 5, 484-491; Conway, FC 36 (1958), pp. 275 and 278 (263-287); etc.  Wallis:

"We must endure and persevere, beloved brethren, in order that, being admitted to the hope of truth and liberty, we may attain to the truth and liberty itself; for that very fact that we are Christians is the substance of faith and hope. But that hope and faith may attain to their result, there is need of patience."

"it [(charity)] can tenaciously persevere, because it knows how to endure all things."

Conway:

"We must endure and persevere, beloved brethren, so that, having been admitted to the hope of truth and liberty, we can finally attain that same truth and liberty, because the very fact that we are Christians is a source of faith and hope.  However, in order that hope and faith may reach their fruition, there is need of patience."

"charity can persevere steadfastly because it has learned how to endure all things."

"tolerandum est et perseuerandum, fratres dilectissimi, ut ad spem ueritatis et libertatis admissi ad ueritatem et libertatem ipsam peruenire possimus, quia hoc ipsum quod christiani sumus fidei et spei res est.  ut autem peruenire spes et fides ad fructum possint sui patientia opus est."

"ostendit inde illam [(caritas)] perseuerare tenaciter posse, quod nouerit omnia sustinere."

     St. Cyprian, De bono patientiae 13 and 15 (CSEL 3.1, pp. 406 and 408).