"abstract 'values' having no unique, historical referent"

"If we take human historicity seriously, then we must concede that the historical origin of the sacraments has determined these universals symbols [(and in particular the sacrament of orders)] in a unique way. . . . .  Indeed, it can be argued that every sacrament is rooted in revelatory events which are unique and unrepeatable.  Therefore, biblical and sacramental symbolism cannot be essentially altered without losing its character as anamnesis. . . ."

     Benedict M. Ashley, O.P., "Gender and the priesthood of Christ:  a theological reflection," The Thomist:  a speculative quarterly review 57, no. 3 (July 1993):  350 (343-379), underscoring mine.

Is there really anything new under the sun?

"we have heard to our annoyance that divine affairs have come to such a low state that women are encouraged to officiate at the sacred altars, and to take part in all [(cuncta)] matters imputed to the offices of the male sex, to which they do not belong."

"Nihilominus impatienter audivimus, tantum divinarum rerum subisse despectum, ut feminae sacris altaribus ministrare firmentur, cunctaque non nisi virorum famulatui deputata sexum, cui non competent, exhibere."

     Pope Galasius I (492-496), Epistle 14.26 (Thiel, 376-377), as quoted by Giorgi Ortranto as translated by Mary Ann Rossi in "Priesthood, precedent, and prejudice: On recovering the women priests of early Christianity," Journal of feminist studies in religion 7, no. 1 (Spring 1991):  80-81 (73–94).

     I have not properly digested this article by Rossi-Otranto, or made any attempt to find out what the consensus on this passage in this epistle now is, though clearly circumvented by Rossi-Otranto (Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P., The Thomist 57, no. 3 (July 1993), 3:  "Otranto tries to support this document with ambiguous epigraphic data and thus interpret these practices as valid ordinations (to the priesthood, not to the diaconate as other scholars have done). Prof. Mary Collins, O.S.B., of The Catholic University of America, in the same symposium, commenting favorably on Otranto's theory, raised the question whether a local bishop can validly ordain a women even if the Bishop of Rome condemns the action (!)").

     A recent translation of these letters, to which SPU has e-access, is Bronwen Neil and Pauline Allen, The Letters of Gelasius I (492-496), pastor and micro-manager of the church of Rome, Adnotationes 1 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2014), 145, 155:

[Title:]  That it is unlawful for women to minister at the sacred altars, or to take on themselves any of those duties allotted to men. 

[Body:]  No less have we heard with impatience that such a disregard has come upon divine affairs that women are encouraged to minister at the sacred altars, and that they openly perform everything that has been assigned only to the service of the male sex, to which they do not correspond. . . .

The Procrustean bed of the modern theology of religious language

"How far is it possible, in the words of the Good News Bible, ‘to use language that is natural, clear, simple, and unambiguous,’ when the Bible is not about things that are natural, clear, simple, and unambiguous?"

     Stephen Prickett, Words and the word:  language, poetics, and biblical interpretation (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1986), 10, as quoted by Benedict Ashley, O.P., “Gender and the priesthood of Christ:  a theological reflection,” The Thomist:  a speculative quarterly 57, no. 3 (July 1993):  345n5 (343-379).

"Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s grief; it takes away today’s strength."

". . . worrying is carrying tomorrow’s burden with today’s strength.  It’s carrying two days at once. . . .
     "I read somewhere, '. . . Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s grief; it takes away today’s strength.  It does not enable us to avoid evil, but it makes us incapable of dealing with it when it comes.'"

     Corrie Ten Boom, Reflections of God's glory:  newly discovered meditations by the author of The hiding place, [trans. Claire L. Rothrock] (Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan, 1999), 36-37.
     This is the closest I've come so far to the following, which I was asked to trace back to an actual source in Ten Boom herself.  Note that though very widely attributed to her without a citation of any kind, it is something that she claims here (at least) to have "read somewhere":

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

     My thanks to Kendall Harmon, who was the one to notice that though I had supplied this as the source of the first two sentences (often associated with the third), I had missed the presence of the third later on (though I would stress again that she is quoting someone else here:  whom, she does not remember).
     The shift back and forth between "sorrow" and "grief" (not to mention "empty . . . of" and "take away") on the Internet could have something to do with how many times she repeated lines like these (her father's comments on worry as reported already in, I think, The hiding place, are justly famous), or they could be due to the varying choices of translators.  The copyright to the content of Reflections of God's glory is, after all, owned by Stichting Trans World Radio voor Nederland en België.  According to the prefatory material, TWR published a book of these (delivered from 1966) in Dutch in or before 1996, though Reflections of God's glory was based on a translation of the manuscripts.

"the simple expedient of building"

"Rules and exhortations do help, but physical means are far more fundamental.  It is hard to see that a church which is cold, hard and uninviting can be [a] space which arouses in a monk a prayer which is fervent and full of feeling.  I have known communities in which the monasticity of daily life has been improved by the simple expedient of building."

     Michael Casey, "The dialectic of solitude and communion in Cistercian communities," Cistercian studies 23, no. 4 (1988): 305-306 (273–309).

"When my spirit is faint, thou knowest my way."

     Ps 142:3a RSV.

בְּהִתְעַטֵּ֬ף עָלַ֨י רוּחִ֗י וְאַתָּה֮ יָדַ֪עְתָּ נְֽתִיבָ֫תִ֥י

My translation:  When my spirit faints away on me, you know my path.
My paraphrase (in the light of v. 3b):  When my courage [(רוּחִ֗י)] fails me, you know where the [trap-free] footfalls are.

Sola fide

"The presence of Christ's true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone [(sola fide)], which rests upon Divine authority.  Hence, on Luke 22:19: 'This is My body which shall be delivered up for you,' Cyril says: 'Doubt not whether this be true; but take rather the Saviour's words with faith; for since He is the Truth, He lieth not.'"

"verum corpus Christi et sanguinem esse in hoc sacramento, non sensu deprehendi potest, sed sola fide, quae auctoritati divinae innititur."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, ST III.75.1 ("Whether the body of Christ be in this sacrament in very truth, or merely as in a figure or sign?").Resp.  Latin from Corpus Thomisticum.
     This may be the passage to which the Dominican Fr. Thomas Joseph White refers when, in a podcast on the Thomistic Institute website, he notes that, according to St. Thomas, Protestants of the sola fide have already everything they need for an adherence to a robust doctrine of the transubstantiation of the elements.