"in our days many evils . . . have come to be openly and habitually practiced, so that we are afraid not only to excommunicate a lay person for them but even to degrade a cleric."

"sic nostris temporibus ita multa mala, etsi non talia, in apertam consuetudinem iam uenerunt, ut pro his non solum excommunicare aliquem laicum non audeamus, sed nec clericum degradare."

      St. Augustine, Enchiridon on faith, hope, and charity 21, 80-22, 81, trans. , WSA I/8 (2005), 321-322.  Context, for analysis later (i.e., does St. Augustine think he has been "immoderately sorrowful" over this (below), or insufficiently attuned to "divine" (as distinguished from immoderately self-exculpatory "human") "judgment"?):

     We must also recognize that sins, however great and terrible, are thought to be small or non-existent when they become habitual, to such an extent that people think they should not only not be hidden but even be proclaimed and advertised when, as it is written, the wicked boast of the desires of their heart, and those who do evil are spoken well of (Ps 10:3). In holy scripture such wickedness is called a cry, as you read in Isaiah the prophet when he speaks of the evil vineyard: I expected him to do justice, but he did wickedness, I expected righteousness, but heard a cry! (Is 5:7) and similarly in Genesis: How great is the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah! (Gn 18:20) since not only did those sins already go unpunished among them but they were even practiced publicly and almost officially. So in our days many evils, if not the same ones, have come to be openly and habitually practiced, so that we are afraid not only to excommunicate a lay person for them but even to degrade a cleric. So, when a few years ago I was expounding the letter to the Galatians, at the place where the apostle says, I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted, I was compelled to cry out, "Woe on the sins of men, which horrify us only when we are unused to them! But as for habitual sins, to wash away which the blood of the Son of God was shed, although they are so serious that they cause God's kingdom to be entirely closed to those who commit them, we are often compelled to look on and tolerate them, and even to commit some of those we tolerate, and grant, O Lord, that we may not commit all of those that we are unable to forbid!" But I shall consider whether my immoderate sorrow caused me to speak somewhat incautiously.
     What I shall now say is what I have also often said in several places in my shorter works: there are two reasons why we sin, either because we do not see what we ought to do or because we do not do what we know ought to be done: the first of these evils comes from ignorance, the second from weakness. We should fight against both of them. But we cannot win without divine help not only to see what ought to be done but also in order that we may be healed and that pleasure in doing right may overcome within us the pleasure we take in things which we desire to have or fear to lose, which leads us to sin with knowledge and awareness. In this case we are not only sinners, which we were even when we sinned through ignorance, but also transgressors of the law, when we do not do what we already know should be done, or when we do what we already know should not be done. So we should pray to God not only that he will forgive us if we have sinned, which is why we say, Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors, but also that he will guide us so that we do not sin, which is why we say, And do not bring us to the time of trial (Mt 6:13). For these things we should pray to him to whom it is said in the psalm: The Lord is my light and my health (Ps 27:1), so that his light may take away our ignorance, and his health our weakness.

"To distinguish between trivial and serious sins is a matter for divine, not human, judgment."

"quae sint autem leuia quae grauia peccata, non humano sed diuino sunt pensanda iudicio."

      St. Augustine, Enchiridion on faith, hope, and charity 21, 78, trans. Bruce Harbert, WSA I/8 (2005), 319-320.  For "We see that some have been pardoned and permitted even by the apostles," while "There are also some . . . that might be thought very trivial were they not shown in the holy scriptures to be more serious than is thought" (21, 79).  Etc.  The point would seem (?) to be that revelation trumps human judgment (and especially the exculpatory judgment that a particular sin is but venial), not that human judgment is wholly incompetent in this regard.  Cf. the citation of this at DTC 12, col. 228.

"Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterwards."

 "Le vérité, elle délivre d’abord, elle console après."

The truth, it delivers first, it consoles afterwards.

      Le Curé de Torcy, in Georges Bernanos, The diary of a country priest 2, trans. Pamela Morris (New York:  Macmillan, 1937), 54.  French from p. 66 of the 1936 original.

"the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time"

"Let us . . . joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption.  Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time."

"Celebremus laeti nostrae salutis et redemptionis adventum.  Celebremus festum diem, quo magnus et aeternus dies ex magno et aeterno die venit in hunc nostrum tam brevem temporalem diem."

     St. Augustine, Sermon 185.2 on the Nativity (25 December 412/416), as translated in the Office of readings for 24 December, Liturgy of the hours.  Latin from PL 38, col. 998 (997-999).  Clearly no difference in the Latin between "eternal" and "endless."  "festal" vs. "great and "eternal" vs. ever "so brief [and] temporal."

"a gift so great, so unheard of"

James Doyle Penrose

"The Lord has exalted me by a gift so great, so unheard of, that language is useless to describe it, and the depths of love in my heart can scarcely grasp it. I offer then all the powers of my soul in praise and thanksgiving. As I contemplate his greatness, which knows no limits, I joyfully surrender my whole life, my senses, my judgment, for my spirit rejoices in the eternal Godhead of that Jesus, that Savior, whom I have conceived in this world of time."

"Tanto (inquit) me Dominus tamque inaudito munere sublimavit, quod non ullo linguae officio explicari, sed ipso vix intimi pectoris affectu valeat comprehendi, et ideo totas animae vires in agendis gratiarum laudibus offero, totum in contemplanda magnitudine ejus cui non est finis quicquid vivo, sentio, discerno, gratulanter impendo, quia et ejusdem Jesu, id est salutaris, spiritus meus aeterna divinitate laetatur, cujus mea caro temporali conceptione foetatur."

     St. Bede, paraphrasing the opening lines of Mary's Magnificat (Lk 1:46-47), as translated in the Office of readings for 22 December, Liturgy of the hours.  CCSL 120 (1960), .  Latin from the Latin edition of the Complete works ed. J. A. Giles, vol. 10 (1844), 295, which should be checked against CCSL 120 (1960), .

The Lowly Most High

Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1490

The Most High is coming in lowliness | to save what had been amounting to nothing.

"excelsus venit humilis | salvare quod perierat."

     Verbum salutis omnium (11th cent.?), Hymn at Vespers, 17-24 December, Liturgia horarum, stanza 5.

"le Cœur des cœurs, le centre brûlant de tout amour"

      "Even the elect do not learn to love all by themselves.  To get beyond the absurdities, the failings, and above all the stupidity of people, one must possess a secret of love which the world has forgotten.  So long as this secret is not rediscovered, you will change human conditions [(les conditions humaines)] in vain.
     "I thought that it was selfishness which made me aloof from everything that concerns the economic and the social; and it is true that I was a monster of seclusion and indifference; but there was also in me a feeling, an obscure certitude, that all this serves for nothing to revolutionise the face of the world.  The world must be touched at its heart.  I seek Him Who alone can achieve that victory; and He must Himself be the Heart of hearts, the burning centre of all love."

     Louis, in François Mauriac, Vipers' tangle, trans. Warre B. Wells, II.xviii (Garden City, NY:  Image Books, Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1957 [1932]), 177) =Le nœud de vipères:  roman (Paris:  Éditions Bernard Grasset, 1932), 274-275.