Mme la Comtesse and the country priest, in Georges Bernanos, The diary of a country priest 5, trans. Pamela Morris (New York: Macmillan, 1937), 159. French from p. 196 of the 1936 original. "'Blessed would be the faults that left any shame in us!"
"Almighty and everlasting God, who hast made known the incarnation of thy Son by the bright shining of a star, which when the wise men beheld they adored thy majesty and presented costly gifts: Grant that the star of thy righteousness may always shine in our hearts, and that for our treasure we may give to thy service ourselves and all that we have; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord."
"Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui uerbi tui incarnationem praeclari testimonio sideris indicasti, quod uidentes magi oblatis maiestatem tuam muneribus adorarent: concide, ut semper in mentibus nostris tuae appareat stella iustitiae et noster in tua sit confessione thesaurus: per."
"Almighty and everlasting God, who hast made known the incarnation of thy [Word] by the bright shining of a star, which when the wise men beheld they adored thy majesty and presented costly gifts: Grant that the star of thy righteousness may always shine in our hearts, and that for our treasure we may give to thy service ourselves and all that we have; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord."
Collect "in theophania in die," Galasian sacramentary. No. 61 in the critical edition of 1960 ed. Mohlberg. P. 11 in the 19th-century edition ed. H. A. Wilson.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
the voice by the Word
"The Baptist protests; Jesus insists. Then John says: I ought to be baptized by you. He is the lamp in the presence of the Sun, the voice in the presence of the Word, the friend in the presence of the Bridegroom, the greatest of all born of woman in the presence of the Firstborn of all creation, the one who leapt in his mother’s womb in the presence of him who was adored in the womb, the forerunner and future forerunner in the presence of him who has already come and is to come again."
Οὐ δέχεται ὁ Βαπτιστής, ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀγωνίζεται· « Ἐγὼ χρείαν ἔχω ὑπὸ σοῦ Βαπτισθῆναι », ὁ λύχνος τῷ Ἡηλίῳ φησὶν, ἡ φωνὴ τῷ Λόγῳ, ὁ φίλος τῷ Νυμφίῳ, ὁ ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν ὑπὲρ ἅπαντας τῷ Πρωτοτόκῳ πάσης κτίσεως, ὁ προσκιρτήσας ἀπὸ γαστρὸς, τῷ ἐν γαστρὶ προσκυνηθέντι, ὁ προδραμὼν καὶ προδραμούμενος, τῷ φανέντι καὶ φανησομένῳ.
. . . I ought to be baptized by [(ὑπὸ)] you, the lamp by the [(τῷ)] Sun, the voice by the [(τῷ)] Word, . . .
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 39.15 Εἰς τὰ Φῶτα (in Sancta Lumina), as translated in the Office of readings for the Baptism of the Lord, Liturgy of the hours. Greek from SC 358, 182 ll. 5-12 =PG 36, col. 352C. Cf. St. Ignatius of Antioch, Romans II.1, trans. Lake: "if you are silent concerning me, I am a word [(λόγος)] of God; but if you love my flesh, I shall again be only a cry [(φωνή)]."
"A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized prayer is listening" or "that prayer is listening."
As widely (but somewhat erroneously?) attributed to Kierkegaard. Richard Foster quotes Kierkegaard precisely thus (except with a "that" before that second "prayer") and cites Christian discourses, trans. Lowrie (1940), p. 324 (Celebration of discipline, 20th anniversary ed. (1998), pp. 39 and 212n7), where a reference to true prayer as "silence" (rather than "listening") does indeed occur. On p. 323, by contrast, there is this (plus more in context, yet still not the ipsissima verba above):
He had supposed that to pray is to speak; he learnt that to pray is not merely to be silent but to hear.
According to Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, this was originally
Han meente at det at bede er at tale; han lærte at det at bede ikke blot er at tie, men er at høre.
(*I have not yet searched exhaustively, however*; just followed the citation at a point where Foster reproduces the wording given above, and where the idea, but not, despite the clear reference to Lowrie, this translation, is present.)
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| Fra Angelico |
Ps 144:1, but for "Jesu" (Douay-Rheims). "In votive Masses after Septuagesima" (?) "In Eastertide, instead of the Gradual," under The [Feast of the] Most Holy Name of Jesus, Tridentine Missal.
Dante, Paradisio I.64-72, trans. Charles S. Singleton. Beatrice: "'You are not on earth, as you believe; but lightning, fleeing its proper site [(il proprio sito)], never darted so fast as you are returning to yours" (91-93). "All things have order among themselves, and this is the form that makes the universe like God. . . . all natures are inclined by different lots, nearer and less near unto their principle; wherefore they move to different ports over the great sea of being [(a diversi porti | per lo gran mar de l'essere)], each with an instinct given [(istinto . . . dato)] it to bear it on: this bears fire upwards toward the moon; this is the motive force in mortal creatures; this binds together and unites the earth. And not only does this bow [(arco)] shoot those creatures that lack intelligence, but also those that have intellect and love. The Providence which ordains all this, with Its light makes ever quiet that heaven within which revolves the sphere that has the greatest speed; and thither now, as to a place decreed [(come a sito decreto)], the virtue of that bowstring [(corda)] bears us on, which aims at a joyful target [(segno)] whatever it shoots.
"'To be sure, even as a shape often does not accord with the intention of the art, because the material is deaf to respond, so the creature sometimes departs from this course, having the power, thus impelled, to swerve toward some other part; and even as the fire from a cloud may be seen to fall downwards, so the primal impulse, diverted by false pleasure, is turned toward earth. You should not wonder more at your rising, if I deem aright, than at a stream that falls from a mountain top to the base. It would be a marvel if you, being freed from hindrance, had settled down below, even as stillness would be in living fire on earth'" (91-141).
