"lost | In wonder, love, and praise"

      Joseph Addison, "When all thy mercies, O my God," stanza 1, the poem with which he concludes an essay on gratitude; The spectator 6, no. 453 (Saturday, August 9, 1712):  223.  See the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology under "When all thy mercies, O my God" ("The hymn [by Addison] was very popular in the 18th century, and has remained so. John Wesley* used it in his first hymnbook, the Collection of Psalms and Hymns published at Charlestown in 1737, though unhappily altering the two lines printed above to 'Why my cold heart, art thou not lost / In wonder, love and praise?'") and Charles Wesley's "Love divine, all loves excelling".  Later Gerard Manley Hopkins used the phrase "lost in wonder" at the end of the first stanza of his translation of Aquinas' "Adoro te devote."

"unlike God, man is of two minds in the face of evil"

Aletheia

"unlike God, man is of two minds in the face of evil [(contrairement à Dieu, l’homme est partagé face au mal)]. . . .  There is this difference between God and man, that God never blesses evil but blesses always in order to deliver from evil. . . .  Whereas the tendency of sinful man is certainly to refuse to bless evil, but only up to a certain point, that is to say, up to the point at which his [own] compromise with evil carries him away.  When this point is reached, he prefers to 'compromis[e] and falsif[y] the standard of good and evil in order to adapt it to particular circumstances.' . . .  [H]e 'makes his own weakness the criterion of the truth about the good, so that he can feel [himself] self-justified' [Pope John Paul II, Veritas splendor 104]."

     Fr. Emmanuel Perrier, O.P., "Fiducia supplicans face au sense de la foi," Revue thomiste website, January 2024. 

Fr. Thomas Michelet on one of Pope Francis' favorite metaphors

Angelicum

"what to say of a field hospital in which those who are sick sit with those who are well to the point that [it] no longer offers any resistance to the pandemic?  What to make of a barque [of Peter] that has [(aurait, a conditional)] neither compass nor helm, [is] open to all but subject to every wind, [and] shows no longer either the way or any intention of following it?"

"que dire d’un hôpital de campagne où les malades siègent avec les bien-portants au point de ne plus offrir aucune résistance à la pandémie ? Que faire d’une barque de l’Église qui n’aurait ni boussole ni gouvernail, ouverte à tous mais soumise à tous vents, ne montrant plus le chemin ni son intention de le suivre?"

     Fr. Thomas Michelet, O.P., "Peut-on bénir Fiducia supplicans?," Revue thomiste website, January 2024.  Fr. Michelet bends over backwards to read the Declaration and the press release of 4 January 2024 charitably (often with the help of subsequent comments by Pope Francis), and yet says enough throughout to make it pretty obvious that he wishes the thing had been much more carefully composed.  Just quickly from the English translation, for example:

"At the very least, it is regrettable that we have to carry out this work of clarification for him [(À tout le moins peut-on regretter de devoir accomplir à sa place ce travail de clarification)], in order to defuse the bomb that the text potentially contains, without being able to affirm that it's author intended to put it there" (sec. 1).

"The Declaration regrettably did not deem it necessary to make such a distinction from the outset, preferring instead to insist that even in a situation of sin, God preserves for the sinner his unconditional love, his gifts and his blessing, without ever specifying whether he blesses the sin at the same time.  The Communiqué [of 4 January 2024] does not shed any light on this point" (sec. 2).

"Not only can we never bless evil, but we must never let anyone believe that we are doing so in any way whatsoever" (sec. 2).

"The problem lies first and foremost in the use of the word 'couple' for the two categories, 'couples in an irregular situation' and 'same-sex couples', as if they could be put on the same level, regardless of their differences in nature and not just in law, which is a major first in a document from the Holy See.  The previous doctrine from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith refrained from doing this, speaking of union and 'partnership' for people of the same sex, but never of 'couple'.  This helps to trivialize homosexual relationships:  whether you are of either sex or the same sex, you live 'as a couple' in [supposedly] the same way. . . . ."  "The term 'couple' is inappropriate and surprising in a document from a Dicastery that until now had accustomed us to more formal language" (sec. 6).  Etc.

"The key is to know what you are talking about and to whom.  It is best to be specific" (sec. 6).

"Under cover of a supposedly irreproachable orthodoxy, a deviant pastoral approach is gradually taking hold, preparing the ground for the next move, which would be to change the doctrine, and rewrite the Catechism accordingly.  The apparently benign gesture of an informal blessing turns out to be a formidable instrument for scotomising people's minds.  If this was the strategy, it marks what we hope will be a definitive halt.  If it wasn't, it would be a good idea to make this clear in ways other than imprecise press releases that only serve to increase doubt" (sec. 7).

"Should we promote and consecrate a contextual theology and a contextual pastoral ministry that will inevitably lead to contextual dogmatics at the expense of the unity of the faith?" (sec. 8)

"Can Fiducia supplicans be blessed?  neither yes nor no, quite the contrary" (sec. 8).

Etc. (I thought I saw more comments like these in the original French.)

"a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river; true on this side of the Pyrenees, false on the other."

"Plaisante justice qu’une rivière borne ! Vérité au‑deçà des Pyrénées, erreur au‑delà."

     Blaise Pascal, Pensées Brunschvicg 294 =Faugère II, 126, IV / Havet III.8 / Michaut 193 / Tourneur p. 182-1 / Le Guern 56 / Maeda III p. 4 / Lafuma 60 / Sellier 94.  English from the Krailsheimer translation, in which this appears as no. 60.  I was reminded of this by Fr. Thomas Michelet, O.P., who directs it against "une théologie contextuelle et une pastorale contextuelle qui conduira fatalement à une dogmatique contextuelle au détriment de l’unité de la foi [(a contextual theology and a contextual pastoral [practice] that will lead inevitably to a contextual dogmatics to the detriment of the unity of the faith)]".  "Peut-on bénir Fiducia supplicans?," Revue thomiste, January 2024.

The regulation of the flesh as proof of the resurrection of the flesh

Theophanes the Cretan

"if our physician Christ, God, having rescued us from our desires [(ἐπιθυμιῶν)], regulates our flesh [(σάρκα)] with His own wise and temperate rule, it is evident that He guards it from sins [(ἁμαρτημιάτων)] because it possesses a hope of salvation [(ἐλπίδα σωτηρίας)]."

     Pseudo-Justin Martyr, De resurrectione 10, trans. Dods (ANF 1, p. 299).  =Heimgartner, .  Cf. p. 248 of vol. 2 of the 3rd (1876-1881) ed. of the edition of the Opera . . . omnia ed. Otto.

Gratia non tollit naturam

Thorens-Glieres (1567-1622),
Monastère de la Visitation, Paris

"devotion must be practiced in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman. But even this distinction is not sufficient; for the practice of devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation and to the duties [(aux forces, aux affairs et aux devoirs)] of each one in particular.
     "Tell me, please, my Philothea, whether it is proper for a bishop to want to lead a solitary life like a Carthusian; or for married people to be no more concerned than a Capuchin about increasing their income [(Et si les mariés ne vouloient rien amasser non plus que les Capucins)]; or for a working man to spend his whole day in church like a religious; or on the other hand for a religious to be constantly exposed like a bishop to all the events and circumstances that bear on the needs of our neighbor. Is not this sort of devotion ridiculous, unorganized and intolerable [(ridicule, desreglee et insupportable)]? Yet this absurd error occurs very frequently, but in no way does true devotion, my Philothea, destroy anything at all. On the contrary, it perfects and fulfills all things. In fact if it ever works against, or is inimical to, anyone’s legitimate station and calling, then it is very definitely false devotion [(la devotion ne gaste rien quand elle est vraye, ains elle perfectionne tout, et lhors qu’elle se rend contraire a la legitime vacation de quelqu’un, elle est sans doute fausse)]. . . .
     "It is therefore an error and even a heresy [(un erreur, ains une heresie)] to wish to exclude the exercise of devotion from military divisions, from the artisans’ shops, from the courts of princes, from family households. . . .  [T]he type of devotion which is purely contemplative, monastic and religious can certainly not be exercised in these sorts of stations and occupations, but besides this threefold type of devotion, there are many others fit for perfecting those who live in a secular state.
     "Therefore, in whatever situations we happen to be, we can and we must aspire to the life of perfection."

     St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the devout life I.iii, trans. Liturgy of the hours.  French from pp. 19-21 of tom. 3 of the Œuvres complètes published by the Visitandines of Annecy (1892-1932).  vacation is, according to the dictionaries of early French that I have here at home, correct.  "'Lot,' St. Gregory says, 'who was so chaste in the city defiled himself in the wilderness' [(Loth, dit saint Gregoire, qui fut si chaste en la ville, se souïlla en la solitude)]" (trans. Ryan; the reference is to Pope St. Gregory the Great, Hom. Ezek., book 1, no. 9, sec. 22.1 (SC 327, ed. & trans. Morel, p. 362 ll. 21-22 | 24-26:  "Lot de quo loquimur, in Sodomis sanctus exstitit, in monte peccauit," "Lot, dont nous venons de parler, se montra un saint à Sodome, et pécha sur la montagne".   Trans. Theodosia Tomkinson (Etna, CA:  Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 2008), pp. 172-173:

when it is said to the Prophet:  'Thou art among unbelievers and destroyers, and thou dwellest with scorpions' a physic of consolation is offered to us who are often tired of living since we are unwilling to dwell with evils.  Therefore we lament that all who live with us are not good.  We are reluctant to bear the sins of our neighbors, we already perceive that all ought to be Saints, while we are unwilling to be that which we bear from our neighbors.  But in this matter it is clearer than light, when we refuse to tolerate bad men how much less we still have of good.  For a person is not wholly good unless he is good even among evil men.  Hence Blessed Job asserts of himself saying:  'I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.'  Hence Paul the Apostle says to his disciples:  'In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.'  Hence Peter, shepherd of the Lord's flock, says:  'And delivered just Lot, oppressed by the injustice and lewd conversation of the wicked; for in sight and hearing he was just, dwelling among them who from day to day vexed the just soul with unjust works.'  Often indeed when we complain about the lives of our neighbors we seek to change our place, to choose the solitude of a more remote life, ignorant evidently that if the spirit is lacking the place does not help.  For that same Lot of whom we speak stood as holy in Sodom but sinned upon the mountain.  For that places do not protect the mind the very first ancestor of the human race bears witness, he who fell even in Paradise.  But all the words we speak from earth are less.  For if the place had power to save, Satan would not have fallen from Heaven. . . .

     But indeed there is one reason why the company of the wicked should be avoided, lest if perchance they cannot be restrained they attract to imitation, and when they themselves are not changed from their malice, the pervert those who are associated with them. . . . 

 

 

 

"And now the matchless deed's atchiev'd, | DETERMINED, DARED, AND DONE."

National Portrait Gallery 3780

     Christopher Smart (1722-1771), "A song to David" (1763), stanza 86, and also the concluding stanza to "We sing of God, the mighty source".  On p. 147 of vol. 2 of the Clarendon Poetical works.