"I have sinned—I sin continually—but Christ has died, and for ever lives, as my Redeemer, Priest, Advocate, and King."

     John Newton, letter to Mr. Robert Jones dated 17 March 1757, as reproduced on p. 20 (17-22) of Twenty-five letters, hitherto unpublished, of the Rev. John Newton, rector of Olney and St Mary, Woolnoth, London.  From the years 1757 to 1759 (Edinburgh:  J. Johnstone, 1840).  Crossway, the publisher of the series _____ on the Christian life, attributed it ("I sin continually.  But Christ has died, and forever lives, as my redeemer, priest, advocate, and king") to Luther as quoted by Carl Trueman, though it actually appears in a different book in that same series, the one on Newton by Tony Reinke.

"be willing that Self shall suffer for the Truth, and not the Truth for Self . . . and so own the Cross, and despise the Shame"

      James Parnell, "A few words to all my dear Friends in and about the county of Essex," in A collection of the several writings given forth from the Spirit of the Lord through that meek, patient, and suffering servant of God, James Parnel, who, though a young man, bore a faithful testimony for God and dyed a prisoner under the hands of a persecuting generation in Colchester Castle in the year 1656 (1675), 293 (291-294).

Such "men . . . you must not only not receive, but if it is possible not even meet"

Index of Medieval Art (Vat. gr. 1613, p. 258)

"he truly suffered even as he also truly raised himself [(ἀληθῶς ἀνέστησεν ἑαυτόν)], not as some unbelievers say, that his Passion was merely in semblance [(τὸ δοκεῖν αὐτὸν πεπονθέναι)]. . .
     ". . . I guard you in advance against beasts in the form of men [(τῶν ἀνθρωπομόρφων)], whom you must not only not receive, but if it is possible not even meet, but only pray for them, if perchance they may repent, difficult though that may be. . . .  For if it is merely in semblance [(τὸ δοκεῖν | τῷ δοκειν)] that these things were done by our Lord I am also a prisoner in semblance [(τὸ δοκεῖν)].  And why have I given myself up to death, to fire, to the sword, to wild beasts?  Because near the sword is near to God, with the wild beasts is with God [(ἐγγὺς μαχαίρας ἐγγὺς θεοῦ, μεταξὺ θηρίων μεταξὺ θεοῦ)]; in the name of Jesus Christ alone am I enduring all things, that I may suffer with him, and the perfect man himself gives me strength. . . .
     ". . . I have not thought right to put into writing their unbelieving names; but would that I might not even remember them, until they repent concerning the Passion, which is our resurrection. . . .
     "They abstain from Eucharist and prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ who suffered for our sins, which the Father raised up by his goodness. . . .  It is right to refrain from such men and not even to speak about them in private or in public. . . ."

     St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans II, IV, and V, trans. Lake, LCL (1912), 252-257.  Cf. "John and Polycarp on heretics".

Gregory of Nyssa on the imago Dei

Anim Shrest

"'Have a care to yourself, for this is the sure safeguard of <your> good things.  Know how much you have been honored by the Maker above the rest of the creation.  Heaven did not become the image of God, nor the moon, nor the sun, nor the beautiful stars—nor a single other one of the things that appear in the created order.  Only you came into existence as a copy of the Nature that transcends every intellect, a likeness of the incorruptible Beauty, an impress of the true Deity—a model of that true Light in the contemplation of which you become what it is, imitating that which shines within you by the ray that shines forth in response from your purity.  None of the things that exist is so great as to be compared to your greatness.  The whole heaven is contained in the span of God’s hand; earth and sea are encompassed by his hand.  But at the same time this One, being such as he is and so great as he is, grasping the whole creation in the palm of his hand, becomes limited for your sake and dwells in you and is not confined as he penetrates your nature.  For he is the One who says, 'I will dwell within them and will walk about among them' (2 Cor 6:16).  If you see these things, you will not set your eye on anything earthly. . . .  For how shall you marvel at the heavens, O human, when you see that you yourself are more lasting than the heavens?'"  Etc.

     St. Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 2 on the Song of songs, trans. Richard A. Norris, Jr. (Gregory of Nyssa:  homilies on the Song of songs, Writings from the Greco-Roman world 13 (Atlanta, GA:  SBL Press, 2012)), 76-77 =GNO 6.1.68.  I was put onto this by Gabrielle Thomas, "The Status of vulnerability in a theology of the Christian life:  Gregory of Nyssa on the 'wound of love’ in conversation with Sarah Coakley," Modern theology 38, no. 4 (2022): 791 (777–795).

"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.)