All the standard caveats apply.
Extraordinary sympathy is necessary for extraordinary insight.
the Sertillanges argument against determinism: as the universal always abstracts from something, every ide is a scheme, & thus it is not possible to put into laws everything whatsoever nature does.
-> i.e., determinism confuses what we can identify as laws of nature with divine ideas, in terms of comprehension
"For the proper life of intelligence is above all play, a game within the principles of being and thought." De Koninck
Wonder at the universe is a moral response.
Human sin creates a problem for anything holy that would have dealings with us; a problem that perhaps only omniscience can solve.
All of salvation history is summed up in the messianic character of Christ, which we receive imprinted on us, so to speak, in baptism.
We have on the altar the true philosopher's stone, the true peach of immortality, the elixir and nectar of life, but whta it gives is not the crass material gift the alchemists sought, nor even the crass mental gift the better and wiser alchemists sought.
The vocation of the Church is not to build the Kingdom of God on earth but to be the Kingdom of God on earth.
When one looks at marriages of great love, one finds that, in each, both of the spouses have learned to cultivate habits of gratitude.
thinking through rigorous logical structures metaphorically
to try out each position and argument given by someone else as if it had just occurred to yourself on your own
the fragmentary residues of the great minds of civilization
Every effect manifests its cause simply by being what it is; but some effects only manifest that the cause has caused, these are only vestiges of their cause, while others manifest the form of the cause, and these are images of one kind or another.
True honor begins with the protection of motherhood and deference to the truth, and expands outward from these.
a study of vestige and image in experimental work (telescopy probably has some good examples, as would microscopy)
Setting aside things that have persisted, we usually only have vestiges of the distant past. But there are cases where we have images, as with the stars.
The true foundation of human dignity is common good.
Christians sin more seriously than nonbelievers with the same sins because there is less to excuse them. This needs to be more clealry in the consciousness of Christians than it is, and pastors of the Church gravely err if they do not make this clear.
Reconciliation, pardon, andpenitence are appropriated to the Holy Spirit, fo rhte Holy Spirit is charity.
Virtues are all kinds of personal human order.
Human responsibility has a twofold character: we are responsible for things we do by our own choice and by ourselves, as individual persons. But we are also responsible for what is done byt he whole of a community, or by the majority of a community, or by a person servince in some way as the principle of the community, insofar as we are members of the community.
A Church council is a collection of bishops participating in body; but not merely that. In truth, all who affirm the faith of a council participate in it spiritually,a nd all who affirm the Creed and the definitions form a ring around the Conciliar Fathers and speak with them as if with one voice.
Mary as Aurora consurgens
our ability to act in light of common good as a reason for the incorruptibility of the soul
Nature is a reason or logos in things, caused by divine art, by which they act for ends.
Certain fields, like law, specialize in the construction of quasi-genera, each of which has a merely practical unity.
Mariology borrows its principles from Christology, to which it is subalternated.
The biosphere achieves the end of plurality and diversity by means of composition and division. It is because of this that evolutionary and other processes can be modeled by intellectual operations of composition and division, e.g., search algorithms or engineering metaphors.
love of the good insofar as it is enduring and permeating
Friendship generally has a unitive end and marriage as a friendship necessarily has such an end; but precisely because of this the unitive end itself is not an end distinctive of it as marriage.
Because matrimony is a sacrament or mystery, the theology of its is inexhaustible, and thus we may well say that we have in a sense hardly skimmed the surface of a very great ocean, however extensive discussion of ti may have been to date.
analogy of magisterium to regnative & political prudence (operatio prudentiae totius civitatis)
To serve as handmaiden to theology, philosophy must be set in order by theology.
Some miracles are such as to be extrinsic motives of credibility and others are not. The distinction is important.
Propositions in theology may be known per se where theology provides an understanding of the terms; such propositions are not fundamentally different from those known from elsewhere, although some of these may practically be inaccessible without the aid of theology.
Evil is not mere privation but privation such that it is contrary to good.
reason : acquired virtues :: grace : infused virtues
The structure of persuasion is inferential. Becaus ethe structure of persuasion is inferential, even persuasion that is not based on verbal arguments is naturally characterized or described by an argument.
3 ways a true opinion can be changed
(1) object changes
(2) forgetfulness
(3) persuasion
For the mind as for the world, diversification is a subordinate end.
Prudence is the magisterial virtue.
Just as a person's true opinion changes only when the facts change, or when the opinion is forgotten, or when the person is persuaded otherwise, so change from true propositions in the history of philosophy is always by a change of evidential facts, or because communication fails from generation to generation, or because of the mechanisms of persuasion. And diagnosing the source rightly is important: we have an excessive tendency to attribute change of ideas to change of facts, and overlook the roles of transmission and incentive.
Be fruitful in your understanding and multiply your conceptions, for thereby you more fully express the goodness of God.
In poetry we express the goodness of God by diversifying the world.
Psalms as the book of the pursuit of wisdom
Talking about 'what it is like to see red' is just another way fo talking about actually seeing red.
(1) What is naturally potential with respect to an object is, as such, without it.
(2) Intellect is naturally potential to sensible and corporeal natures as such.
(3) Therefore intellect is without sensible and corporeal nature insofar as it is potential to it.
: confirmation: where the intellect of a corporeal, sensible nature, this would limit its capacity to take that kind of corporeal, sensible nature as an object, because it would serve as an impediment.
Mathematical objects are known sensitively and imaginatively; mathematical essences are known intellectually.
The act of teaching is exterior projection of interior meditation.
false opinion : intellectual activity :: monstrous birth : natural activity
Moral deficiencies are remitted and protected against by intensification of charity, which can occur through three causes: rational contemplation, higher impulse, and settled disposition.
Some acts inculcate charity in all three ways: these are participations in the sacraments, which reason regards as remedies, which give special graces because God works in them, & which give habitual grace.
Others do nto give gracious disposition but inculcate charity in the other two ways: these are uses of sacramentals.
Yet others do so only in the first way, & these are pious acts, like the Lord's Prayer, striking the breast, reading Scripture, etc.
Solidarity is first recognized , but not only found, in distribution of goods and remuneration for work.
the Church as both juridical and amicable
There is no preferential option for the poor where there is no love of the poor.
Prudence mediates between natural law and civil law.
philosophy in facto esse & philosophy in fieri
the heuristic & hermeneutical functions of HoP
Material things are potentially intelligible; they must be made actually so.
The strongest sense of design that arguments from irreducible complexity &c. could show is coordinated assembly. Moving from this to intelligence can only be done on the basis of how final causes are involved in the assembly. It is true that assembly is an explanation different in character from explanation by law or by chance, but, first, it is not inconsistent with either, and, second, we know that natural things can coordinately assemble things (e.g., cells assemble things); even if one holds that ultimately this traces back to intelligent cause, at any given stage going back it si possible that there was such natural assembly.
History of science requires philosophy to mediate between historical explanation and scientific discovery.
Recovery, Escape, and Consolation (Tolkien) as spiritual discipline for spiritual beginners.
-> Tolkien is talking about creative fantasy, but note that these purposes can be served by other things (e.g., paintings, music, Chesterton's essays) where these either have a fantasy component or something analogous to it.
->Escape, Recovery, & Consolation in the Mass (it is Creative Art invoking Eucatastrophe that makes the connection)
Any argument can be rejected. It is the price of rejection that is the interesting thing.
Every invitation to Hell is always under the aspect of great good.
In venial sin we tend toward the creature as means & thus are not prevented from still having God in view as our primary end, & the creature is itself a means that does not rule out God as our end.
To be blessed is to be in some way untouched by death; and the Beatitudes show ways that, in Christ, we can become so.
Prometheus intersected with Hippolytus
The most essential thing to have in almost any ecclesastical matter is a good sense of proportion; histrionics is the foe of every true ecclesiology.
patience : fortitude :: continence : chastity
ecclesiological hypochondria
Be on your guard against all kinds of pleonexia; put them to death with the old man.
The chief forms of sin against one's nature are deceit and violence.
Canonization of saints expresses the principle that God not only makes the just & Christ-like so, but often makes them conspicuous so as to serve as an example to others.
- imitation of saints (I Thess 1:6-7; Eph 5:1; Phil 3:17)
What cannot be expressed poetically is imperfectly understood.
In Christ all petitions of the Paternoster are fulfilled: the name of God is hallowed, His Kingdom come, His will done on earth as in heaven; in Him we have from God our bread for the day, forgiveness as we forgive, protection from trial, and deliverance from evil. Our prayer to God is Christ, the fulfillment of our petitions Christ, and thus both our prayer and its fulfillment are infinitely greater than we can imagine.
To pray Christ is to receive Christ.
Without ascent to God there is no understanding of divine things.
Scripture as the paraclesis of the Paraclete
the potential parts of prudence in the study of Scripture
If the open question argument shows anything, it shows that good as such is not participated good. Thus one should focus on notes of participation instead.
The degree to which law and liberty are opposed is a measure of the degree of imperfection in the law.
The Magisterium has only three functions: to encourage Christian charity, to oppose spiritual violence, and to oppose spiritual fraud. Al authoritative actions of the Church fulfill one or more of these functions.
analogy accounts of induction vs division accounts of induction
Gentiles can be grafted on to Israel by being united to Christ Jesus, who was a participant in the covenant of Israel.
catechesis by synousia & catechesis by study
Phil 4:8 as the touchstone of catholicity
I Cor 3:23 & catholicity
wonder leading to awe, and wonder leading to perplexity
the analogy between law and grace as external principles of action
Where our pursuit of true goods is not refined there is no education.
sexual desire as a sign of contingency of being
authority, continuity, & moderation as the three key features of government
Mutuum adiutorium is a secondary rather than primary end of marriage because it is an end of marriage insofar as marriage falls under the genus of friendship, not insofar as its specific difference is concerned. And remedium concupiscentiae is a tertiary end of marriage because it is an accidental rather than essential one, albeit a stable one, arising from the existence of marriage in a world with concupiscence.
reason -> ability to delight in incongruity -> risibility
Conversion, like creation, begins with the Spirit of God brooding over the darkness, and then there is light, and gradual distinction, and the end of it is peace.
The merits of the saints are the merits of Christ. On the Cross He merits through Himself in the Great Work; in teh saints He merits through their participation in Him in many small works; but all is the merit of Christ through His body on the Cross and through His Body of the Church.
Different kinds of necessity yield different kinds of demostration.
Freedom of indifference is merely the will's contribution to personal freedom.
Love is an instinct of reason.
Catechesis is a touring of the boundaries of one's inheritance.
The only counterexamples that matter are those that remain counterexamples in light of all relevant truths. This is always the weakness of arguments based on counterexamples: much of the real work is done by assumptions or principles of relevance.
Human good is scaffolded.
The true aim of teaching is to aid the student in attending to transcendental matters - matters of truth, of goodness, of beauty, of nobility.
The weakness of eclecticism is that it is an accidental unity, not an integral one. But it may approximate the unity of truth.
Humility is the foundation of sincere life.
Is 26 & the resurrection fo the dead
The Plowman Is 28: 23-29
John the Baptist heralds (Is 40:3) the revelation of the glory of the Lord, which mankind shall see (40:5), so that one may proclaim the good news, "Here is your God!" (40:9), the Lord who comes with power (40:10) to be a shepherd to his flock (40:11).
beatitude as gaudium de veritate
reason -> word -> social life
Love alone can find a third way between the legalist and the laxist.
"What sensible light is to the eye, God's Word is to the soul." Basil Ad Eun. 2.16
the holy maiden graceful-made
Rm 15:27 & pro-Jewish policy
"The experience of freedom goes hand in hand with the experience of truth." Wojtyla
philosophizing with pictorial clue
The members of the Church regrow by redintegration.
absorbing lawfulness from music and poetry
Because it is in the image of God, and insofar as it is, the human person exceeds human comprehension.
Consulting intuitions is like casting runes and reading them; they must be interpreted, put in context, and what goes into the interpretation may be foolish or wise, arbitrary or indicative of reason and sensitivity to contextual cues, balanced or overly influenced by prejudice, with a narrow or broad understanding of the the possible range of interpretation.
Everyone loves condemnations of hypocrites because no one thinks they are hypocrites themselves.
In a fundamental sense the whole human race has as its universal destiny Christ; but conventions of religious freedom frlow from this universal destination of man in much the way conventions of private property flow from the universal destination of goods.
revelation's reveille
Christianity saves human societies by directing itself to individuals. (Rosmini)
Zen as a regard for the limit of thought
Is 50:1-3 as prophecy of faith
Marriage is not mere procreation, but an institution of union suitable for procreation, a government of sorts.
matrimony as threefold sacrament - naturae, legis, gratiae
prayer as a way of being particeps Creatoris
Sikhism is a philosophical and poetic outworking of the idea of assimilation to God as True Lord and Truth and Lover of Truth. "Those who know the Truth are absorbed in Truth." "The practice of Truth is the essence of the Shabad." "Through the Guru's teachings Truth becomes pleasing to the mind." "When one dwells in Truth all actions become True." "Whether there is Truth in the heart one becomes true and obtains the True Lord." "They gather Truth, remain always in Truth, and love the True Name." "Let Truth and continuous remembrance of God be your prayer."
Matrimony and holy orders are alike in being simultaneously acts of human and of divine reason.
the participation of the laity in the priestly, prophetic, and princely munera of Christ
munus in tria munera Christi
priestly: by the sacrifices of virtue, prayer, & praise
prophetic: by spreading the truth of Christ
princely: by self-discipline, stewardship * preference for common over private good
sacramental repentance as slow adaptation
Justification is a manifestation of the justice of God. (Rm 3:21-25)
Marriage is
a friendship
of pleasure
of use
of virtue
instituted
in itself as a covenant
by consent
with standards of faithfulness
by God
with recognition from the community
for the purpose of procreation
in the having of children
in the raising of children
the Church at Massah and Meribah
Socratic munus
Honor is a shadow of virtue, respectability a shadow of honor, and tolerance a shadow of respecability; in each a trace or outline is kept, but precision and clarity is lost.
Part of being true to a person is being true that person's nature.
justice, honor, respectability, tolerance, and force in the society that is marriage
Biological processes have roles in the work of living according to practical reason.
Usury is opposed to civic friendship.
By charity, justice and honor and respectability and tolerance are made one.
Only in terms of something infinite in some way can all things be explained.
The character we receive at baptism is that through which Christ is rendered perceptible.
Divine mysteries are intelligible in every respect but infinite in their intelligibility.
Max Muller talked about the 'theogonic capacity of things, and argued that some things, like a stone, or a dog, have no such capacity, since they are too limited for us to see them open out on a sublime beyond. But poets know better, for they explore what Muller calls the theogonic capacity of things as part of their art; and a stone, a dog, yea, a mote of dust, has some seed or sign of the infinite in it, a seed or sign that a true poet can find and describe.
the li of liturgy, the de of episcopal authority.
aristarchic, timarchic, oligarchic, demarchic, and tyrannic poetry
the unitive function of speech
Actions between friends are communicative.
What contemporary philosophers call intentionality is signification.
