Joy

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

Page 219 of 299 · 20 per page

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  BEDE. Because the spirit of the Virgin rejoices in the eternal Godhead of the same Jesus. (i. e. the Saviour,) whose flesh is formed in the womb by a temporal conception. AMBROSE. The soul of Mary therefore magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God, because with soul and spirit devoted to the Father and the Son, she worships with a pious affection the one God from whom are all things. But let every one have the spirit of Mary, so that he may rejoice in the Lord. If according to the flesh there is one mother of Christ, yet, according to faith, Christ is the fruit of all. For every soul receives the word of God if only he be unspotted and free from sin, and preserves it with unsullied purity. THEOPHYLACT. But he magnifies God who worthily follows Christ, and now that he is called Christian, lessens not the glory of Christ by acting unworthily, but does great and heavenly things; and then the Spirit (that is, the anointing of the Spirit) shall rejoice, (i. e. make him to prosper,) and shall not be withdrawn, so to say, and put to death. BASIL. (ubi sup.) But if at any time light shall have crept into his heart, and loving God and despising bodily things he shall have gained the perfect standing of the just, without any difficulty shall he obtain joy in the Lord. ORIGEN. But the soul first magnifies the Lord, that it may afterwards rejoice in God; for unless we have first believed, we can not rejoice. 1:4848. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. GREEK EXPOSITOR. (Isidore.) She gives the reason why it becomes her to magnify God and to rejoice in Him, saying, For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden; as if she said, “He Himself foresaw, therefore I did not look for Him.” I was content with things lowly, but now am I chosen unto counsels unspeakable, and raised up from the earth unto the stars. AUGUSTINE. (Pseudo-Aug. Serm. de Assumpt 208.) O true lowliness, which hath borne God to men, hath given life to mortals, made new heavens and a pure earth, opened the gates of Paradise, and set free the souls of men. The lowliness of Mary was made the heavenly ladder, by which God descended upon earth. For what does regarded mean but “approved?” For many seem in my sight to be lowly, but their lowliness is not regarded by the Lord. For if they were truly lowly, their spirit would rejoice not in the world, but in God.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  § 287. And as to the second point, note that when Aristotle wished to show that soul was the life-principle in things that five, he divided these into grades; which are not the same as those different kinds of vital activity whence we get our division of the powers of the soul. For, since all things that sense also desire, desire or appetition does not constitute a distinct grade of animate being; so we are left with only four such grades. § 288. Then, at ‘In plants there is only’, he shows the interconnection of the powers of the soul, thus explaining what he said previously, that all these powers are in some things, some of them in tome, and only one in some others. Here we have to consider that the completeness of the Universe requires that there should be no gaps in its order, that in Nature there should everywhere be a gradual development from the less to the more perfect. Hence, in the Metaphysics, BookVIII, Aristotle likens the nature of things to numbers; which increase by tiny degrees, one by one. Thus among living things there are some, i.e. plants, which have only the vegetative capacity,—which, indeed, they must have because no living being could maintain an existence in matter without the vegetative activities. Next are the animals, with sensitivity as well as vegetative life; and sensitivity implies a third power, appetition, which itself divides into three: into desire, in the stricter sense, which springs from the concupiscible appetite; anger, corresponding to the irascible appetite—both of these being in the sensitive part and following sense-knowledge; and finally will, which is the intellectual appetite and follows intellectual apprehension. § 289. That appetition exists in all animals he demonstrates in two ways. (1) All animals have at least one sense, touch; but where there is any sensation there is pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow. Now while joy and sorrow seem to spring from inward apprehension, pain and pleasure come from external sensations, especially from touch. But joy and sorrow necessarily imply some sweet or disagreeable object, i.e. something pleasant or painful. For everything touched is either congenial to the one touching, and then it gives pleasure; or uncongenial, and then it gives pain. But whatever can feel pleasure and pain can desire the pleasant. Since then all animals, without exception, have a sense of touch, all can desire.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  As for the heavenly bodies, their substance is not utilized for the support of man’s corruptible life, and does not enter into the substance of the human frame. However, they serve man in the sense that by their beauty and enormous size they show forth the excellence of their Creator. For this reason man is often exhorted in Sacred Scripture to contemplate the heavenly bodies, so as to be moved by them to sentiments of reverence toward God. This is exemplified in Isaiah 40:26: “Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these things.” And although, in the state of consummated perfection, man is not brought to the knowledge of God by a consideration of sensible creatures, since he sees God as He is in Himself, still it is pleasing and enjoyable for one who knows the cause to observe how the likeness of the cause shines forth in the effect. Thus a consideration of the divine goodness as mirrored in bodies, and particularly in the heavenly bodies, which appear to have a pre-eminence over other bodies, gives joy to the saints. Moreover, the heavenly bodies have some sort of essential relationship with the human body under the aspect of efficient causality, just as the elements have under the aspect of material causality: man generates man, and the sun, too, has some part in this operation. This, then, is another reason why the heavenly bodies should remain in existence. The doctrine here advocated follows, not only from the relationship which various bodies have with man, but also from an examination of the natures of the material creatures we have been discussing. No object wanting in an intrinsic principle of incorruptibility ought to remain in the state that is characterized by incorruption. The heavenly bodies are incorruptible in whole and in part. The elements are incorruptible as wholes, but not as parts. Man is incorruptible in part, namely, in his rational soul, but not as a whole because the composite is dissolved by death. Animals and plants and all mixed bodies are incorruptible neither in whole nor in part. In the final state of incorruption, therefore, men and the elements and the heavenly bodies will fittingly remain, but not other animals or plants or mixed bodies.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  By these seven loaves are understood the seven breads with which the Lord feeds His faithful ones, that they may not fail in the way of righteousness; but in their strength they may come to the table of heavenly glory. The first is the most sweet effusion of tears from the desire of glory, Psal. 42:3, “My tears have been my meat day and night.” S. August., “Tears were flowing to me, and it was well for me in regard to them.” The second, the ineffable consolation in the words of God, S. Matt. 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Jer. 15:16, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of Hosts.” The third, the ineffable delight in the partaking of the Eucharist, S. John 6:51, “The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Wisdom 16:20, “And gavest them bread from heaven, prepared without labour, having in it all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste.” The fourth, the admirable sweetness from the presence of Christ, S. John 6:51, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven.” For it is evident that the just ever have Christ to dwell in their hearts; how great is the happiness of him who ever has Christ dwelling in his heart. Ephes. 3:16, 17, “That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” The fifth, the foretaste of eternal blessedness, Psal. 78:25, “Man did eat angels’ food.” S. August., “Brought in within I know not to what sweetness, which if it is perfected in me, I know not what eternal life is, unless it be that.” The sixth, in the possession of joy by every virtue, because it is joy to have so many gifts of the Holy Spirit, and those twelve fruits which the Apostle enumerated—Gal. 5:22, 23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”—which are therefore called fruits, because they more refresh the mind than can be expressed by words. Prov. 9:5, “Come, eat of My bread.” The seventh, the exultation by the testimony of conscience, Prov. 15:15, Vulg., “A secure mind is like a continual feast.” 2 Cor. 1:12, “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience.”

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  Again. To grieve for a good is like desiring an evil: for the former results from a good being deemed an evil, while the latter results from an evil being deemed a good. Now anger is the desire of another’s evil in revenge. Therefore anger is far removed from God according to its specific nature; not only because it is an effect of sorrow, but also because it is a desire for revenge on account of sorrow arising from a harm inflicted. Also, whatsoever passions are species or effects of the above, are equally removed from God. CHAPTER XC THAT IN GOD ARE DELIGHT AND JOY, NOR ARE THEY INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE DIVINE PERFECTIONTHERE are, however, certain passions which, though unbecoming to God as passions, nevertheless contain nothing in their specific nature incompatible with the divine perfection. Among these are joy and delight. For joy has for its object a present good. Wherefore neither by reason of its object which is a good, nor by reason of the way in which it is referred to that object, which is actually possessed, is joy, according to its specific nature, incompatible with the divine perfection. Hence it is evident that joy or delight, properly speaking, is in God. Because just as good and evil apprehended are the object of the sensible appetite, so are they the object of the intellective appetite. For it belongs to both to ensue good and to avoid evil, whether so in truth, or in the estimation: except that the object of the intellective appetite is more universal than that of the sensitive appetite, since the intellective appetite regards good or evil simply, whereas the sensitive appetite regards good or evil according to the senses; even as the object of the intellect is more universal than that of the senses. Now the operations of the appetite take their species from their objects. Accordingly we find in the intellective appetite, which is the will, operations specifically similar to those of the sensitive appetite, differing in this, that in the sensitive appetite they are passions, on account of its connection with a bodily organ, whereas in the intellective appetite they are pure operations. For just as by the passion of fear which, in the sensitive appetite, one shuns a future evil, so, without passion, the intellective appetite has a like operation. Since then joy and delight are not inapplicable to God according to their species, but only as passions, while they are in the will according to their species, but not as passions, it follows that they are not absent from the divine will. Again. Joy and delight are a kind of repose of the will in the object of its willing. Now God is supremely at rest in Himself, Who is the principal object of His will, as finding all sufficiency in Himself. Therefore by His will He rejoices and delights supremely in Himself.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  I answer that, As Jerome says (Cont. Vigilant. 6), the error of Vigilantius consisted in saying that “while we live, we can pray one for another; but that after we are dead, none of our prayers for others can be heard, seeing that not even the martyrs’ prayers are granted when they pray for their blood to be avenged.” But this is absolutely false, because, since prayers offered for others proceed from charity, as stated above ([3024]AA[7],8), the greater the charity of the saints in heaven, the more they pray for wayfarers, since the latter can be helped by prayers: and the more closely they are united to God, the more are their prayers efficacious: for the Divine order is such that lower beings receive an overflow of the excellence of the higher, even as the air receives the brightness of the sun. Wherefore it is said of Christ (Heb. 7:25): “Going to God by His own power . . . to make intercession for us” [*Vulg.: ‘He is able to save for ever them that come to God by Him, always living to make intercession for us.’]. Hence Jerome says (Cont. Vigilant. 6): “If the apostles and martyrs while yet in the body and having to be solicitous for themselves, can pray for others, how much more now that they have the crown of victory and triumph.” Reply to Objection 1: The saints in heaven, since they are blessed, have no lack of bliss, save that of the body’s glory, and for this they pray. But they pray for us who lack the ultimate perfection of bliss: and their prayers are efficacious in impetrating through their previous merits and through God’s acceptance. Reply to Objection 2: The saints impetrate what ever God wishes to take place through their prayers: and they pray for that which they deem will be granted through their prayers according to God’s will. Reply to Objection 3: Those who are in Purgatory though they are above us on account of their impeccability, yet they are below us as to the pains which they suffer: and in this respect they are not in a condition to pray, but rather in a condition that requires us to pray for them. Reply to Objection 4: It is God’s will that inferior beings should be helped by all those that are above them, wherefore we ought to pray not only to the higher but also to the lower saints; else we should have to implore the mercy of God alone. Nevertheless it happens sometime that prayers addressed to a saint of lower degree are more efficacious, either because he is implored with greater devotion, or because God wishes to make known his sanctity.

• From The Swimming-Pool Library (1988)

  ‘Quite all right by me,’ Rupert said. ‘Has he done something wrong, then?’ ‘No, no,’ I laughed naturally. ‘But he doesn’t want his mother to know he’s here—just like you, really. So if we don’t tell anybody at all, then she’ll never find out.’ ‘Good,’ said Rupert. He was clearly dissatisfied. We went into the sitting-room. ‘I think it would be better if you stayed in the bedroom, darling,’ I said to Arthur. ‘This child’s mother is coming round. We’ve agreed to keep it all a secret.’ He left the room directly, and I heard him shut the bedroom door. ‘I expect Mummy will be here any moment,’ I said. My nephew was determined and casual. ‘Can we go on looking at the pictures?’ he asked. ‘All right,’ I agreed. Then another thought struck me. ‘How long were you here before I arrived?’ ‘I was here for about twenty minutes—before you arrived.’ ‘Perhaps best to pretend to Mummy that I found you on the doorstep. Otherwise she’ll wonder how you got in—or why I didn’t ring her sooner.’ He looked at his large, rather adult watch. ‘Yes, that’s fine,’ he said. We sat down side by side, and I lifted the album on to my knee. It was one of a set in which my grandfather had had all his loose and various collection of snaps, taken over a long life, mounted. He had had more volumes bound than he needed and gave one to me. It had the generous proportions of an Edwardian album, many, many broad dark grey pages, tied in with thick silk cords which knotted at the edge outside, the whole protected with weighty boards covered with green leather, tooled with flowers around the border, and with a pompous but impressive ‘B’ beneath a coronet in the centre. ‘How far did you get?’ I asked, offering to open it halfway through. ‘Let’s start again,’ Rupert urged. We’d once spent an hour looking through this album together, and I had had the impression that he was committing it to memory, working out the connections. It was a sort of book of life to him, and I was the authoritative expounder of its text. The early part was fairly random, this scion of the family photograph collection being merely the duplicates and duds. There was me with a cap and a brace on my teeth, at my tother; there were Philippa and I in our bathing costumes in Brittany (a windy day by the look of it); me in my shorts in the garden at Marden, my grandfather and my mother in deckchairs behind, looking cross. ‘There’s Great Grandpa, look: I don’t think he was in a very good mood, do you?’ Rupert giggled, and banged his heels against the front of the sofa. ‘Then it’s Winchester.’ ‘Hooray!’ cried Rupert, who, though an independent child, was still strongly patriotic about such things as the school from which, one day, he would doubtless run away.

• From Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland (2005)

  looking straight at it, is legitimately bright. There is momentum at North-Linn again. Momentum for Dan, too. And it is clear, as each boy is asked to speak, that Dan himself is perhaps the least emotional about seeing his high school career in the rearview mirror. He just can’t bring himself to think of it as anything other than the beginning, and maybe what makes Dan the kind of winner he is is the fact that he whirs to the cadence of an inner clock that no one else can hear. Dan wanted to be a four-time champion, dreamed of it. He visualized it, of course. He saw it coming in the moments leading up to the final high school match of his life. But he also bore it as a weight, as its own form of gravity. It was a burden lifted off the entire family—a thrilling thing, of course, but a burden nonetheless. Doug says he felt it, “usually in my stomach,” but the result was just so sweet, especially the part back downstairs at the Barn, the private moment with just the coaches and wrestlers, when Chris burst into tears, so overcome by the enormity of the thing. Now, not even eighteen hours removed from the moment of his greatest achievement, Daniel LeClere is done reminiscing. It’s time to move on. “The last four years have been great,” he says. “I’ve got to thank my parents, my dad for getting me started...It’s probably not as emotional for me, knowing that I’m not done in this sport. I’m just getting started. Thanks, everybody, for supporting me.” He was never much of a speaker, but the applause is warm and full all the same, coming from the fans who love the team so much and who don’t mind leaking genuine tears at seeing the seniors go. Just last year at this time, Mike and Kathy Fisher had to deal with the reality that their older son, Adam, was finished—and brutally so, failing to qualify out of the district tournament and seeing it all end right there. Now Ben is going, too, and during his emotional speech to his parents—“It was worth it, huh?”—it is all Mike can do to keep it together. But he does, and for a reason: With the kids’ speeches concluded, the soon-to-be-former wrestling parent stands up from the bleachers and walks to the floor. “I think it’s time for us to start a new tradition here,” Mike says, and with that he calls all the eighth-grade wrestlers out of the stands, the guys who are going to go out for the varsity and JV teams next season. One by one, Mike has each boy walk through the line of outgoing seniors, shake their hands, and promise to try to maintain the increasingly strong presence that North-Linn

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  It is God who is characteristically the God of sōtēria, the God of ‘salvation’ (Ps. 18.46; 38.22; 51.14; 88.1). When the power of man is helpless, the sōtēria of God steps in. Man’s extremity is always God’s opportunity. (vii) Lastly, we may note that this word sōtēria has a way of appearing in the midst of triumphant lyrical passages of singing thanksgiving. It appears in the Song of Moses after the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex. 15.2), in the Song of David after his deliverance from Saul (II Sam. 22.3, 36, 47, 51), in the Song of Hannah when she knew she was to have a son (I Sam. 2.1). It makes the man who experiences it sing for very joy. So, then, the NT writers when they used sōtēria entered into a rich heritage, for already it described the saving, preserving, providential power of God in the crises of history and the crises of the individual life, a care which does not stop with this world, and a care which makes the man who is wrapped round by it sing with joy. In the New Testament Two of the older uses are repeated in the NT. (i) Sōtēria is used of ‘deliverance from enemies’ (Luke I. 69, 71; Acts 7.25; Jude 25). It is to be noted that all these passages have a characteristically OT background. (ii) Both noun and verb are used of ‘bodily health and safety’ in the NT. They are used of Paul’s preservation in shipwreck (Acts 27.20, 34) and of Noah’s construction of the ark for the saving of himself and of his family (Heb.II. 7). But, having noted these older usages, we must now come to the distinctive and characteristic NT usages of these words. (i) Sōtēria is ‘the aim of God’ and ‘the purpose of Jesus Christ’. The NT knows nothing of an angry God who has to be pacified into forgiving men. It knows nothing of a God whose attitude to men has somehow to be changed from wrath to mercy. In the NT the whole initiative of sōtēria is with God. God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain sōtēria (I Thess. 5.9). God has from the beginning chosen men to ‘salvation’ (II Thess. 2.13). God will have all men to be ‘saved’ (I Tim. 2.4). It is the long-suffering of God which makes sōtēria possible (II Pet. 3.15). So much so is sōtēria a prerogative of God that it is ascribed to him in the doxologies of the Revelation (Rev. 7.10; 19.1). It is God himself who has ‘saved’ us (II Tim. 1.9). Christ Jesus came into the world to ‘save’ sinners (I Tim. 1.15). He came not to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be ‘saved’ (John 3.17). The prime mover in sōtēria is God. (ii) For this very reason sōtēria may be refused.

• From Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family (1901)

  "You must become a good businessman and earn a lot of money! Is that what you want?” And little Johann answered: “Yes.” Now and then, when the family was asked to sit down with the senator and Aunt Antonie or Uncle Christian, as was their old habit, began to make fun of poor Aunt Klothilde and to talk to her in her own long-drawn-out, humbly friendly language, she could it happened that Hanno, under the influence of the uncommonly heavy red wine, got into the same tone for a moment and turned to Aunt Klothilde with some mockery. Then Thomas Buddenbrook laughed - a loud, hearty, encouraging, almost grateful laugh, like a man who has been bestowed a most gratifying, cheerful satisfaction, yes, he began to support his son and join in the banter himself: and yet he had he actually used this tone against the poor relatives for years and days. The harmlessness that prevailed felt mean. He felt it with reluctance, with that desperate reluctance that he had to counteract his scrupulous nature in practical life every day when he could not get over it, how it was possible to recognize a situation, to see through it and to take advantage of it without shame... But to take advantage of the situation without shame, he said to himself, that's the ability to live! Oh, how glad, how happy, how hopefully delighted he was at every little sign of this vitality that little Johann showed! Third chapter For some years the Buddenbrooks had weaned themselves from the further summer trips which had been the custom in the past, and even when last spring the senator had followed the wish of visiting her old father in Amsterdam and, after such a long time, having a couple of duos with him again to play the violin, her husband only gave his consent in a rather taciturn manner. But it was mainly because of Hanno's health that Gerda, little Johann and Miss Jungmann moved to the Kurhaus in Travemünde every year for the duration of the summer holidays... Summer vacation at the sea! Did anyone far and wide understand what happiness that meant? After the heavy and troubled monotony of countless school days, a peaceful and carefree seclusion for four weeks, filled with the smell of seaweed and the sound of the gentle surf... Four weeks, a time that could not be overlooked and measured at the beginning, at the end of which it was impossible to believe and to speak of the end of which was a blasphemous rudeness. Little Johann never understood how this or that teacher could bring himself to use phrases like: "We'll be here after the holidays carry on and move on to this and that...' After the holidays! He still seemed to be looking forward to it, this incomprehensible man in the shiny worsted coat! After the holidays! Was that even a thought!

• From Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy (2018)

  “Well, I finally know why. I wasn’t aware of it until tonight, but while I was speaking I realized I have held a belief close to my heart and I have guarded it like Fort Knox. I realized I don’t trust men. It started with my dad, then the youth pastor added to it, and then when we went through the infidelity and the porn you added to it. But I realized that part of me needed you to do some of the things you did. It’s what I believed men do. I believed it so deeply that unknowingly I may have played a part in our marital difficulties.” “Kaycie, no, I can’t let you own my mistakes, not one drop of it.” “James, I understand, but for me to really heal I have to own the fact I have held that belief in my heart and even Scripture says, “As a man or woman believes so shall it be.” I looked for ways to push you away. I wanted an excuse to not be intimate with you. I wanted you to leave me alone instead of sharing myself with you. I have withheld from you. And that’s on me.” Tears filled her eyes; truth felt hard but freeing. “James, I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to give myself to you like it’s our first time together. Would you make love to me?” James cocked his head to the side as his eyes widened. “Um, yeah, I would be thrilled to.” The tease of his smile warmed Kaycie’s heart. She knew he was a changed man and no longer wanted the type of sex where his head was filled with images of other women and where he wasn’t present but was using her body for a sexual release. She could feel the difference in him and had felt it for months. He was a changed man and she was a changed woman. The hell they went through, the trauma, had led them both to face the brokenness of their lives and now there was redemption. With this new truth, Kaycie stood up, reached for his hand, and led him to the bedroom. The next morning Kaycie quietly wrapped her robe around her contented body and headed to the back porch for a moment by herself before James woke and the kids came home from her mother’s house. She lifted her eyes to the vast Texas morning sky, slashed with emerging colors defining the day ahead. “So God, this is what I have been missing all of these years? Wow, I had no idea this is what you had in mind for a husband and wife. Pure sexual joy—thank you for the work you have done to bring us to this place. Thank you for taking what the enemy planned to use to destroy us and using it for good.”

• From Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland (2005)

  But for today, in this time and place, it is just about as good as it’s going to get. This will be the day when Madison Sackett, a 112-pound freshman for whom Brad, Doug and Larry have great hope, gets over his disappointment at being pinned in the semifinal and wins his last match to qualify for the district tournament. This will be the day when Tyler Burkle looks unstoppable, pinning his way through his 152-pound bracket. It will be a day when Kirk Schmidt comes back after getting pinned in his first match and ends his season by pinning his final two heavyweight opponents. Despite having no chance to move on to district competition, Kirk stays focused enough to take fifth place and win points for his school. It’s worth the trip to Starmont to see the bear hug in which he envelops Doug LeClere coming off the mat after that last match, and the ovation he receives upon passing by the North-Linn portion of the bleachers. Good feelings in packages large and small. And it’s Ben Fisher’s day. He is in control throughout, and he plows through with a 13–0 major decision in the semifinal and a completely satisfying 7–2 victory over Alex Riniker of East Buchanan—“East Buc” to its supporters—in the final. He’s into it. For Ben’s dad, Mike, that part—Ben’s focus—is almost always the question of the moment. Mike brought the family to the Marion area about a decade ago, and not long after that he sought land out in the country, taking the Fishers away from the Borschels and into the North-Linn district. From the beginning, Mike knew he had athletes in Ben and his older brother, Adam. Adam, in fact, was a strong wrestler for North-Linn, whose exit from competition his senior year is still spoken of with genuine sadness; he was leading a match solidly at the district tournament when he suddenly got spun onto his back and pinned by a wrestler whom he had beaten earlier in the season. It was over for Adam just like that, after a career at North-Linn that included a hundred victories and more than eighty pins. “There was not a dry eye in the house that day,” says Mike Hageman, the North-Linn fan who manages to make most of the duals and all of the tournaments despite not having a child on the wrestling team. “It was so awful for the kid. He was a great wrestler, too.” So Ben has Adam’s shadow there, his legacy not only of tremendous accomplishment but also of a dramatic exit. More dangerous, he has the LeCleres, standard-bearers for the kind of performance he believes he should be able to replicate. “He thinks he should be that ,” Mike Fisher says, pointing over to the action one mat removed from where we stand, where Dan LeClere is warming up. “You see the issue.” But for this day, all is well.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  Moreover. An intellectual nature desires and wills above all that which is most perfect in it, and this is its happiness: and the most perfect thing in every being is its most perfect operation: for power and habit are perfected by operation; wherefore the Philosopher says that happiness is a perfect operation. Now the perfection of operation depends on four things. First, on its genus, namely that it abide in the operator: and by an operation abiding in the operator I mean one by which nothing else is done besides the operation, for instance to see or to hear. For the like are perfections of those things whose operations they are, and can be something ultimate, because they are not directed to something made as their end. On the other hand, an operation or action from which there follows something done besides the action itself, is a perfection of the thing done, not of the doer, and is compared to the doer as its end. Hence such an operation of the intellectual nature, is not beatitude or happiness. Secondly, on the principle of operation, that it should be an operation of the highest power. Hence happiness in us is not by an operation of the senses, but by an operation of the intellect perfected by a habit. Thirdly, on the object of the operation. For this reason ultimate happiness in us consists in understanding the highest object of our intellect. Fourthly, on the form of operation, namely that the operation should be performed perfectly, easily, constantly, and pleasurably. Now such is the operation of God. For He is intelligent; and His intellect is the sovereign power, nor needs to be perfected by a habit, since it is perfect in itself, as we proved above. He also understands Himself, Who is the highest of intelligible objects, perfectly, without any difficulty, and pleasurably. Therefore He is happy. Again. Every desire is set at rest by happiness; because once it is possessed nothing remains to be desired, for it is the last end. Accordingly He must be happy, since He is perfect in all things that can be desired; wherefore Boethius says that happiness is a state made perfect by the assemblage of all good things. Now such is the divine perfection that it contains every perfection with simplicity, as shown above. Therefore He is truly happy. Again. As long as a person lacks that which he needs, he is not yet happy: for his desire is not yet set at rest. Whosoever, therefore, is self-sufficient, needing nothing, is happy. Now it was proved above that God needs not other things, since His perfection depends on nothing outside Him: nor does He will other things for His own sake as their end, as though He needed them, but merely because this is befitting His goodness. Therefore He is happy.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  Having read the enormously long letter from be- ginning to end. the lady was the more astonished as she had never suspected the captain's love for her. The diamond caused her much perplexity, for she knew not what to do with it. After thinking over the matter all that day, and dreaming of it at night, she rejoiced that she could abstam from replying for want of a messenger, saying to herself that as the bearer of the letter had taken such pains on the writer's behalf, she ought to spare him the mortification of such a reply as she had resolved to give him, but which she now thought fit to reserve till the captain's return. The diamond was still a cause of much embarrassment to her, as it was not her custom to adorn herself at anyone's e.xpense but her husband's. At last her good sense suggested to her that she could not employ it better than for the relief of the captain's conscience, and she instantly despatched it, by the hands of one of her servants, to the captain's forlorn wife, to whom she wrote as follows, in the as- sumed character of a nun of Tarrascon : — " Madam, — Your husband passed this way a little before he embarked. He confessed, and received his Creator like a good Christian, and declared to me a fact which lay heavy on his conscience, namely, his regret for not having loved you as he ought. He begged me 128 1fi£- nEPTAMERON OF THE \Ajvel i^. at his departure to send you this letter with this diamond, which he begs you to keep for his sake, assuring you that if God brings him back safe and sound, he will make amends for the past by all the love that you can desire. This diamond will be for you a pledge of his word. I ask of you on his behalf the aid of your good prayers ; for all my life he shall have part in mine." When the captain's wife received this letter and the diamond, it may well be imagined how she wept with joy and sorrow : joy at being loved by her husband, and sorrow at being deprived of his presence. She kissed the ring a thousand times, washing it with her tears, and praised God for having restored her husband's affection to her at the close of her days, and when she least expected it. The nun who, under God, had wrought such a blessing for her was not forgotten in her grateful acknowledgments. She replied to her by the same man, who made his mistress laugh heartily when he told her how the captain's wife had received her communication. The fair devotee congratulated herself on having got rid of the diamond in so pious a manner, and was as much rejoiced at having re-established the good understanding between the husband and wife as though she had gained a kingdom.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  2. From spiritual overpouring, or from the draught of Blood, there open out in the soul, as in a garden of God, leafy branches of holy words and sweet discourses. We have to flourish with flowers, and our branches have to grow in grace, because the elect, by drinking the Blood of Jesus, bring forth not only the flowers of virtues, but the leafy branches of good words; and this for a threefold grace: a, for the conversion of sinners; b, for the reconciliation of enemies; c, for the consolation of the sorrowful. Hence these watered trees bear three kinds of leaves: a, medicinal: b, very beautiful; c, green. a. The leaves of the tree of life in the Paradise of God are for the healing of the nations, that is, for the conversion of sinners, because the waters ever go forth from the sanctuary. Now the water of the sanctuary—the spiritual drinking of the Blood of Jesus—gives strength to the words of holy preachers for the saving of souls. b. Daniel tells us of the tree with lovely leaves, in whose shadow lay the beasts of the field, and in whose branches the birds of the air rested. He means to say that, under those lovely leaves, animals hostile to each other—as the wolf and the lamb, the dove and the eagle—dwell in peace together; for the words of the wise reconcile enemies. The melody of pipe and psalter, making a concord of sweet sounds, is far less than the melody of the tongue which makes peace between enemies. A gracious tongue is a tongue filled with much grace. c. The Psalmist says that he who has trust in God is like a water-side tree whose leaves are green. Now the green colour which we see in grass and leaves refreshes the weary eye and strengthens it. Hence by leaves of this kind the words of the good are signified, for they comfort the sad and the sorrowful. 3. From the spiritual overpouring and draught of the Precious Blood ripen, as in the garden of God, the fruits of good works. When God says that He will water the garden of His plants, and water abundantly the fruits of His meadow, He means that He will water the garden of the soul with the Blood of the Spouse, and inebriate it with the sweetness of Heaven by the fruit of good works. Thus the souls that have been watered with Blood bring forth the sweet fruit of good works to the benefit of their neighbour; but they themselves also eat these fruits in the heavenly reward. They make their gardens and eat the fruit thereof. This fruit of good works is threefold: 1, a good life; 2, great devotion; 3, joyful godliness. These three fruits will be dwelt on in the next Meditation, near the end. The Voice of the Holy Ghost

• From Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family (1901)

  Lebrecht Kröger also spoke. He allowed himself to remain seated, as that seemed even more accommodating, and only gesture politely with his head and hands while he offered his toast to the two ladies of the house, Mme Antoinette and the Consul. But when he had finished, when the pudding was almost eaten and the malmsey was running out, Mr. Jean Jacques Hoffstede rose slowly, with a throat clearing and with a general "Ah!" ... the children downstairs applauded with joy . "Yes, excusez ! I couldn't help it..." he said, lightly touching his pointed nose and pulling a piece of paper out of his coat pocket... A deep silence spread throughout the hall. The page he held in his hands was very colorful, and from an oval formed on the outside by red flowers and many golden flourishes, he read the words: »Occasionally the friendly participation in the happy inauguration of the newly acquired house with the Buddenbrook family. October 1835.« And then he turned around and began in his already somewhat trembling voice: Esteemed! - Do not miss May my humble song too close to you in these rooms, which heaven has given you. It's up to you, friend with silver hair, And your worthy wife, your children married couples, Be joyfully dedicated! Efficiency and cultivated beauty connected before our eyes, Venus Anadyomene And Vulcani busy hand. No gloomy future disturb happiness of your life, Grant each new day Always new bliss to you. Rejoice, infinitely rejoice Your future happiness will me. Whether I often renew the desire Become, my look tells you now. Farewell in the splendid house And keep valuable and dear The one in the low hermitage Wrote these lines today! – He bowed, and unanimous, enthusiastic applause broke out. "Charming, Hoffstede!" exclaimed old Buddenbrook. "Your health! No, that was lovely!« But when the consul drank with the poet, a very fine red colored her delicate complexion, because she had probably noticed the polite reverence he had paid her side with the "Venus Anadyomene" ... Seventh Chapter The general cheerfulness had now reached its peak, and Herr Koppen clearly felt the need to undo a few buttons on his waistcoat; but unfortunately that was not possible, because even the old gentlemen didn't allow themselves such things. Lebrecht Kröger was still sitting just as upright in his place as at the beginning of the meal, Pastor Wunderlich remained white and shapely, old Buddenbrook had reclined a little, but kept the finest decency, and only Justus Kröger was evidently a little drunk.

• From The Triumph of Christianity (2018)

  < 52 < Lecture 7  The Earliest Christian Missions ` This is seen in a famous chapter that occurs right after Paul’s conversion in chapter 9 but before he begins his mission. Chapter 10 describes a strange vision given to Peter. y In the vision, he sees a sheet filled with animals of all kinds, kosher and non-kosher, lowered from heaven. He then hears a voice from heaven instructing him to eat the animals. That’s a problem, since as a good Jew he follows the rules of kosher. But God tells him to eat the unclean food anyway. y That is a preface to what is to come. The narrative of Acts shows that God wants to break down the barriers between Jews and Gentiles, symbolized in this vision of non-kosher foods to be eaten. y Peter is told to take the message of Christ to a non-Jew, a Roman centurion named Cornelius, who is pious but uninstructed in the true faith. y Peter is reluctant, but he follows his divine orders, speaks with Cornelius and the gentiles with him, and proclaims to them the gospel. As he does so, the Holy Spirit comes down upon them, similar to the way it did on the apostles themselves at Pentecost, and they all convert. y Peter then baptizes them. He reports back to the other apostles in Jerusalem that now gentiles have begun to join the church. ` It is not long after this that Paul goes on his first missionary journey, traveling to major cities outside of Palestine. In the narrative, Paul always makes his first stop in his missionary efforts at the local synagogue, but Jews repeatedly reject his message of the crucified messiah. He is compelled to take his message to Gentiles, who are far more receptive. ` Within the narrative of Acts, this conversion of gentiles creates a huge conflict with other Christian leaders. The resolution of the conflict is one of the major themes of the book. y Many of the original Jewish converts in the book insist that to follow the Jewish messiah, a person has to follow the Jewish law as given by the Jewish God. Converts have to be or become Jewish.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. But according to the command of the law, on the same day He received the imposition of a name, as it follows, His name was called Jesus, which is interpreted Saviour. For He was brought forth for the salvation of the whole world, which by His circumcision He prefigured, as the Apostle says to the Colossians, “Ye are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the stripping off of the body of the flesh, to wit, the circumcision of Christ.” (Col. 2:11.) BEDE. That upon the day of His circumcision He also received the imposition of the name was likewise done in imitation of the old observances. For Abraham, who received the first sacrament (Gen. 17:5.) of circumcision, was on the day of his circumcision thought worthy to be blessed by the increase of his name. ORIGEN. But the name of Jesus, a glorious name and worthy of all honour, a name which is above every other, ought not first to be uttered by men, nor by them be brought into the world. Therefore significantly the Evangelist adds, which was called of the Angel, &c. BEDE. Of this name the elect also in their spiritual circumcision rejoice to be partakers, that as from Christ they are called Christians, so also from the Saviour they may be called saved, which title was given them of God not only before they were conceived through faith in the womb of the Church, but even before the world began. 2:22–2522. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; 23. (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) 24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. 25. And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was upon him. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. Next after the circumcision they wait for the time of purification, as it is said, And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were come.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  CHRYSOSTOM. Truly He has loosed her barrenness, a supernatural gift He has bestowed upon her, and the unfruitful rock has produced the green blade. He has taken away her disgrace, in that He has made her to bring forth. Hence it follows: In the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men. AMBROSE. For it is a shame among women not to receive that reward of marriage, which is the only cause of their being married. CHRYSOSTOM. (Homil. de Anna.) Her joy therefore is twofold. The Lord has taken away from her the mark of barrenness, and also given her an illustrious offspring. In the case of other births, the coming together of the parents only occurs; this birth was the effect of heavenly grace. BEDE. Now mystically by Zacharias may be signified the Jewish Priesthood, by Elisabeth the law itself; which, well administered by the teaching of the Priests, ought to have borne spiritual children to God, but was not able, because the Law made no one perfect. (Heb. 7:19, 1 Tim. 1:8.) Both were just, because the law is good, and the Priesthood for that time holy; both were well stricken in years, because at Christ’s coming both the Law and Priesthood were just bending to old age. Zacharias enters the temple, because it is the priest’s office to enter into the sanctuary of heavenly mysteries. There was a multitude without the doors, because the multitude cannot penetrate mysteries. When he places frankincense on the altar, he discovers that John will be born; for while the teachers are kindled with the flame of divine reading, they find the grace of God flow to them through Jesus: and this is done by an angel, for the Law was ordained by angels. (Gal. 3:19.) AMBROSE. But in one man the voice of the people was put to silence, because in one man the whole people was addressing God. For the word of God has come over to us, and in us is not silent. He is dumb who understands not the Law; for why should you think the man who knows not a sound, to be more dumb than him who knows not a mystery. The Jewish people are like to one beckoning, who cannot make his actions intelligible. BEDE. And yet Elisabeth conceives John, because the more inward parts of the Law abound with sacraments of Christ. She conceals her conception five months, because Moses in five books set forth the mysteries of Christ; or because the dispensation of Christ is represented by the words or deeds of the saints, in the five ages of the world. 1:26–2726. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27. To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

• From The Swimming-Pool Library (1988)

  This evening, as he was much brighter, I sat with Taha in close & utterly irregular comradeship & had him tell me about his family. I even told him a bit about mine, until he said that being British I must know Mr Mills, a missionary apparently, who comes from New York, & I recognised that our understandings were a trifle out of kilter. Finally I told him the story of Prince Ahmed; it was the one I had learnt most recently to tell after dinner, & a strange amusement & entrancement came over his features to hear me recite to him in my painfully correct Arabic, as if he had been some dignitary. But then the story too held him like a revelation. I made use of various props for the three magical gifts of the princes: for the flying carpet the old rush mat on the floor, for the spying-tube which showed whatever one desired my field-glasses, & for the apple which cured all ills the lime on the tray with my drink. He laughed with that delight which children show at certain well-worn jokes whose very repetition is a guarantee of pleasure & security, & I capered around, squatting on the mat, peering out of the window through the binoculars—though I saw not the Princess Nural-Nihar but birds coming down into the nim-trees, a stupendous sunset above the rocks, a girl loping home with a dog at her heels—& then wafting the lime under my nose & rolling my eyes as if it smelt divine. But all the gifts were of equal wondrousness, I explained, sitting solemnly down on the edge of the bed: and then, as I went on about the shooting of the arrows, & how the Princess wd be given to him who shot the furthest, the most exquisite thing happened. Taha slid his hand shyly across the blanket & clasped my own. I scarcely faltered as I spoke of Ahmed’s arrow, which going so far was assumed to have vanished so that he lost the Princess to his brother Ali, but I felt a squeezing in my chest & throat & hardly dared look at him as, all unconsciously, I made our two hands more comfortable together, interweaving his long fingers with my own. By a simple gesture I wd never have dared to make & without words which neither of us cd have said, he conveyed his trust in me, & holding my hand held on to a simple faith that all wd be well with Ahmed, wretched though his current state now was. And when the others had all turned home, I went on, saying that the arrow wd never be found & that they must make haste for the wedding-feast of Prince Ali & the Princess Nur-al-Nihar, Ahmed went on alone & lo he encountered the radiant fairy Peri-Banou & fell in love with her & married her & lived in happiness with her all the days of his life. Then Hassan was scuffling & waiting at the door, & Taha with less than innocence drew his hand away—