Poetic mnemonics…

Anapest (aka, antidactylus) is a short-short-long metrical foot used in poetry (and what Dr. Seuss normally used). This can be remembered as the "plop-plop-fiiiizzz" of an "antacid tablet".

Dactyl (Greek for "finger") is more or less the reverse of anapest, i.e., a long-short-short syllabic meter. This can be remembered by the structure of our own fingers: a long metacarpal followed by two short ones.

(I was mildly tickle to see the latter mnemonic on Wikipedia only after I had thought of it myself. Which makes my insight uniquely commonplace!)

$LIFE.00

"To ensure it is not wasted, life should be spent in moments, appraised in decades, and invested in eternity." –– Elliam Fakespeare

Wisdom from… [7–9 Mar]

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354–430): The fragrance of the Son

Every Christian is aware that this passage is usually understood of Christ our head. As evening drew near, the Lord yielded up his soul upon the cross in the certainty of receiving it back again; it was not wrested from him against his will. But we too were represented there. Christ had nothing to hang upon the cross except the body he had received from us. And it was surely not possible for God the Father to abandon his only Son, who shared with him the one Godhead. Nevertheless, when Christ nailed our human weakness to the cross—that cross to which, as the apostle says, our unregenerate nature has been fastened along with him—it was with the voice of our humanity that he exclaimed: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

That, then, is the evening sacrifice: the Lord's own passion, his cross, the offering on it of the saving victim, of that holocaust which is acceptable to God. And by his rising, Christ turned that evening sacrifice into a morning oblation.

Similarly, the pure prayer which ascends from a faithful heart will be like incense rising from a hallowed altar. No fragrance can be more pleasing to God than that of his own Son. May all the faithful breathe out the same perfume.
(Expositions of the Psalms 140, 4-6: CCL 40, 2025-2029.)

POPE LEO THE GREAT (400–461): Deprive yourself and help the poor

As we prepare to celebrate that greatest of all mysteries, by which the blood of Jesus Christ did away with our sins, let us first of all make ready the sacrificial offerings of works of mercy. In this way we shall give to those who have sinned against us what God in his goodness has already given to us.

Let us now extend to the poor and those afflicted in different ways a more openhanded generosity, so that God may be thanked through many voices and the relief of the needy supported by our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than that which is lavished on his poor. Where he finds charity with its loving concern, there he recognizes the reflection of his own fatherly care.

In these acts of giving do not fear a lack of means. A generous spirit is itself great wealth. There can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. In all this activity there is present the hand of him who multiplies the bread by breaking it, and increases it by giving it away.
(Leo the Great, Sermo 10 in Quadragesima 4-5: PL 54, 300-301.)

FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE (468–533): The sacrifice of bread and wine

In the time of the Old Testament, patriarchs, prophets, and priests sacrificed animals in honor of the Son as well as the Father and the Holy Spirit. Now in the time of the New Testament the holy Catholic Church throughout the world never ceases to offer the sacrifice of bread and wine, in faith and love, to him and to the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whom he shared one Godhead.

In those ancient victims the body and blood of Christ were prefigured: the body which the sinless one would offer as propitiation for our sins, and the blood which he would pour out for our forgiveness. The Church's sacrifice, on the other hand, is an act of thanksgiving and a memorial of the body Christ has offered for us and the blood he has shed for us. With this in mind, blessed Paul says in the Acts of the Apostles: Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as bishops to rule the Church of God, which he won for himself by his blood.

Those sacrifices of old pointed in sign to what was to be given to us. In this sacrifice we see plainly what has already been given to us.
(Fulgentius of Ruspe, Ad Petrum 62: CCL 91A, 750-751.)

ST AUGUSTINE:

We Pray to Him, through Him, and in Him

We pray to Christ as God, and he prays for us as a servant. In the first case he is the Creator, in the second a creature. Himself unchanged, he took to himself our created nature in order to change it, and he made us one man with himself, Head and Body. We pray then to him, through him, and in him. We speak along with him, and he speaks along with us.
-- Commentary on Psalm 85, 1

Daily Progress toward God

As Christians, our task is to make daily progress toward God. Our pilgrimage on earth is a school in which God is the only teacher, and it demands good students, not ones who play truant. In this school we learn something every day. We learn something from commandments, something from examples, and something from Sacraments. These things are remedies for our wounds and materials for our studies.
-- Sermon 16A, 1

Prayer. Lord, you help those who turn to you. You redeem us so that we may come to you.
-- Commentary on Psalm 17, 15

God Calls Us to Conversion

God calls us to correct ourselves and invites us to do penance. He calls us through the wonderful gifts of his creation, and he calls us by granting time for life. He calls us through the reader and through the preacher. He calls us with the innermost force of our thoughts. He calls us with the scourge of punishment, and he calls us with the mercy of his consolation.
-- Commentary on Psalm 102, 16

Prayer. Lord, see your work in me, not my own. For if you see my own work, you condemn me; but if you see yours, you crown me.
-- Commentary on Psalm 137, 18

ST FRANCIS DE SALES:

How dangerous sin is, be it ever so small and slight! See that you do not loiter by the wayside, but always keep on walking straight ahead. During this mortal life it is impossible to remain long in one state, and the person who does not go ahead tends to slip back. Keep on the watch against venial sin, since, neglecting the help of grace even once, we leave ourselves open to commit the same sin again; and with the multiplication of venial sins we dispose ourselves to commit mortal sins.
(Sermons 58; O. X, p. 259)

There is no need to get upset if we find that we are not on equally friendly terms with everyone, provided we love our neighbor cordially, with real affection, as the Lord has commanded us, preferring the other person always and in everything above ourselves, according to the order of holy charity, and never refusing to do anything we can for him or her. We must be prepared to do everything for our neighbor except damn ourselves!
(Spiritual Treatises IV; O. VI, pp. 60-61)

Do not pay any attention to the kind of work you do, but rather to the honor that it brings to God, even though it may seem quite trivial. Desire only to do the Divine Will, following Divine Providence, which is the disposition of Divine Wisdom. In a word, if your works are pleasing to God and recognized as such, that is all that matters. Work hard every day at increasing your purity of heart, which consists in appraising things and weighing them in the balance of God's will.
(Letters 280; O. XIII, p. 53)

GK CHESTERTON:

THUS because we are not in a civilization which believes strongly in oracles or sacred places, we see the full frenzy of those who killed themselves to find the sepulchre of Christ. But being in a civilization which does believe in this dogma of fact for fact's sake, we do not see the full frenzy of those who kill themselves to find the North Pole. I am not speaking of a tenable ultimate utility, which is true both of the Crusades and the polar explorations. I mean merely that we do see the superficial and aesthetic singularity, the startling quality, about the idea of men crossing a continent with armies to conquer the place where a man died. But we do not see the aesthetic singularity and the startling quality of men dying in agonies to find a place where no man can live––a place only interesting because it is supposed to be the meeting-place of some lines that do not exist.
('Heretics.')

IN one of his least convincing phrases, Nietzsche had said that just as the ape ultimately produced the man, so should we ultimately produce something higher than the man. The immediate answer, of course, is sufficiently obvious: the ape did not worry about the man, so why should we worry about the superman? If the superman will come by natural selection, may we not leave it to natural selection? If the superman will come by human selection, what sort of superman are we to select? If he is simply to be more just, more brave, or more merciful, then Zarathustra sinks into a Sunday-school teacher; the only way we can work for it is to be more just, more brave, and more merciful––sensible advice, but hardly startling. If he is to be anything else than this, why should we desire him, or what else are we to desire? These questions have been many times asked of the Nietzscheites, and none of the Nietzscheites have even attempted to answer them.
('George Bernard Shaw.')

A MAN can be a Christian to the end of the world, for the simple reason that a man could have been an Atheist from the beginning of it. The materialism of things is on the face of things: it does not require any science to find it out. A man who has lived and loved falls down dead and the worms eat him. That is Materialism, if you like. That is Atheism, if you like. If mankind has believed in spite of that, it can believe in spite of anything. But why our human lot is made any more hopeless because we know the names of the worms who eat him, or the names of all the parts of him that they eat, is to a thoughtful mind somewhat difficult to discover.
('All Things Considered.')

Wisdom from… [6 Mar]

CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE (ca. 285): Praying with the words that Jesus taught us

With the same generosity that made the Lord give us everything else, the Giver of our life instructed us in how to pray, so that by using the words taught us by the Son we might more readily gain a hearing from the Father.

He had already foretold that the hour was coming when true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth and he has fulfilled this promise, for we who by his sanctifying action and by his teaching have received the Spirit and the truth are capable now of giving him true and spiritual worship.

What prayer could be more spiritual than the one given us by Christ, who sent us the Holy Spirit? What prayer would more surely have the ring of truth to the Father's ear than the one uttered by the Son who is the truth? To pray otherwise than as he taught us would be not merely ignorant but blameworthy, as we are warned by his own saying: You reject the command of God to set up your own tradition.

Let us pray, then, as our divine teacher has taught us. The prayer that uses his own words, sending up to him the petitions of Christ himself, has a pleasing and familiar sound to God. Let the Father recognize in our prayer the words of his Son.
(The Lord's Prayer 1-3: CSEL 3, 267-268.)

A bishop of Carthage in Northern Africa, Cyprian had a keen sense of the unity of the Church. He differed with Pope Stephen about the non-necessity of rebaptism for lapsed Christians under persecution (lapsi), but eventually conceded to the Pope's position, that of not requiring rebaptism.

ST AUGUSTINE: Jesus Overcame the Curse

Jesus overcame the curse on the human race by taking it upon his own person. He vanquished death by undergoing death himself, sin by indentifying himself with sin, and the ancient serpent by another serpent. Death, sin, and the serpent were all included in God's curse on the human race after the first sin, but the cross has triumphed over each of them.
-- Commentary on Galatians 22

Prayer. You are the truest Lord. You are not like lords who buy with their wallets, but the Lord who buys with blood. You give me the strength of salvation.
-- Commentary on Psalm 139, 11

ST FRANCIS DE SALES:

Do not get upset about the dryness and coldness you are suffering; be consoled in the depths of your heart, remembering the words of our Lord, "How blest are the poor in spirit…. Blest are they who hunger and thirst for holiness..." [Mt. 5:3-6]. How happy you should be to serve God in the desert, without manna and without water, consoled only by the fact that He is guiding your and you are suffering for Him.
(Letters 1986; O. XXI, p. 25)

GK CHESTERTON:

IN a very entertaining work, over which we have roared in childhood, it is stated that a point has no parts and no magnitude. Humility is the luxurious art of reducing ourselves to a point, not to a small thing or a large one, but to a thing with no size at all, so that to it all the cosmic things are what they really are––of immeasurable stature.
('The Defendant.')

Wisdom from… [5 Mar]

ST AMBROSE OF MILAN (339–397): Love is strong as death

Fasten this sign of the Crucified upon your breast and your heart, fasten it upon your arm, so that in all your actions you may be dead to sin. Do not be dismayed by the hardness of the nails; it is no more than the severity of love. Do not complain of their unbreakable firmness; love also is strong as death. It is love that puts to death all our sins and failings, love that deals their death blow. In a word, by loving the Lord's commandments we die to sin and to deeds of shame. God is love; his word is love, that word which is all-powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating to the point where soul is divided from spirit or joints from marrow. Our soul and our flesh must be transfixed by the nails of love, and then we ourselves can say: I am wounded by love. Love has its own nail and its own sword with which to pierce the human soul; happy are they who are wounded by them. Let us willingly expose ourselves to these wounds; if we succumb to them, we shall not taste everlasting death. Let us take up our Lord's cross, the cross on which our unregenerate selves must be crucified and sin destroyed.
(In ps. 118, 15, 37-40: PL 15, 1497-1498.)

Bishop of Milan, Ambrose was a noted preacher and writer. He baptized Saint Augustine of Hippo.

ST AUGUSTINE: Our All-powerful Physician

Our wound is serious, but the Physician is all-powerful. Does it seem to you so small a mercy that, while you were living in evil and sinning, he did not take away your life, but brought you to belief and forgave your sins? What I suffer is serious, but I trust the Almighty. I would despair of my mortal wound if I had not found so great a Physician.
-- Sermon 352, 3

Prayer. Bring relief to a serious wound with your great medicine. Mine is serious, but I take refuge in the Almighty.
-- Commentary on Psalm 50, 6

ST FRANCIS DE SALES:

Do not limit your patience to putting up with only some kinds of injuries or afflictions, but accept all those which God sends you or lets happen to you. There are some who want to put up with only honorable afflictions, such as being wounded at war, persecuted for the faith of the like. These people love tribulations only because of the honor that goes with them.
(INT. Part III, Ch. 3; O. III, p. 134)

GK CHESTERTON:

PROGRESS should mean that we are always walking towards the New Jerusalem. [Understood in a modernist, secular sense, it] does mean that the New Jerusalem is always walking away from us. We are not altering the real to suit the ideal. We are altering the ideal: it is easier.
('Orthodoxy.')

Wisdom from… [1–4 Mar 08]

[I am posting only extracts from the past few days, since it would be too much at once and it's just better to move on than retread lost days.]

The act of kindness
[Jesus] related the parable of the steward to make us realize that nothing in this world really belongs to us. We have been entrusted with the administration of our Lord's property to use what we need with thanksgiving, and to distribute the rest among our fellow servants according to the needs of each one. … these same poor people will befriend you by assuring your salvation, for Christ, the giver of eternal rewards, will declare that he himself received the acts of kindness done to them.
(Gaudentius of Brescia, Sermo 18: PL 20, 973.)

Perfection
…to be perfect we must look beyond even the hoped-for blessings which we have been promised are stored up for us. Our only fear should be the loss of God's friendship, and the only honor or pleasure we covet should be that of becoming God's friend.
(Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses Theoria II: SC 1, 131-135.)

Compassion
[C]an people find the truth in their neighbor if they refuse to support their brothers and sisters in this way—if on the contrary they either scoff at their tears or disparage their joys, being insensitive to all feelings but their own? There is a popular saying which well suits them: A healthy person cannot feel the pains of sickness, nor can one who is well-fed feel the pangs of hunger. The more familiar we are with sickness or hunger, the greater will be our compassion for others who are sick or hungry. … However, we cannot sympathize with the wretchedness of others until we first recognize our own. … Such was the example shown by our Savior, who desired to suffer himself in order that he might learn to feel compassion, and to be afflicted in order that he might learn how to show mercy.
(Bernard of Clairvaux, Degrees of Humiliy and Pride 3, 6: Edit. Critica (Rome, 1963) 3, 20-21.)

Christ's temptations and our temptations
When our first parents were tempted by the forbidden fruit, they were tempted by the desire of the flesh. When they were told, you will be like gods, they were tempted by the pride of life. And from what was added, knowing good and evil, they were tempted by greed, taking greed generally as the desire for having any desirable thing. Likewise Christ was tempted by gluttony or the desire of the flesh … by greed or the desire of the eyes … [and ] by the pride of life when the devil led him onto a pinnacle of the temple…. In like manner we ourselves are tempted daily either by the desire of the flesh in regard to pleasurable good, or by the desire of the eyes in regard to a utilitarian good, or by the pride of life in regard to an honorable good.
(Giles of Rome, O.S.A., Sermon on the Three Vices of the World.)

ST AUGUSTINE:

The Promised Gift
Christ grants justification to those who believe in him, simply because they have faith and not because they serve the law. … In other words, the promised gift to believers is not a spirit of outward observance but one of inward devotion inspired by love.
-- Commentary on Galatians 22

Life Entails Change
Right reason demands a change in what was right to do at some earlier time if the time or circumstance is changed. Therefore, when objectors say it is not right to make a change, truth answers with a shout that it is not right not to make a change.
-- Letter 138

Prayer. Lord, you are always preparing things. You prepare us for yourself, and yourself for us. You prepare a place for yourself in us, and for us in yourself.
-- Sermon on John 68, 3

Bear One Another's Burdens
The responsibility of love is that we bear one another's burdens. But this responsibility, which is not an eternal one, leads doubtless to an eternal blessedness in which there will be no burdens for us that we will be required to bear for one another.
-- Eighty-three Diverse Questions, 71

Causes of Punishment
You who boast of the punishment you endure, do you fail to see that there were three crosses when our Lord suffered? The Lord suffered between two thieves. It is not the punishment that distinguished them, but the cause for which they were punished.
-- Sermon 325, 2

ST FRANCIS DE SALES:

The obligations that we have toward the Eternal Father for creation, we have likewise toward Jesus Christ, Who, by the redemption, has acquired every right of sovereignty over all redeemed creatures.
(Meditations for Solitude, p. 50)

Recall to mind how long it is since you began to sin; note how greatly sins have multiplied in your heart since that first beginning and how every day you have increased them against God, yourself and your neighbor by deed, word, desire and thought. … By these two points you will discover that your sins are more numerous than the sands of the sea. Cast yourself at the feet of the Lord and say to Him, "Lord, with the help of your grace, I will never again abandon myself to sin."
(INT. Part I, Ch. 12; O. III, p. 41)

We must accommodate our heart to the condition of life in which we are, because life goes quickly and we are mortal, and death follows no set rules. It chooses here and there, without any pattern of selection and without method, taking the good and the bad, the young and the old. Happy are those who live in continual, vigilant watch!
(Letters 132; O. XVIII, p. 25)

Watch the bees on the thyme; they find a very bitter juice, but, by sucking it, convert it into honey. O worldly people! At times devout souls encounter great bitterness in their works of mortification, but by performing them they change them into something most sweet and delicious.
(INT. Part I, Ch. 2; O. III, p. 117)

GK CHESTERTON:

IT may be a very limited aim in morality to shoot a 'many-faced and fickle traitor,' but at least it is a better aim than to be a many-faced and fickle traitor, which is a simple summary of a good many modern systems from Mr. d'Annunzio's downwards.
('The Defendant.')

A MAN may easily be forgiven for not doing this or that incidental act of charity, especially when the question is as genuinely difficult and dubious as is the case of mendicity. But there is something quite pestilently Pecksniffian about shrinking from a hard task on the plea that it is not hard enough. If a man will really try talking to the ten beggars who come to his door he will soon find out whether it is really so much easier than the labour of writing a cheque for a hospital.
('What's Wrong with the World.')

BUT the man we see every day––the worker in Mr. Gradgrind's factory, the little clerk in Mr. Gradgrind's office––he is too mentally worried to believe in freedom. He is kept quiet with revolutionary literature. He is calmed and kept in his place by a constant succession of wild philosophies. He is a Marxian one day, a Nietzscheite the next day, a Superman (probably) the next day, and a slave every day. The only thing that remains after all the philosophies is the factory. The only man who gains by all the philosophies is Gradgrind. It would be worth his while to keep his commercial helotry supplied with sceptical literature. … As long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will be exactly the same. No ideal will remain long enough to be realized, or even partly realized. The modern young man will never change his environment, for he will always change his mind.
('Orthodoxy.')