January 28 - Feast Day of St. Thomas Aquinas - Pope John Paul II on the Angelic Doctor

Prayers and Devotions: 365 Daily Meditations - Viking Press, 1997 | unknown | Pope John Paul II

[Pyro7480]

January 28
The Genius of St. Thomas Aquinas

His realistic and historical method, a fundamentally optimistic and open-minded one, not only makes St. Thomas Aquinas Doctor Communis Ecclesiae, "Common Doctor of the Church," as Paul VI called him... but also makes him Doctor Humanitatis, because he was always prompt and disposed to receive the human values of all cultures. The Angelic Doctor, Thomas, may well affirm, "Veritas inseipsa fortis es et nulla impugnatione convellitur - Truth is strong in itself, and no assault weakens it." Truth, like Jesus Christ, may always be denied, persecuted, combated, wounded, martyred, and crucified; but it always lives again and rises again and cannot be wrenched out of the human heart. St. Thomas put all the power of his genius at the exclusive service of the truth. He seems to wish to disappear behind it, almost through fear of troubling its brightness, so that it, and not he, should shine forth in all its radiance.

According to St. Thomas, to fidelity to the voice of things, in philosophy, there corresponds in theology fidelity to the voice of the Church. His rule, from which he never departed, was the principle: "Magis standum est auctoritati Ecclesiae.. quam cuiuscumque Doctoris" - "More assent must be given to the authority of the Church than to that of any Doctor." So, the truth propounded by the authority of the Church assisted by the Holy Spirit is the gauge of the truth expressed by all theologians and doctors, past, present, and to come. The authority of the doctrine of Aquinas here resoves and is made good in the authority of the doctrine of the Church. This is why the Church has set him up as exemplar and model for theological research.

[Pyro7480]

I copied this passage from the book stated above, a copy of which was in the eucharistic adoration chapel that I went to earlier this morning. I went there to honor the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was the author of the greatest of Eucharistic hymns and passages. I thought there was no better way to honor him than to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and recite some of his prayers from my Aquinas Prayer Book. This is a great passage from our Pope on the greatest of all theologians.

[Pyro7480]

PING!

[Desdemona]

BUMP

I went there to honor the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was the author of the greatest of Eucharistic hymns and passages.

Pange Lingua Gloriosi
Corporis Mysterium,
Sanguinisque praesiosi,
Quem in Mundi praesium,
Fructus mentris generosi
Rex effugit gentium>


...on for five more verses.

[Pyro7480]

Yeah, that's one of the ones I prayed. I love the prayer book that I mentioned. It's from Sophia Institute Press, and I got it a couple of years or so ago at a Catholic gift shop.

[Desdemona]

It's in a prayer book? Oh, neat. I have it in two very old hymnals. Since it's usually only done once a year, the exact words are hard to remember.

[Aquinasfan]

Thanks for the post 8-) A bump for the Angelic Doctor.

[Pyro7480]

I posted the entire hymn/poem on this thread: A Hymn By St. Thomas Aquinas - Pange, Lingua, Gloriosi (Acclaim, My Tongue, This Mystery).

[Pyro7480]

I knew you would be pleased by this thread. (You're screen name is a dead giveaway.) ;-)

[Pyro7480]

BTTT!

[Pyro7480]

BTTT!

[Salvation]

BTTT on the Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, January 28, 2006!

[Salvation]

Grace: Commentary on the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas

Rev. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.

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Preface and Table of Contents
Chapter I - Introduction
Chapter II - The Necessity of Grace
Chapter III - The Grace of God with Respect to Its Essence
Chapter IV - The Divisions of Grace
Chapter V - The Doctrine of the Church
Chapter VI - Sufficient Grace
Chapter VII - Efficacious Grace
Chapter VIII - Excursus on Efficacious Grace
Chapter IX - The Cause of Grace
Chapter X - The Effects of Grace
Chapter XI - Merit
Chapter XII - Recapitulation and Supplement
Appendix and Index
 

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