St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor, on The Natural Law

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January 28th is the Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and Doctor of the Church.  Known as the Angelic Doctor, he wrote the Summa Theologiae as well as Adoro te devote, O salutaris, Tantum ergo, and Pange lingua. Arguably the greatest philosopher of all time and unarguably one of the greatest (even among agnostic and athiests).

The daily prescription, a quotation from St. Thomas’ Tretise on Law.” and taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church #1955.

“The natural law is nothing other than the light of understanding placed in us by God; through it we know what we must do and what must be avoided. God has given this light or law at the creation.”

So if we examine our consciences daily, practicing our “logic muscle” in light of our actions, we can, according to St. Thomas come to better understand what we must do and what we must not do (and in turn, know right from wrong.)

Peace,

Deacon Tom Gotschall, The Deacon Dad at:

http://tomgotschall.wordpress.com/

https://doctorsofthechurch.wordpress.com/

Deacon Tom Gotschall on YouTube.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor, on the Holy Innocents

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Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  The Gospel of Matthew (2:16) tells us, “Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.”

The Church recognizes these children as saints and venerates them because, as St. Thomas Aquinas said, they “suffered as martyrs and confessed Christ non loquendo, sed moriendo, not by speaking, but by dying.” Com. on Mt., in Loc.

So here are some things to consider:

  • If you were to ask the Holy Innocents for their intercession before God, what would you ask them?
  • They died as a result of the most hideous form of selfish jealousy.  Can you be inspired to be less selfish of jealous after reflecting on the passage?
  • Imagine the victories achieved by The Innocents; their distraction to Herod, their role in protecting the Lord, keeping Herod from achieving his evil goal, their happiness forever with God in heaven.

Oh dear, Holy Innocents, pray for us,

Peace,

Deacon Tom Gotschall, The Deacon Dad at:

http://tomgotschall.wordpress.com/

https://doctorsofthechurch.wordpress.com/

Deacon Tom Gotschall on YouTube.