March 7, 2024
/March 7 marks the 750th anniversary of the death of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and patron saint of universities and scholars who was drawn to the Dominican Order in great part because he prized commitment to studying and teaching. His magnificent Summa Theologiae was written to equip students with reasoning skills that aid theological reflection, formulation, and analysis. To say that his systematic and contextual theology catalyzed my exploration of the Catholic intellectual tradition is an understatement. As we emphasize in RCIA classes, the Catholic tradition encourages the search for Truth through engagement with the complementarity of faith and reason, Scripture and tradition, nature and grace, the past and the present. St. Thomas passionately loved the Lord - may we learn more about how he communicated his love through this month’s featured book, Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master.
—Oriana Li Halevy
on behalf of the Intra-Community Council’s CATH-Links and RCIA teams
If you are interested in submitting reflections, meditations, articles, book reviews, etc., see Submit Resources for Publication for submission guidelines. We look forward to your participation!
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Cardinal Cantalamessa gives second Lenten sermon [vaticannews.va] “The Preacher of the Papal Household delivers his second sermon for Lent 2024 to Roman Curia, reflecting on Jesus as the light of the world… The first meaning, he said, is ‘that Jesus is the light of the world,’ as ‘He is the supreme and definitive revelation of God to humanity.’ The second meaning, he noted, is that Jesus ‘is the light of the world,’ in that ‘He sheds light on the world,’ that is, ‘He reveals the world to itself; He shows everything in His truth, for what it is before God.’”
Stations of the Cross - Divine Revelation | Scripture | Life-Size Stations | 'Were You There' [youtube.com] Join Francesca LaRosa “for a heartfelt journey through the Stations of the Cross, featuring thoughtfully rewritten prayers, carefully chosen excerpts from Scripture to highlight Divine Revelation, new Station-related verses of 'Were You There', and beautifully captured video at the Shrine of Christ's Passion in St. John, Indiana. In this video, we've woven together Scripture, music, and prayers, offering a fresh perspective on this timeless tradition.” Music by Francesca LaRosa [francescalarosa.com]
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Subvert the Culture Through Love [youtube.com] by Professor Arthur C. Brooks who holds joint appointments at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. The author of 13 books and a columnist at The Atlantic, he speaks to audiences around the world about human happiness and works to raise well-being within private companies, universities, public agencies, and community organizations. His many accolades include the 2020 John Paul II New Evangelization Award. In this talk, he outlines practical ways to make our faith public, normal, and magnetic. The event was co-presented by the Harvard Catholic Forum and Harvard Law School’s Program on Biblical Law & Christian Legal Studies; co-sponsored by the Abigail Adams Institute, the Harvard Christian Alumni Society, and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard; and made possible through the support of grant #62372 from the John Templeton Foundation, “In Lumine: Promoting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide.”
CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME
More Than a Sequel: Pope Francis takes on our ‘homicidal pragmatism’ [commonwealmagazine.org] Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum arrived in October 2023, about eight years after the publication of his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ and in the final quarter of the planet’s warmest year on record. The pope concedes that our responses have not been adequate; that the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point; and that the clean-energy transition is not progressing at the necessary speed. The crisis, as Pope Francis sees it today, is of a different character than it was in 2015 and requires an even more urgent response.
SYNOD NEWS
Vatican announces synod assembly dates; formation of study groups [usccb.org] The second assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality will meet Oct. 2-27, preceded by a retreat for members on Sept. 30-Oct. 1. In response to a formal call by members of the first assembly of the synod, Pope Francis established study groups that will initiate, with a synodal method, the in-depth study of some of the themes that emerged.
BOOK OF INTEREST
Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master [amazon.com] Winner of the Catholic Book Award for Spirituality. Thomas Aquinas is widely considered the greatest and most influential of Catholic theologians. Yet too often his insights into the nature of God and the meaning of life are seen as somehow cold, impersonal, and divorced from spirituality. In this award-winning book, Bishop Robert Barron shows how Aquinas’ profound understanding of the Christian mystical life animates and helps explain his writings on Jesus Christ, creation, God’s “strange” nature, and the human call to ecstasy. “When one interprets Thomas merely as a rationalist philosopher or theologian, one misses the burning heart of everything he wrote. Aquinas was a saint deeply in love with Jesus Christ, and the image of Christ pervades the entire edifice that is his philosophical, theological, and scriptural work. Above all, Thomas Aquinas was a consummate spiritual master, holding up the icon of the Word made flesh and inviting others into its transformative power.”
—Word on Fire [wordonfire.org]
“What makes this book unique, however, is the way in which Barron shows us how Thomas was not a philosopher only, but a spiritual master, and how these do not exist in spite of each other, but because of each other. We tend to see philosophy as a fairly abstract exercise, disconnected from the concrete and spiritual realities of life. The genius of Barron is in how he proves this false. The philosophy of St Thomas has direct implications for our spiritual lives.”
—Christian Bergmann [melbournecatholic.org]
