THE FEAST OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
“O God, grant that whatever good things I have,
I may share generously with those who have not,
and that whatever good things I do not have,
I may request humbly from those who do.
Plant deep in me, Lord, all the virtues,
that I might be devout in divine matters,
discerning in human affairs,
and burdensome to no one in fulfilling my own bodily needs.
Order me inwardly through a good life that I might do what
is right and what will be meritorious for me and a good example for others.“
~~Saint Thomas Aquinas
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I received this in an e-mail from the seminary I briefly attended, The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (DSPT,) located at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.
Yes, I attended, did not graduate seminary, and yes this is a Catholic seminary, run and administrated by the Dominicans, no doubt, the Dominicans who ran the infamous Inquisition.
I learned much from the Dominican nun, Sister Barbara Greene, who taught all the classes in which the Hindu sacred texts, The Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads at The California Institute of Integral Studies where I earned my MA in Psychology.
The places where spiritual teachings converge, and reveal mutual agreement have always intrigued me.
An astrology teacher once said, when you hear the same thing from many unconnected and disparate sources you have met TRUTH.
I always hear her words similarly to the axiom, “And truth shall come from the rocks,” (from those places we least expect it to arise.)
The words of St. Thomas Aquinas, an Italian, Dominican Friar though from the distant past–he lived from 1225-1274. Interestingly enough, Pope Gregory IX who reigned form 1227-1241 assigned the Dominican Order to administrate the Inquisition.
Born two years before Pope Gregory IX came to the papacy, and placed at five years old under the care and tutelage of the Benedictines, the St. Thomas Aquinas would have been around 17 years old, and preparing to become a priest, a decision that his family vehemently opposed, and join the Dominican Order.
I do not know if their dislike of his choice of livelihood had to with him simply becoming a priest–they did try to tempt him with women–or if they had concerns about him aligning with the Dominicans.
In either case, Thomas Aquinas went on to become one of the greatest scholars of Catholic Church, and a man who, while believing it unlawful to kill the innocent, defended capital punishment.
He does not speak about torture, much of what the Dominicans carried out during the Inquisition.
His prayer leaves much to think about.
Order me inwardly through a good life …
Plant deep in me the virtues … that I might be devout in divine matters, discerning in human affairs,
and burdensome to no one in fulfilling my own bodily needs.
… grant that whatever good things I have,
I may share generously with those who have not,
and that whatever good things I do not have,
I may request humbly from those who do.
… let me be a burden to no one in fulfilling my own bodily needs.
… grant that whatever good things … I do not have, I may request humbly from those who do.
” … Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you … (Matthew 7:7)
As a mother there is so much I ask for, from both the universe and from our daughters, but none more that of myself.
For I am the rock upon which our daughters lean, much like I am sure students and congregants leaned upon and looked to St. Aquinas to for truth an understanding in a world that so often delivers riddles.
… let me be a burden to no one in fulfilling my own bodily needs.
This is every mother’s wish when considering growing old and her children.
And yet seeing to one’s bodily needs are so important to a writer.
Our body is the tool through which we encounter and experience the world and others.
Our physical senses deliver immediate taste, sight, smell and touch of all around us.
The is the rock from and upon which we write.
St. Aquinas was also a writer.
Lauded as a Doctor of the Catholic Church St. Aquinas is deemed the greatest theologian and philosopher of the Church.
And so we celebrate him on this day, January 28, the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.
… grant that whatever good things … I do not have, I may request humbly from those who do …
This is my prayer as a wife, mother, writer, and human individual.