Monday, January 28, Third Week in Ordinary Time
MEMORIAL OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Second from left, detail from Gozzoli's Triumph of St. Thomas,1471; and second from right, St. Thomas from a fresco by Fra Angelico, ca 1435.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (Tomasso d'Aquino] (Italy, 1225-1274)
Dominican , Philosopher-Theologian, Doctor of the Church (Doctor Angelicus)
NB: The popular English form of the saint's name might indicate that Aquinas was his family name; it is not - it his his provenance, just as 'da Vinci' (from Vinci) is for Leonardo.
The Italian form, Tomasso d'Aquino - he was Italian, after all - says it right: Thomas from (or of) Aquino.
Born the son of a count in a castle that still stands not far from Rome, Thomas was sent to the Benedictines at Monte Cassino at age 5. His parents expected him to grow up to become its abbot like his paternal uncle. But at 18, when studying in Naples, he was attracted to the Dominican Order. Two years followed during which his family 'imprisoned' him in the hope of dissuading him from joining the Dominicans. But eventually his mother helped him escape in a face-saving gesture, and he went on to Paris for further studies. Albertus Magnus was one of his teachers, and when he was sent to Germany, Thomas followed him to Cologne. In 1252, he returned to Paris where he was named master of theology at the university. In 1259, his order recalled him to Naples to set up a school, then went on to Rome in 1965 for the same purpose, at which time he began work on his masterpiece, the Summa Theologica. He returned to Paris in 1268-1272 for a second turn as master of theology at the university, after which he returned to Naples. During all this time, he wrote volume upon volume of what are considered to be the bedrock texts of scholastic theology. En route to the Second Council of Lyons in 1274, he struck his head on a tree and never fully recovered. A year before he died, he decided to stop writing, saying famously that "all I have written seems like so much straw compared to what has been revealed to me". He is a towering figure in the history of Western thought. Compared to what has been written about him as a thinker, not much is generally written about his spiritual life, but in many medieval images, he was portrayed as a mystic.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/012812.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
The Holy Father met with
- Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments
- Eight bishops from the Campania region of Italy (regional capital Naples) on ad-limina visit
The Vatican also released the following:
- The text of the Holy Father's telegram to the Archbishop of Santa Maria (Brazil) for the nightclub fire
Saturday night that killed more than 200 people.
- The decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary granting special indulgences on the Occasion of the
21st World Day for the Sick on February 11, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
- The announcement that to commemorate his recent apostolic trip to Lebanon and to invite the universal Church to pray for the Middle East and its Christian communities, the Holy Father has asked His Beatitude Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, Patriarch of the Christian Maronites, to present the texts for the meditations and prayers to accompany the Good Friday Via Crucis at the Rome Colosseum. The texts themselves will be prepared by two young Lebanese Catholics under the Patriarch's guidance, keeping to the traditional design of fourteen stations of the Cross.
One year ago today...
The Holy Father presided at an extraordinary meeting of all the heads of Vatican congregations, councils
and offices, ostensibly to discuss better coordination among these various organisms. The meeting had
been scheduled before the unexpected expose on TV of Mons. Carlo Maria Vigano's letters to Cardinal Bertone
and the Pope in May and June 2011, protesting his reassignment from the Vatican to being Apostolic Nuncio
to Washington.
- Reporting on Paolo Gabriele's new employment (working for a social cooperative in the Bambino Gesu pediatric hospital's brand-new facility near the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls), Panorama's Ignacio Ingrao says in an article entitled 'A second life for the crow': "Paoletto and the members of his family have committed themselves to not giving out any intervIews or statements, in a written commitment signed by Gabriele. In return, he obtained his new job... in which he will not be in contact with the public".
[One certainly hopes the written commitment also covers not writing - or taking part in the writing - of any book about his experiences as the Pope's valet and/or his role in Vatileaks! Because the next thing we know, Gianluigi Nuzzi will be peddling a new book about Gabriele on the anniversary of his Vatileaks book - and he can always say it was based on information given to him by Gabriele in earlier times, i.e., before Gabriele signed the commitment!)
Ingrao tries his usual cheap trick of seeing direct links where there are really none, by saying, in effect, "Paolo Gabriele and his former boss, Cardinal James Harvey, are together again, now that Gabriele will be working for an institution located not far from St Paul outside the Walls, where Harvey is now the Arch-Priest - both exiled to the same place in the wake of Vatileaks." He also says that renovation of a new apartment for Gabriele, 'two steps from the Basilica', is almost complete, "where probably he will remain under surveillance by the Vatican police".
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/01/2013 21:17]