February 18, 2025 – Happy Feast of Blessed Fra Angelico/John of Fiesole – 2025
Today is the Feast Day of Fra Angelico/Blessed John of Fiesole, one of my favorite Dominican saints/blesseds.(See my post for his feast day from 2022 on why, and for samples of his frescos.) The artist apparently had a devotion to his confrere, Saint Thomas Aquinas, as an early work of his is a portrait of the Angelic Doctor (left), and he placed the him in many of his groups of saints attending scenes from the Gospels. Importantly for his art, Fra Angelico also shares with Saint Thomas an appreciation of the metaphysical principles of matter and form inherited and assimilated from Aristotle. Art historians credit Fra Angelico with advancing the realism and naturalism of renaissance painting, especially the grouping of figures in realistic, natural poses.
January 28, 2025 – Happy Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of Humanity – 2025
Today, January 28, 2025 is the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas and is celebrated as the 800th anniversary of his birth (even though history does not record the actual date), and so it begins the third of the Three Jubilee Years commemorating also the 700th anniversary of his canonization in 1323 and the 750th anniversary of his death in 1274.
Since I reflected on his title of Angelic Doctor for his feast day in 2023, I thought I would explore a little of what Pope Saint John Paul II meant when he conferred the title Doctor of Humanity upon Saint Thomas, and the reasons he gave for doing so in 1999.
January 19, 2025 – Logic Updates to Website
I’ve expanded on Logical topics on the Thomistic Philosophy Page website beyond what I had about Substance and Accident in relation to Natural Philosophy. The new material includes a more complete (but by no mean comprehensive) treatment of the basics of Aristotelian-Thomistic Logic. Please see the Logic – Overview page for links to the following pages:
December 24, 2024 – An Sit Pater Natalis? (Whether there is a Father Christmas (aka Santa Claus)?)
It’s time once again for this annual Disputed Question of Thomistic humor: THE FIVE WAYS OF PROVING SANTA CLAUS*
Objections
- It seems that Santa Claus does not exist; because Christmas gifts are able to be given by good elves. Therefore, Santa Claus does not exist.
December 4, 2025 – To Know the Truth of Things
If you have visited the Thomistic Philosophy Page in recent months, you may have notice an image of the cover for my forthcoming book, To Know the Truth of Things: An Overview of the Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The title comes from an observation about the nature and goal of philosophy that Saint Thomas makes in the course of commenting on one of Aristotle’s many surveys of the views of his predecessors: The study of philosophy aims not at knowing what men have thought, but what the truth of things is. (Commentary on Aristotle’s On the Heavens, Book I, Lecture 22, no. 228.) Most of the material for the book derives from content on the Thomistic Philosophy Page, though much updated and expanded.
November 23, 2024 – Saint Thomas(‘s Skull) Is Coming to America
The holy relic of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s skull is continuing its world tour to celebrate the Triple Jubilee of the 700th anniversary of his canonization in 1323, the 750th anniversary of his death in 1274. and the 800th anniversary of his birth in 1225. To celebrate these special anniversaries, the Dominican province of Toulouse in France, has offered to display Saint Thomas’s skull for veneration there and across Europe, and eventually other parts of the world in 2025. It will be stopping in ten cities in the United States, starting Friday, November 29, 2024 at Saint Dominic Church in Washington, DC, before its final stop in Baltimore, MD on December 19.
October 31, 2024 – Is Halloween a Pagan Festival? – Repost from 2021
I was not going to repost or promote my reflections on the origin of Halloween from 2021 as I did last year. I figured I had done what I could to set the record straight, and get the word out. Alas, this article from a generally trustworthy source continues to give the impression that the Christian All Saints Day and anticipatory Halloween are somehow connected to the pagan Celtic celebration of Samhain. The truth is that Halloween had nothing to do with Samhain.
October 26, 2024 – Laws of Spiritual Dynamics
It seems that a lot of what I post here are comments, often critical ones, on something Bishop Robert Barron has said or written. This may give one the impression that I dislike the bishops views and insights, which could not be further from the truth. I greatly admire him and his work, and highly recommend attending to what he says and publishes. It is just hard to say anything about the views and insights of someone you almost universally find to give true and insightful reflections or presentations. That said, I do have a slight quibble with a phrase Bp. Barron seems rather fond of using, which is “spiritual physics.”
August 25, 2024 – Happy Feast of Saint Louis IX of France (Repost from 2020)
That will settle the Manichees! There is an amusing story told about St. Thomas Aquinas I have always liked. Once, friar Thomas was invited to dine at the table of the King of France, Louis IX, who would eventually be canonized a saint, too. Brother Thomas, fell silent as the meal and conversation continued around him, lost in thought. Then, suddenly, Thomas exclaimed, “That will settle the Manichees!”
June 2, 2024 – Corpus Christi 2024 – Divine Organ Donation
I passed by a church recently which had the following message on its marquee sign: Be an organ donor. Give your heart to Jesus! Initially, I thought, “Oh, that’s clever and cute. It fits with the whole ‘Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior’ deal” of a lot of Protestant denominations. With their focus on faith alone, I get why they want to encourage people to give themselves ‘whole-heartedly’ to Jesus. But because I think about theological themes way too much, I thought that this church sign writer got our relationship to Jesus backwards. It’s not that Jesus stands in need of the donation of my heart, but that I need His.
May 10, 2024 – Metaphysics and Morals
In March I posted about surprising ways various groups were commemorating the 750th anniversary of the death of Saint Thomas Aquinas including a workshop organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on “Aquinas’ social ontology and natural law in perspective“. At the time, I noted that Bishop Robert Baron also posted a video about his participation in this workshop where he delivered a talk, intriguingly titled “Ipsum Esse in Relation to Catholic Social Thought.” Well, a couple of days ago on his Word On Fire Show podcast/YouTube series, he discussed that paper. I was disappointed, however, that Baron didn’t explore more fully the connection that this conception of God has to do with how we define the authentic human good and the authentic social good, the aim of Catholic Social Teaching.
May 5, 2024 – Second Edition of Spiritual Survival Guide Published
I’ve published the Second Edition of Catholic College Student’s Spiritual Survival Guide updating sections Are Catholic’s Saved? (with material on What Exactly Is Salvation? and Why Jesus Died on the Cross) and Purgatory (including material on Indulgences). For the cost of printing and shipping, you can order a printed copy or download the e-book for free.
March 8, 2024 – Celebrating Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Anniversaries in Surprising Ways
I found and shared on Facebook an article from the Vatican News Service “Pope Francis: Thomas Aquinas’ thought more relevant than ever“ featuring remarks Pope Francis made about the enduring value of Saint Thomas and his doctrinal legacy on the occasion of a workshop organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences commemorating the 750th anniversary of the death of Saint Thomas Aquinas. I was surprised that the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences was the group that hosted a workshop on Saint Thomas at the Abbey of Fossanova and not the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, for instance.
March 7, 2024 – 750th Anniversary of the Death of Saint Thomas Aquinas – Memento Mori
While no longer celebrated as his feast day, today, March 7, is the anniversary of the death of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and this year, 2024, marks the 750th such commemoration and is part of the Triple Jubilee of the Angelic Doctor (along with the 700th anniversary of his canonization and 800th anniversary of his birth in 2025). On this occasion of his death, I offer a few of his reflections on the necessity of death for material creatures which we all are, and more importantly, the good God brings from this seemingly most bitter of life’s defeats, even and especially Saint Thomas’s own. It is fitting, then, during Lent to “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.”
February 18, 2024 – Happy Feast of Fra Angelico/Blessed John of Fiesole, OP – 2024
Today, February 18, is the feast day of one of my favorite artists and Dominican saints and blesseds, Fra Angelico, or Blessed John of Fiesole. I recently learned, however, that Lucca Signorelli included a portrait of Fra Angelico along with his own self-portrait in the corner of his famous The Preaching of the Antichrist fresco in the Capella Nuova in Orvieto Cathedral as he completed work the Dominican Blessed had begun about 50 years earlier. Bl. Fra Angelico, with the aid of Benozzo Gozzoli, only completed two of the vault sections of this chapel in the Cathedral.
January 28, 2024 – Happy Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas – 2024 Jubilee: the Consummation of Love
This year’s Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas falls within the Triple Jubilee of the saint, celebrating the 700th anniversary of his canonization (July 18, 1373), the 750th anniversary of his death (March 7, 1274), and the 800th anniversary of his birth (1225). As he lay dying in the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova in March 1274, he asked to have The Song of Solomon read through to him from beginning to end. While this may seem a surprising choice of spiritual reading at the end of a saintly life, it is nevertheless congruent with how Saint Thomas elucidated the eternal happiness of the saints in heaven in a later work of his, Compendium of Theology, as the comprehension of God in His Essence.
December 12, 2023 – A Santa Clause Connection
As is well known, on December 6, 1273, Saint Thomas Aquinas had some sort of mystical experience while celebrating Mass in the Dominican convent of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, after which he stopped writing. What is seldom mentioned is that December 6 is the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas, the 4th century bishop of Myra. Does this fact offer insight into this provocative text: Five Ways of Proving for the Existence of Santa Claus? Could this lost article of the Summa be Saint Thomas’ truly final written text?
July 18, 2023 – 700th Anniversary of the Canonization of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Today, Tuesday, July 18, is the 700th anniversary of the Canonization of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which begins a two-year jubilee celebrating this great saint and covers the 750th anniversary of his death on March 8, 2024 and the 800th anniversary of his birth in 2025. Learn about miracles, indulgences, and relics associated with the celebration of his being declared a saint and among the blessed in heaven.
June 11, 2023 – Happy Feast of Corpus Christi 2023
Today, the second Sunday after Pentecost, is the Solemnity of Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or in Latin, Corpus Christi. Saint Thomas Aquinas had a particular devotion to Jesus Christ really present in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, and he wrote the liturgy for this Feast Day which includes some of my favorite hymns, which can also be sung to the tunes of The Yellow Rose of Texas and Oh My Darling Clementine.
February 15, 2023 – Notes on Rational Knowledge (Intellect) Posted
I have posted edited and expanded notes on the nature of rational knowledge taken from my undergraduate days at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology initially written by A. Moreno, OP (of happy memory) and M. Dodds, OP. I am immensely grateful for the introduction and instruction in Thomistic philosophy as a young friar under their wise tutelage, especially also of V. Gualiardo, OP (of happy memory).
Despite the failure to fairly and accurately present historical philosophical and theological ideas and disputes, the film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is nevertheless insightful in describing the effect of scientific progress in creating a modern crisis over the loss of intrinsic worth and meaning. The film also presents what seems to me a fundamentally Christian response or answer to this meaninglessness and loss of worth. I think EEAaO is an excellent film for these reasons, and I recommend readers see it, if they have not done so already. The film is also funny, creative, excellently acted and visually stunning, so it has all that going for it, too.
January 29, 2023 – Saint Thomas’s Skull Is on the Move
January 28 was chosen as the date to commemorate Saint Thomas Aquinas joining the Blessed in Heaven because it was the date the relics of his body were returned to the Dominican convent in Toulouse from the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova. Saint Thomas’s relics suffered some extreme vagaries of place and condition until their (more or less) final resting place in France, but what his remains underwent was not unusual for the time and place in which he lived and died. Well, the National Catholic Register reports that Saint Thomas’s relics, or at least his skull, is on the move again.
January 28, 2023 – Happy Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelic Doctor
Today, January 28, marks the annual celebration of the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, source, inspiration and patron of the Thomistic Philosophy Page. Saint Thomas was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Saint Pius V in 1567, and over the centuries, the Church has conferred on Saint Thomas three doctoral designations: the Angelic Doctor, the Common Doctor and the Doctor of Humanity (the last conferred by Pope Saint John Paul II).His title of the Angelic Doctor is certainly, if somewhat ironically, the most commonly used (instead of Common Doctor).
January 17, 2023 – Everything, Everywhere, All at Once – Part I: Hollywood versus History
Alas, another Hollywood film has failed in its primary responsibility of accurately depicting the history of disputes of Catholic philosophy and theology, however oblique its reference to this history. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the film makers frustrated our omnibus, ubiquitous and perennial hope that every film, above all, provide theologically and historically accurate content.
January 16, 2003 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Thomist
Of course, it is a stretch to label Dr. King a “Thomist” as he did not research, teach or write predominantly about St. Thomas Aquinas. But in one rather famous bit of writing, “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” he does cite St. Thomas’ notion of natural law rather insightfully, and gives, on the one hand, a very illuminating illustration of Thomistic principles, and on the other, a rational justification for civil rights activism and legislation.
December 10, 2022 – A Thomistic Coincidence?
I just noticed, after at least 33 years of looking at this image of Saint Thomas Aquinas, that he (or at least Bl. Fra Angelico imagined that he) parted his hair on the right, as do I, which is somewhat uncommon for men (at least in the late 20th and early 21st centuries (don’t know about the 13th)). Coincidence? I think NOT!
April 30, 2022 – Happy Feast of Saint Pius V
Today is the Feast Day of Pope Saint Pius V. He is the greatest of the four Dominican to be elected pope. He reigned as pontiff during one of the most difficult times in the history of the Church. He was known to be a man of great prayer, austerity and zeal for the welfare of Holy Mother Church and the souls entrusted to her care. He was above all, even after being raised to the episcopate and the pontificate, a Dominican and one of the Order’s greatest saints.
March 8, 2022 – Happy Non-Feast Day of Saint Thomas Aquinas
I noted on the actual — that is to say, observed (by the Holy Church of Rome) — Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas on January 28, 2022 and 2021, that that date is not the one on which the Angelic Doctor entered upon his eternal reward, but the date when his relics were transferred from the Benedictine monastery of Fossa Nova in Italy, to the Dominican convent in Toulouse, France. The date of his death is today, March 8, and until the reform of the General Roman Calendar after the Second Vatican Council, this was the day on which the Universal Church celebrated his Feast Day and Sainthood.
March 5, 2022 – TMC Catholic Apologetics Is Now Live!
Over the years I have produced a lot of content explaining the reasons for Catholic hope (1 Peter 3:15), which I presented in videos, blog posts, philosophical web pages, class notes or in good, ol’ fashion, print material. A curious public wishing to find this content scattered across various and disparate media can now be satisfied in their anguished quest, for much of it is now available on one web page, TMC Catholic Apologetics, with more exciting Catholic, Christian and theist apologetic content to come.
February 19, 2022 – Happy Feast of Fra Angelico/Blessed John of Fiesole, OP (belated)
Yesterday, February 18, was the feast day of one of my favorite artists and Dominican saints and blesseds, Fra Angelico, or Blessed John of Fiesole. Bl. John was born in 1395 and died on yesterday’s date 1455. In his ministry as a Dominican friar and priest, he preached with color and brush, and became a master of the early renaissance who incorporated perspective and proportion into his work, innovating naturalism and realism in Western Art.
January 26, 2022 – Happy Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas – 2022
You can see his warmth and pastoral concern in a sermon Saint Thomas delivered, it is believed, during his second Paris residency (1268-1272). . . . It is interesting to see Aquinas apply a very medieval academic approach to the question (leading with objections (“we must be amazed”) and distinguishing various sense of words, in order to synthesize them into a coherent whole) in a bit of popular theology in order to serve a very pastoral end. His skill as a preacher is a testament to the pastoral service intellectual and academic efforts can be put. Note well, ye preachers in our midst!
The Tender Bar
I just finished watching The Tender Bar starring Ben Affleck, Ty Sheridan, and Daniel Ranieri (among others) on Amazon Prime Video. Overall, I liked the movie with pretty good performances from a pretty good cast. But, at one point JR (Sheridan), the story’s protagonist and narrator, complains about having to read Aquinas in his studies at Yale.
November 25, 2021 – A Somewhat (Im)Personal Interlude
At this point, I have the feeling that at least some readers’ interest in why I am Catholic might be aroused by these more personal reminiscences of my religious upbringing and awakening. But, at least one underlying point to this my exercise in giving an apologia from a cradle Catholic is to provide an intellectual and reasoned account of my Catholic perdurance (fidelity is too strong a word to describe one so prone to moral failure).
November 14, 2021 – Making Sense of Things That Come to Be
I return now to my ongoing project of giving an apologia, or a reasoned defense of why I am Catholic and why I believe as I do, provoked, as I was, to provide one as by a certain religiously skeptical college student. . . . This is what I consider to be a cogent and compelling argument for the existence of God distilled from Aquinas’s Third Way.
Nov 2, 2021 – All Souls Day and Why There Is Purgatory (and Indulgences)
After All Saints Day and its spooky (though thoroughly Catholic) vigil, Halloween, we come to the third of the fall Triduum of the Afterlife: All Souls Day (or in its Mexican (and thoroughly (or at least mostly) Catholic) manifestation, Dia de los Muertos).
Nov 1, 2021 – All Saints Day and Eternal Life
Amid the annual fall questions and confusion about the alleged pagan origins of Halloween on October 31, and the role of purgatory in the celebration of All Souls Day (November 2), Catholics pay less attention to the celebration of All Saints Day (November 1) than they should.
Oct 28, 2021 – Is Halloween a Pagan Festival?
It is a question that still arises in Catholic circles and among other Christians more generally, so I thought I would repost the answer as I had done on other venues in years past.
Oct 9, 2021 – Updated Third Way Translation and Flowchart
In my ongoing quest to finish a series of explanations and analyses on the Five Ways of proving the existence of God from Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae I, q. 2, a. 3, I updated the translation of the Third Way which “is taken from the possible and the necessary” along with a graphical depiction of the argument as a flowchart.
Aug 22, 2021 – Imagine Objective Morality
A few weeks ago, Bishop Robert Barron wrote an op/ed piece for the New York Post bemoaning the singing of John Lennon’s utopian manifesto pop song “Imagine” at the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics.
May 24, 2021 – New Explanation and Analysis of Aquinas’s Second Way
I have posted a new explanation and analysis of the Second Way for proving the existence of God from Summa Theologiae Ia, q. 2, a. 3, which Saint Thomas Aquinas rather cryptically says is based on the nature (ratio) of efficient causality.
Apr 4, 2021 – Why Jesus Died on the Cross
Every Good Friday, the question is raised again, “Why did Jesus have to die?” A common answer, though not really the Catholic answer, says that Jesus is a substitute victim, an innocent, and infinitely holy person, the Son of God, who suffers the punishment which sinners deserve in their place, and thereby frees them from this just punishment they deserve.
Jan 28, 2021 – Happy Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Today, January 28, is the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas. He is, of course, a great Doctor of the Church and perhaps her greatest theologian, certainly one her most influential thinkers.
Nov 15, 2020 – Happy Feast of Saint Albert the Great
Today, November 15, is the Feast of Saint Albert the Great, or Saint Albert of Regensburg. He was a towering figure in medieval philosophy and theology and had such encyclopedic knowledge and an incisive mind that, even in his lifetime, he was called “the Great.”
Oct 12, 2020 – Scientific Materialism Is No Alternative to Catholic Faith
I previously quoted approvingly Walker Percy when he posed to himself the option of holding to some worldview besides the Catholic faith, and queried himself the answer “what else is there?” Though himself a convert, I as a Cradle Catholic felt he summed up my experience of considering the various alternatives of worldviews, religions and philosophies against the one in which I was raised, and finding them all wanting.
Aug 25, 2020 – Happy Feast of St. Louis IX of France
There is an amusing story told about St. Thomas Aquinas I have always liked. Once, friar Thomas was invited to dine at the table of the King of France, Louis IX, who would eventually be canonized a saint, too. Brother Thomas, fell silent as the meal and conversation continued around him, lost in thought.
Aug 23, 2020 – Why Isn’t Everyone Catholic (part 2)?
In my previous post I related that when I began to investigate how I might explain and defend the Catholic faith, I found that sometimes I agreed with skeptical critiques of distinctively Protestant beliefs, yet I was very convinced of the inadequacy of physicalist explanations of nature in general and of the human mind and rational behavior in particular.
Aug 16, 2020 – Why Isn’t Everyone Catholic (part 1)?
If it is true, as I have claimed, that a compelling case can be made that you (or anyone) can find ultimate fulfillment in knowing and loving God, who is all good and deserving of all your love, by living your life as a committed Catholic, it may seem perplexing that anyone is not Catholic (at least of those who have heard about the Church and been able to join it).
Aug 13, 2020 – All Good and Deserving of All My Love
Explanations and defenses of the truth of the Catholic faith tend to be written by converts. Perhaps this is natural and to be expected.
Jun 14, 2020 – In festo Corporis Christi
Saint Thomas Aquinas had a particular devotion to Jesus Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. He was serving in the papal court when it was in residence in Orvieto, Italy, when a remarkable Eucharistic miracle occurred.
The study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is. — Saint Thomas Aquinas
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