Aquinas College will host a week-long celebration of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, Jan. 27-30 in Nashville.
The goal of the St. Thomas Aquinas Week lectures and dialogue between students and faculty is to raise awareness and interest in the great contribution of St. Thomas Aquinas to Catholic theology and philosophy.
The week will be highlighted by the annual St. Thomas Aquinas Lecture by Father Thomas Petri, O.P., S.T.D. He will present “St. Thomas Aquinas on the Blessed Mother: Her Genius, Her Beauty, Her Freedom, and Her Love” on the feast day of the saint, Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the St. Cecilia Motherhouse.
Father Petri is dean of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He is co-host of the ETWN radio show, “Faith Alive,” and has published widely in Thomistic journals.
Several Dominican Sisters will be presenting lectures for the students, faculty, and staff during the week’s events. Sister Cecilia Anne Wanner, O.P. will present, “Charity in the Blessed: The Perfection of Love” at 11:25 a.m. Monday, Jan. 27, in Room 111 in Aquinas’ main building. The event will be a Brown Bag Mini-Lecture and visitors are encouraged to bring their lunch.
Sister Lucia Marie Siemering, O.P. will present a Brown Bag Mini lecture, “Mission: Invisible. Grace and Divine Presence in the Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas,” at 11:25 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29, in Room 111.
The Mass of St. Thomas Aquinas will be celebrated at 11:20 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28, the saint’s feast day, in Aquinas College’s St. Jude Chapel. Father Petri will be the celebrant and homilist for the Mass, which will be followed by lunch in the college’s Breen Hall.
St. Thomas Aquinas Week is an opportunity for anyone to participate in the theological discourse that has shaped Dominican study and preaching for centuries: the Thomistic approach to knowledge that uniquely marks Aquinas College among schools of higher education.
“During St. Thomas Aquinas Week we take time to linger with St. Thomas on the pursuit of wisdom as an academic community,” said Sister Thomas More Stepnowski, O.P., provost and vice president for academics at Aquinas, which is owned and operated by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia.
Information about St. Thomas Week and reservations for the Jan. 28 lecture are available on the Aquinas College website at www.aquinascollege.edu.
