Feb 3, 2021

Sunday Sermon, January 31st -- St Thomas Aquinas, Model of Purity and Eucharistic Devotion

 St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is without question the greatest theologian in the history of the Church as well as the brightest intellect in human history (excepting only Our Lord, his Mother, and St Joseph). He is called the Angelic Doctor both for his superior intellectual insight and for his perfect purity. And the crowning jewel of his theological teaching is his doctrine on the Holy Eucharist.

In this sermon, we consider this great Dominican Priest as a model of what St Paul praises in the second reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians, "An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord." St Thomas loved God with an undivided heart, and was favored with the highest graces.  He is a spiritual father to us all, and especially to Corpus Christi Parish - because he wrote the Liturgical Office for the Feast of Corpus Christi.


Listen online [here]!



For more information on the Angelic Warfare Confraternity, look here:  https://www.angelicwarfareconfraternity.org/


The two prayers to be said every day, together with 15 Hail Mary's in honor of the original mysteries of the Rosary:

Dear Jesus, I know that every perfect gift, and especially that of chastity, depends on the power of Your providence. Without You a mere creature can do nothing. Therefore, I beg You to defend by Your grace the chastity and purity of my body and soul. And if I have ever imagined or sensed anything  that could stain my chastity and purity, blot it out, Supreme Lord of my powers, that I may advance with a pure heart in Your love and service, offering myself on the most pure altar of Your divinity all the days of my life. Amen.

Chosen lily of innocence, pure St. Thomas, who kept chaste the robe of baptism and became an angel in the flesh after being girded by two angels, I implore you to commend me to Jesus, the Spotless Lamb, and to Mary, the Queen of Virgins. Gentle protector of my purity, ask them that I, who wear the holy sign of your victory over the flesh, may also share your purity, and after imitating you on earth may at last come to be crowned with you among the angels. Amen.