Aquinas: aspiring to the higher thought

Saturday, January 28, 2023
    Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274
Meditation:
    [The LORD:] “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’”
    —Isaiah 65:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No man tends to do a thing by his desire and endeavour unless it be previously known to him. Wherefore since man is directed by divine providence to a higher good than human frailty can attain in the present life, ... it was necessary for his mind to be bidden to something higher than those things to which our reason can reach in the present life, so that he might learn to aspire, and by his endeavours to tend to something surpassing the whole state of the present life. And this is especially competent to the Christian religion, which alone promises goods spiritual and eternal: for which reason it proposes many things surpassing the thought of man.
    ... Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274), Summa Contra Gentiles [1264], Burns, Oates & Washbourne, Ltd., 1923, I.v, p. 9-10 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 65:1; Matt. 6:33; 7:7; Luke 11:9; 12:31; Rom. 10:20; 11:33; 1 Cor. 12:31; Phil. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit leads me to higher things. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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