Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate: Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Aquinas: An Imagined Encounter

Monday, August 08, 2011

Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Aquinas: An Imagined Encounter

An interesting piece over at First Things by Archbishiop Augustine Di Noia, O.P., that is of particular significance to me as a graduate of the University of Virginia who was received into the Church at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish (a Dominican parish adjacent to the UVA grounds).

Labels: Dominicans, Higher Education, History, Natural Law, Saints and Martyrs, The Old Dominion

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

: Name: Pro Ecclesia; Location: Ohio, United States

A convert to the Catholic Church who became Catholic because of a belief in and devotion to the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. * A graduate of Baylor University and the University of Virginia School of Law. * Former Mayor of the Town of Columbia, Virginia. * Married with four children: two boys and two girls. * Primary interests include the Catholic Church, family, Early American History, and law/politics * Primary purpose of this blog is fostering enlightened discussion about the roles played by the institutions of religion, family, and state in our daily lives. * Under the protection of St. Thomas More, martyr, and patron of lawyers, judges, civil servants, politicians, statesmen, and large families (not to mention troubled marriages).

View my complete profile

Thomas More, counselor of law and patron of statesmen, merry martyr and most human of saints:

Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be able in argument, accurate in analysis, keen in study, correct in conclusion, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, trustworthy with confidences, courageous in court. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my clients' tales. Read with me in my library and stand always beside me so that today I shall not, to win a point, lose my soul.

Pray that my family may find in me what yours found in you: friendship and courage, cheerfulness and charity, diligence in duties, counsel in adversity, patience in pain -- their good servant, and God's first. AMEN.

______________________________

Prayer to St. Thomas More for Lawyers and Judges

Dear Scholar and Martyr, it was not the King of England but you who were the true Defender of the Faith. Like Christ unjustly condemned, neither promises nor threats could make you accept a civil ruler as head of the Christian Church.

Perfect in your honesty and love of truth, grant that lawyers and judges may imitate you and achieve true justice for all people. AMEN.

*****

Lawyer's Prayer

"Give me the Grace Good Lord, to set the world at naught; to set my mind fast upon Thee and not to hang upon the blast of men's mouths. To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly company but utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of the business thereof."

*****

Litany of St. Thomas More, Martyr and Patron Saint of Statesmen, Politicians and Lawyers

*****

Novena to St. Thomas More

______________________________

~ Quoth St. Thomas More ~

"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."

*****

"What does it avail to know that there is a God, which you not only believe by Faith, but also know by Reason: what does it avail that you know Him if you think little of Him?"

*****

"The things that we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labour for."

*****

______________________________

Monday, August 08, 2011

Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Aquinas: An Imagined Encounter

0 Comments:

About Me