Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 4th Sunday of Epiphany
O God, you know that we are set in the midst of many grave dangers, and because of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant that your strength and protection may support us in all dangers and carry us through every temptation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Epiphany
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took on our mortal flesh to reveal his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness and into his own glorious light.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Psalms 132, 133, 134, 135
Psalms 136, 137, 138
Doctor of the Church
Ecumenical Commemoration
Thomas Aquinas, born at Roccasecca in the Kingdom of Sicily about 1225 and dead at Fossanova on 7 March 1274, was a Dominican friar and teacher at Paris and in Italy. He wrote the Summa Theologiae, the Summa contra Gentiles, and the office of Corpus Christi. He stopped writing three months before he died. The Church canonized him in 1323 and named him a Doctor of the Church in 1567.
Thomas Aquinas was born c. 1225 at Aquino, a small town in the Kingdom of Sicily. Descended from the noble house of Aquino, he was educated at the monastery of Monte Cassino and later at the University of Naples, where he encountered Dominican friars. Against his family's opposition, he joined the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) c. 1244. He studied under Albert the Great at Cologne and Paris, eventually earning his doctorate in theology from the University of Paris in 1256. Thomas served as a regent master at Paris, where he lectured extensively and began his monumental written output. In 1261, he was appointed lector at the papal court under Pope Urban IV, where he wrote liturgical offices and deepened his engagement with Scripture and theology. He taught at various Dominican houses and returned to Paris as a regent master in 1268–1272, during which period he produced most of his greatest works. His final years were spent at the University of Naples, where he died on March 7, 1274, at the monastery of Fossanova. Thomas was canonized by Pope John XXII on July 18, 1323—remarkably swift for the medieval Church—and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V in 1567. His massive literary corpus, produced over merely forty years, includes the Summa Theologiae (incomplete at his death but the most systematic treatment of Christian theology ever attempted), the Summa Contra Gentiles (a philosophical defense of Christian faith addressed to non-believers), hundreds of Quaestiones Disputatae (disputed questions from university debates), scriptural commentaries, and liturgical texts. He is venerated across Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions as the preeminent medieval theologian.
According to Bartholomew of Capua's canonization testimony, Thomas reportedly said near the end of his life, 'I can write no more; all I have written seems like straw to me' (Omnia, quae scripsi, mihi videntur esse palea), allegedly following a mystical experience. This saying, preserved through the canonization process, has become a cornerstone of Thomas's spiritual legend—indicating a vision or revelation that transcended his theological system. The tradition emphasizes that even his monumental intellectual achievement was small compared to direct mystical knowledge of God.