Psalm 37:3-6,32-33
3 Put your trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and feed on its riches.
- 4 Take delight in the LORD,
and he shall give you your heart's desire.
- 5 Commit your way to the LORD and put your trust in him,
and he will bring it to pass.
- 6
- He will make your righteousness as clear as the light
and your just dealing as the noonday.
- 32
- The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and their tongue speaks what is right.
- 33
- The law of their God is in their heart,
and their footsteps shall not falter.
From the Great Cloud of Witnesses:
Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in Italy and was educated in the Italian monasteries and University of Naples. He joined the Dominicans, a mendicant and teaching order, and divided his time of teaching and writing between Rome and Paris. Thomas studied both theology and philosophy and sought to bring these schools of thought together, with theology being the lead discipline. He lived in an era when Aristotelian scholars dominated the universities and he sought to both use and refute these ideas. His writings were not only tremendously influential in his era, but are still a part of theological study today.
For further info: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/#LifeWork
Collect:
Almighty God, you have enriched your Church with the singular learning and holiness of your servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten us more and more, we pray, by the disciplined thinking and teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion by the example of saintly lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.