Little HolyDays :: Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

This coming Monday, January 28th, we will celebrate the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, an philosopher and theologian with a great influence on not only the Church, but the greater secular world as well. He was a Dominican priest and is one of the 35 Doctors of the church. For our family, he holds great significance because, not only is he one of my husband's favorite saints, but he also is the Name Saint for Blaise, whose middle name is Aquinas.

In the celebration of each of the Saints for whom we were named as part of our spiritual disciplines this year, St. Thomas Aquinas will be the first in this calendar year to be honored in this way. I had to search around for some ideas of ways to celebrate such a learned man. I think our kiddos are still quite a bit young to be listening (or rather understanding) readings of the Summa Theologica though that may become part of our traditions in years to come. Who knows?

For now, we will be celebrating in a simple way by making cutout cookies. I found this suggestion over at Catholic Cuisine (which by the way is a fantastic site if ever you are lost in how to celebrate a feast day!). One of St. Thomas' symbols is the star, which we happen to have 3 different sizes of in our cookie cutter collection. We might even get fancy and attempt yellow frosting. There is also a lovely prayer included with the cookie suggestion via the link above, which I highly suggest you pray even if you do nothing else.

We'll also be reading aloud about St. Thomas Aquinas' life from our Loyola Kids Book of Saints. This book has been a wonderfully (and dare I say, easy?) way to introduce my boys to the lives of the Saints. We can easily read of a Saint's life over breakfast, with each story being 3-4 pages long. For older kids, there are virtues to be drawn from the stories and questions to bring about further discussion. We're not quite at that point yet, but I do have Dom asking already if "maybe we could read about another of those saints" while he sits and eats. Definitely a great investment!

In closing, here is one of my favorite prayers and a favorite quote from this powerful and brilliant man of God:

“Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.”
                                                                              ― St. Thomas Aquinas

“Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His.
If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.”

                                                                              ― St. Thomas Aquinas

For a more comical approach to this day, here's the Top 10 ways to celebrate St. Thomas Aquinas' feast day I found at another blog. I thought it humorous and figured I'd share.

(Image from Wikipedia)

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This post Little HolyDays :: Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas first appeared on Two Os Plus More on 23 January 2013