Share:

Each summer, Thomas Aquinas College invites members of the President’s Council — the backbone of the College’s financial-aid fund — to one of two Great Books Summer Seminar Weekends. At these weekends participants get an inside look at the unique education that they so generously help to make possible. They attend a series of classroom discussions led by the College’s president, dean, and other members of the teaching faculty; and they participate in the spiritual life of the College at Mass and confession in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel.

This second of this year’s Summer Seminars took place on the weekend of July 21-23. Readings and discussions focused on the theme of “Friendship and Charity.” In addition to examining Leo Tolstoy’s Father Sergius, participants discussed selections from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and St. Thomas Aquinas’ beautiful teaching on charity as the love of God and our neighbor from the Summa Theologiae. On Saturday evening President Michael F. McLean helped to tie these themes together in a talk he delivered to the group.

Between seminars, attendees enjoyed delicious meals and delightful conversations. At Saturday night’s dinner on the St. Gladys patio, student musicians performed several songs for the group. Below is a video of one of their performances, “Tell Me Where is Fancy Bred,” from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice:

2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2
  • 2017 Summer Seminar #2