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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 first of this year’s Summer Seminars took place on the weekend of June 17-19. Readings and discussions focused on the theme of “Suffering: The Christian Response.” In addition to examining Leo Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich, participants discussed Pope St. John Paul II’s On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering (Salvifici Doloris) and St. Thomas Aquinas’ profound meditation on Christ’s passion and resurrection from the Summa Theologiae. At the end of the weekend, College 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 in St. Gladys Plaza, the student barbershop group performed several songs for the group, including the following renditions of “The Longford Weaver” ... 

... and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

The next Summer Seminar weekend is set to take place on the weekend of July 15-17.

2016 Summer Seminar #1
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  • 2016 Summer Seminar #1
  • 2016 Summer Seminar #1
  • 2016 Summer Seminar #1