Students Celebrate Feast of St. Thomas with Prayer, Scholarship, and Fun

California

February 3, 2022

On January 28, the California campus came together to celebrate the feast day and legacy of the College’s patron saint, St. Thomas Aquinas. Prayer, scholarship, and communal fun filled the day for students and members of the teaching faculty, some of whom brought their families along for the festivities.

The morning began with Mass in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, with the faculty clad in academic regalia. Serving as the principal celebrant and homilist was the College’s 2022 St. Thomas Day Lecture, Rev. Michael Sherwin, O.P., professor of fundamental moral theology at the University of Fribourg. “It is not an exaggeration to say,” observed Fr. Sherwin in his homily, “that Aquinas’ words are — every day, almost everywhere in the world — sung in large numbers or in small groups, part of God’s Eucharistic presence.”

St. Thomas Day Mass

Later that afternoon, Fr. Sherwin gave a lecture to the students and faculty, examining St. Thomas’ reflections on love, “the double flame,” one part rooted in passion and desire, the other in the choice of loving another. With love, children of God are better able to know and appreciate God; they find their affinity with Him through desiring God and choosing Him in wholeness.

“It was very enlightening … how Aquinas, using his knowledge of Aristotle and principles of the will, is able to take Augustine’s account of charity with desiring aspect of love and unite it with the other part: willing the good for the other,” observed sophomore Tomaso Cammarota. “It was interesting how Aquinas didn’t take Augustine to prove Aristotle’s ideas, but used Aristotle’s ideas to clarify Augustine — to fill out our understanding of love.”

After a celebratory dinner in St. Joseph Commons, the day culminated with a beloved campus tradition, Trivial and Quadrivial Pursuits, a campus-wide quiz show famous for its extravagant costumes and over-the-top displays of creative gamesmanship. Students split into three teams: the Grammarians, led by Jordan Raum (’22); the Rhetoricians, led by Brandon Wang (’22); and the Logicians, led by Max Tittman (’22).

As well, several tutors graciously took the evening to join the students, asking the trivia questions and judging answers, bantering with team leaders and accepting culinary enticements for favorable outcomes. Students were enthralled every moment, cheering themselves hoarse and putting their heads together to field trivia questions. It was a close call, with the Grammarians and Rhetoricians leading in points through most of the game, but the Logicians stole the victory in the final moments!