Fr Paul reads the Gospel from Mark (4: 21-25) in which Jesus says, ‘there is nothing hidden but it must be disclosed’ and afterwards shares a little about the life of St Thomas Aquinas, whose life we celebrate today.

Thomas was born in 1225 into a noble family in southern Italy.  He was educated by the Benedictines and because of that, in the normal scheme of things, he would have entered into the Benedictine Order, but he decided to join the Dominicans instead.  His family was very scandalised by these actions so they kidnapped him and held him prisoner for over a year in the hope that he would change his mind, but he didn’t.  He was steadfast and, in the end, he won.

Thomas then studied in Paris and Cologne under St Albert the Great and, during his life, it was a time of great philosophic ferment. Thomas brought to this chaos simple straightforward sense. He studied, he taught, he argued. This simple, common sense approach and the philosophy he worked out brought an end to the controversy.

Out of his work came many writings on philosophy and theology including ‘Summa Theologiae’, which has been a standard textbook for many centuries and is still an irreplaceable resource to this day.

Thomas died on 1274 so on this day we ask that St Thomas Aquinas pray for us.