DIALOGUE WITH GOD: ST. THOMAS, SPIRITUAL TEACHER (1)
All our talk is but a response
Almost exactly sixty years ago, on August 6, 1964, Pope St. Paul VI published his first encyclical letter. Entitled Ecclesiam suam, or The Church in the Modern World, it was quickly overshadowed by the publication of Lumen Gentium just three months later, and by the publication the following year of Gaudium et Spes, which had the same subtitle as Paul's encyclical, as well as by the more controversial and therefore better-known encyclicals published by the Pope himself during his pontificate.
Although in many ways a forgotten encyclical, Ecclesiam suam (ES) still deserves attention. It is particularly relevant to this conference because in it we find the longest presentation of a theology of dialogue in any magisterial document. The relationship between God and human beings, Pope Paul says, is a dialogue, a conversation. The Church has a communication to make, but only because God has first communicated with his people. God addresses us in revelation and we respond in prayer (ES 70). Any dialogue undertaken by the Church must model itself on what Paul VI calls "the dialogue of salvation," the way God has addressed humanity. The first characteristic of this dialogue is that the initiative belongs to God, and at this point the Pope quotes the First Letter of St. John: "God loved us first" (1 John 4.10; ES 72).
This means that every way we address God -- in prayer, in preaching, in theology -- always has the nature of a response to a previous address. Just as God first loved us, and all our love is an echo or response within this primordial love, so God first addressed us, and all our speaking -- to God, of God, about God -- is always an echo or response within this primordial speaking from God.
Paul VI is probably the last Pope with an integral Thomistic formation, and it is not surprising that the spiritual theology of St. Thomas fits exactly with what he says about dialogue. In creation God expressed Himself and in revelation God spoke, first through the prophets and finally in Christ, illuminating the meaning of what He had expressed in creation. In a recent and very interesting article, American bishop Daniel Flores argued that, for St. Thomas, creation is not yet a "speaking": he says Aquinas never describes creation itself in this way. A speaking is such only when it is ordered to a manifestation, but God must first tell us a word about it if we are to know what he means by the act of creation, in order to make creation a communication in the full sense. (2)
This God does in revelation, speaking his word through the prophets and culminating in the incarnation of the eternal Word. It is through revelation that we come to know that creation also speaks to us about God. Even the words of the prophets remain enigmatic, Flores says, until the incarnate Word clarifies and fulfils their meaning. The clearest word spoken by God is the death of Jesus, he says, which is "the singularly effective manifestation of God's great love" and which we can understand only through the Spirit of love poured into our hearts.
God is ecstatic, coming out of the intimacy of his own life, by virtue of the goodness that God is, to accomplish those works we call creation and salvation. In the last days, as the Letter to the Hebrews says (1.2), God has spoken to us through his Son, who not only shows us the way to eternal life, but shines backward illuminating the words of the prophets and enabling us to see that creation itself is a word of God, which also groans in anticipation of sharing in the freedom of God's children (Romans 8.19-23).
It is through our participation in the life of the Holy Trinity that we hear and see in creation what creation itself cannot say: this is Bishop Flores' conclusion. In this way he warns us against too easy a reference to creation as the "second book" in which God reveals himself. It is that second book, but this is only seen in the light of Christ and through participation in the love that is the Spirit. This is what St. Thomas himself says in ST I q.32 a.1 ad 3: we must know the divine Persons in order to think correctly about both the creation of things and the salvation of humanity, ad recte sentiendum de creatione rerum ... ad recte sentiendum de salute generis humani.
Flores' presentation calls to mind one of the most beautiful questions in St. Thomas' Summa theologiae, Question 43 of the First Pars, where the missions of the divine Persons are discussed. It is the culmination of God's dialogue with us, when the Father sends the Son and Father and Son together send the Spirit. In this question Thomas gives us one of the most splendid phrases in his entire work, namely that the Word sent by the Father is Verbum spirans Amorem, the word that breathes love (ST I q.43 a.5 ad 1). (3)
Summa theologiae, Prima Pars, q.43 is a key text for any consideration of St. Thomas as a spiritual teacher. It is the last question in his treatment of the Holy Trinity, but it is also the first question in his treatment of creation and salvation. It is also the first point in the Summa where he considers at length grace and the deeper implication of God's approach to us, namely the indwelling of the divine Persons in the souls of human beings. This takes us directly to the heart of all Christian spirituality.
Our dialogue with God, whether in prayer, preaching or theology, if it is to be an adequate response to God's communication, must be in the same language in which God has spoken to us. This means that it must be in the dialect of "words that breathe love." In the Summa contra gentiles, Thomas says that the Holy Spirit, pouring God's love into our hearts, causes us to be not only loved but also lovers in turn (SCG IV.21). It is in being spoken to by God, and being loved by God, that we become speakers and lovers in our turn. Thomas is not afraid to speak of an "experience of God" when he describes the impact in us of the presence of the divine Persons. It is a kind of experiential knowledge, he says, notitia experimentalis (ST I q.43 a.5 ad 2) by which the human creature touches God, creatura attingit ad ipsum Deum (ST I q.43 a.3 in c).
It is through the gift of sanctifying grace that the divine Persons come to dwell in us and in so doing conform us to God. The Spirit, who is love, makes us lovers, and the Son, who is Word, makes us wise. The Word is not just any intellectual word, Thomas points out, but a word that prorumpat in affectum amoris, a word that explodes with the affection of love. Son and Spirit cannot therefore be separated. Grace is always Trinitarian. Truth and love come to us together. Our participation in the divine nature means being conformed to both the Son and the Spirit. The Spirit gives us words when we do not know how to pray as we should, interceding for us with sighs too deep for words (Romans 8.26-27). God's Word instructs us about the Spirit of truth, points us to the Spirit, breathes the Spirit on the disciples, bursts with the affection of love when he hands over his spirit on Calvary, as we read in John's Gospel (19.30). Thomas describes prayer, in another beautiful phrase, as desiderii interpres, interpreter of desire (ST II.II q.83). Once again, we hear the echo of the divine Persons, for the Word is our interpreter and the Spirit is the one who puts the Father's desire into our hearts.
This reflection has led us to see how the missions of the Persons of the Trinity and their indwelling in the souls of human beings are at the heart of spiritual theology for Thomas Aquinas. Elsewhere in the Summa theologiae he articulates the effects of this grace especially in terms of the virtue of charity and the gift of wisdom from the Holy Spirit (ST II.II qq.25, 45). Once again, we see that Son and Spirit cannot be separated, for we acknowledge a debt to each for these gifts of charity and wisdom, sometimes appropriating them to one and sometimes to the other, but always assigning them to both.
Reading, prayer, meditation, contemplation
Shortly after the death of St. Thomas in 1274, a text appeared that recorded St. Dominic's ways of praying. Popularly known as The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic, it is believed to have been composed by a Dominican friar in Bologna around the year 1280. In discussing Dominic's eighth way of prayer, a fourfold distinction of the acts involved in human dialogue with God is used, a distinction that had become classic by the 13th century. These are lectio, oratio, meditatio and contemplatio. This is the order in which we find them in the Eighth Way of Prayer, although the more usual order places meditatio second and oratio third. The term "prayer" in our modern languages may be limited to what oratio meant to Thomas, that is, the prayer of petition in particular, but it is also generally used in a broader sense in which it includes the other three of these acts, lectio divina and meditation in its various forms, including the highest form of meditation which is called contemplation. Together they sum up the human response of prayer in dialogue with God. (4)
Although the explicit treatment of prayer in the Summa theologiae focuses on oratio, St. Thomas is also aware of this fourfold distinction. He is particularly indebted to the School of St. Victor for what he received and incorporated on this point. His most explicit use of it is in one of the articles dealing with contemplation, ST II.II q.180 a.3. The fourth objection in that article refers to Hugh of St. Victor who says that contemplation is not a single act but includes prayer, reading and meditation. (5) Thomas also adds listening, since Mary, Martha's sister, whom he believes represents the contemplative life, is said to have sat and listened to Jesus. In his response Thomas says that one comes to the knowledge of the truth in two ways. Note that for him contemplation means primarily coming to see the truth. We can come to the knowledge of the truth through what we receive from others, either from God, in which case our way to this knowledge is prayer (oratio) by which we come to possess the spirit of wisdom (Wis 7:7), or from other people, in which case our knowledge of the truth comes either by listening to them or by reading (lectio), and reading, in particular, the sacred scriptures. The other way to arrive at knowledge of truth is through personal study, which requires meditation (meditatio). Contemplation is the ultimate goal; the other acts of prayer, along with listening, are all in view of the goal of contemplation.
In ST II.II q.83, his lengthy question on prayer in the sense of oratio, there is another reference to Hugh of St. Victor, this time speaking of three ways in which vocal prayer can work (a.13 in c): one is to pay attention to the words so as not to be mistaken about them, a second is to pay attention to the meaning of the words, and a third is to pay attention to the purpose of the prayer, that is, to God and what one is praying for. This last aspect seems essential, adds Thomas, who adds, with uncharacteristic irony, "even idiots can do this." Although we are dealing with vocal prayer, with which we associate neither meditation nor contemplation, it is tempting to see in the second and third functions attributed to vocal prayer something akin to meditation (paying attention to the meaning of what is said) and something akin to contemplation (paying attention to God and what one prays for). The first function could then be understood as lectio, that is, paying attention to the words so as not to be mistaken about them. Hugh of St. Victor says that the last function of vocal prayer, giving attention to God and to what one is praying for, can be so strong as to bring the mind to God in such a way as to empty the mind of everything else, and this seems a good description of contemplation. (6)
Although there is no time to do so, an interesting way to proceed from here would be to offer further reflections on each of these acts of prayer as we see them in the life and writings of Thomas Aquinas. Lectio, for example, was one of the three tasks of the master of theology. These tasks - legere, disputare, praedicare - were seen as originating in St. Paul's Letter to Titus 1:9. This means that the academic and intellectual work of a theologian like Thomas originated from a pastoral concern, central to Dominican spirituality from the very beginning: study is undertaken in order to be useful to one's neighbour.
God as truth is the object of Dominican study and prayer, and we have already seen that for Aquinas it is the goal of contemplation as well. Could we then reflect on what kind of "reader of texts" Thomas Aquinas was, how he took in the thoughts and arguments of others, what virtues and holiness were manifested in his way of pursuing this task of the teacher? A recent scholar of Aquinas, Leonard E. Boyle OP, a palaeographer by profession, developed an approach he called "integral palaeography," a methodology of receiving texts that is actually a kind of pastoral care. For Boyle, who was a devoted student of St. Thomas, this meant receiving a text as one would receive the person who wrote it, with respect and compassion and a desire to hear what the author wished to say. This is all the truer for the text that is Scripture, for its human authors and even more so for the one who is its primary Author. To welcome the other well requires not only intelligence but also a spiritual disposition, a kind of holiness. (7)
As already indicated, there is a long and well-known treatment of oratio, prayer in its literal meaning of "asking something of someone," in Summa theologiae II.II q.83. In it he gives us much practical advice on praying aloud or silently, on praying until the purpose of prayer is achieved, on praying for whatever we want, so that prayer becomes a school in which our desires are ordered and purified, the most powerful prayers in the liturgy, and so on. Prayer in this sense is always effective because it always brings us closer to God. The Christian person aligns his prayer with that of Christ, as Christ himself encouraged us to do, so that our every request is addressed to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.
In Puer Iesus, a sermon delivered in Paris on the Feast of the Epiphany, probably in 1271, Thomas expounds at length on the methodology of study. (8) Not surprisingly, what we have discovered about prayer and contemplation is repeated here, for in the Dominican conception prayer and study coincide: both are concerned with knowing what is true. In Puer Iesus Thomas lists four activities that constitute good study: listening generously, searching diligently, responding prudently, and meditating carefully. This last activity Thomas associates with the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is a model of prayer, meditation and contemplation. She "kept all these words, meditating on them, in her heart," Thomas quotes from Luke's Gospel (2:51). He also cites the gloss to this verse by "a certain Greek," who speaks of "the most prudent Mary, the mother of true wisdom, who made herself a pupil of her little son, looking upon him not as a boy or a man, but as God, and as she conceived his Word in her womb, so now she conceives all his deeds and words in her heart."
Meditation, says Thomas, is "the key to memory." You can read and hear many things, but you cannot retain them unless you meditate. He means what later spiritual teachers called "discursive meditation." We need to chew things, break them down and digest them. Mary's meditation teaches us this. She kept "all these things" in her heart, and we too should meditate on everything we hear. If we do so, our meditation, like Mary's, will be integral and deep, and therefore fruitful.
As is well known, there is also an extensive consideration of contemplation toward the end of the Secunda Secundae of the Summa Theologiae. There is only time to take up what was said in the first part of this talk, namely that Christian contemplation involves charity as well as wisdom, the Spirit of truth as well as the Word of life. In all these matters Thomas often speaks in a way that brings us back once again to the Word that breathes love, to the words that break into love: note for example vita contemplativa terminatur ad delectationem, quae est in affectu (II.II q.180 a.1 in c), dilectio Dei et proximi requiritur ad vitam contemplativam (II.II q.180, a.2 ad 2), contemplatio in affectu terminatur (II.II q.180, a.3 ad 3), haec est ultima perfectio contemplativae vitae: ut scilicet non solum divina veritas videatur, sed etiam ut ametur (II.II q.180 a.7 ad 1).
Conclusion
In the Summa theologiae, Tertia Pars, q.40 Thomas considers what he calls the "conversatio" of Christ, a term that, in the Latin of his time, means something like lifestyle, way of life, perhaps even "spirituality" as some use it today. In this question 40 we find much of what is identified as characteristic of Dominican spirituality. Indeed, this question represents Jesus as the first Dominican. Thomas says this explicitly: Jesus lived as he did ut daret exemplum praedicatoribus (ST III q.40 a.1 ad 3). He says Jesus lived the mixed life of contemplation and sharing with others the fruits of contemplation (ST III q.40 a.1 ad 2; q.40 a.2 ad 3).
Leonard Boyle has convincingly argued that the Summa theologiae is, in its conception, fundamentally a moral theology, calling the Order of Preachers to undertake moral teaching in a radically new context. (9) To this we can add that the Summa theologiae is fundamentally a spiritual theology, offering a rich and extensive consideration of all the themes that belong to such a theology: the transformation wrought by grace, the new law as the grace of the Holy Spirit, the articulation of grace in the theological virtues, the gifts of the Spirit, the beatitudes, the fruits of the Spirit, the acts through which our relationship with God is expressed and fortified, and so on. Central to it all is his teaching on the missions of the Persons of the Holy Trinity who are sent by the Father and who prepare the human person to be a dwelling place for God. This gift of God's conversation with his people takes shape in us as charity and wisdom, and is expressed concretely in our response to God's prior communication, reading the Scriptures, meditating on them, turning to God in prayer at all times, and beginning, however tentatively, to contemplate in love God as Truth. Recalling these texts, who can doubt that Thomas Aquinas, a penetrating philosopher and inspiring theologian, is not also a profound spiritual teacher?
ENDNOTES
1 This talk was first given at a study day organised by the diocese of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno and the Pontificia Accademia di San Tommaso d’Aquino, and held at Latina and Fossanova on 24 and 25 May 2024. The theme of the meeting was San Tommaso d’Aquino: Maestro di Dialogo. It is published in Italian in Serge-Thomas Bonino e Mariano Crociata, editors, Tommaso d'Aquino Maestro di Dialogo, Citta Nuova 2025, pp. 103-112.
2 Daniel E. Flores, ‘Scriptural Signification, the Humanity of Christ, and the Homo Spiritualis’, in Thomas Aquinas as Spiritual Teacher, edited by Michael A. Dauphinais, Andrew Hofer OP and Roger W. Nutt, Sapientia Press, Ave Maria University, Florida, 2023, 88-107
3 Reading Msgr. Flores' article, this phrase inevitably comes to mind, so it is no surprise to find that he chose it as his episcopal motto.
4 Lines 209-210 of the critical edition of the Nine Ways prepared by Simon Tugwell read as follows: Mos enim iste propheticus uiro dei erat cito ex lectione superferri ad orationem et ex meditatione ad contemplationem, which Tugwell translates (in Early Dominican: Selected Writings, Paulist Press 1982, p.101) as "the man of God had a prophetic way of moving quickly from reading to prayer and from meditation to contemplation." These are the four classic elements of the medieval account of our ascent to God in prayer, Tugwell continues, although the more usual order is lectio - meditatio - oratio - contemplatio. He suggests that the change occurred perhaps to emphasize how powerful Dominic was in prayer, moving directly from reading to meditation and from prayer to contemplation (Early Dominicans, n.184 at p.119). The text ofThe critical edition can be found in Medieval Studies 47 (1985) 81-92.
5 Hugh of St. Victor, Allegoriae in novum testamentum 3,3 (Migne, Patrologia Latina, 175,805)
6 Hugh of St. Victor, De modo orandi 2 (Migne, Patrologia Latina 176, 979)
7 For his methodology of integral palaeography see, for example, Leonard E. Boyle, Medieval Latin Palaeography: A Bibliographical Introduction, Toronto, 1984, xi-xvi
8 The text of the Leonine edition can be found in Sancti Thomae de Aquino, Opera Omnia, Tomus XLVI,1 (Commissio Leonina, Rome and Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 2014) 100-112
9 Leonard E. Boyle, The Setting of the Summa theologiae of Saint Thomas, Toronto, 1982
