Do you want to dive deeper with your faith and get to grips with a more profound general understanding of Catholic Theology? Why not begin with getting to grips with the thought and writings of the great St. Thomas Aquinas?
This post is based on the framework provided by Season One of the Thomistic Institute’s online Aquinas 101 course, and seeks to give you the details on how your using it to come to grips with Aquinas can equate to Roses in the field of Faith Formation, which you can offer to Our Lady in the monthly bouquet, or discuss at your Golden Rose meeting in the appropriate week:
Season 1 – Course 1 – Why Aquinas [one rose]
(This is a Starter Rose – see third down on this blog post for course materials and details)
Season 1 – Course 2 – Introduction to Thomistic Philosophy [three roses]
As there is more material here than in course one, course two amounts to three roses in total. There are 21 segments in the course, and for each rose one must take 7 of them and work according to the following breakdown:
| Faith Formation | Aquinas 101 Part 2 – Roses A-C – Introduction to Thomistic Philosophy – |
|---|---|
| Objective | Seek a deeper understanding of the Philosophical world of St. Thomas Aquinas |
| Seedtime | 35 minutes (per rose) – Watch 7 videos, averaging max. 5 minutes each |
| Feedtime | Approx 1 hour 30 minutes (per rose) hour |
| Directive | For each video watched, spend 10-15 minutes extra study. This study must include the course reading, and may be supplemented by any other of the resources referenced on the page, as you find most beneficial. |
Course materials for these roses are found here.
Season 1 – Course 3 – God and His Creation [three roses]
You will see the seedtime per rose is beginning to increase a bit. As the material moves on, there is more information given in the videos. However, the course is also moving on to grapple more directly with issues that are relevant to our spiritual lives – God and the soul – so hopefully there will be a correlative increase in how interesting the learning is to how much extra attention it may require.
Feedtime per rose has not been increased here, and if you feel you have come to grips with the material of the video in the 10-15 minutes extra study you can just continue onto part 4. However, if you prefer to dive more deeply into the material, feel free to spend more time. Listening, for example to the podcasts/soundcloud audio may be helpful and this can be part of your ‘feedtime’ if the reading takes less than the specified time for you. There are no further roses for spending extra time after what is specified listening to material – but as it is the work of a canonised saint, spending further time reading and studying the Summa can contribute towards spiritual reading perennial roses.
| Faith Formation | Aquinas 101 Part 3 – Roses A-C – God and His Creation – |
|---|---|
| Objective | Explore the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas on God and His Creation |
| Seedtime | 45 minutes for rose A (watch first 6 videos) 1 hour each for roses B and C (watch 7 videos for each) |
| Feedtime | Approx 1 hour 30 minutes (per rose) hour |
| Directive | For each video watched, spend 10-15 minutes extra study. This study must include the course reading, and may be supplemented by any other of the resources referenced on the page, as you find most beneficial. |
Course materials for these roses are found here.
Season 1 – Course 4 – Principles of the Moral Life [two roses]
The course continues onto the moral life. Advice/guidelines much the same as given above for Part 3.
| Faith Formation | Aquinas 101 Part 4 – Roses A-B – Principles of the Moral Life – |
|---|---|
| Objective | Explore St. Thomas Aquinas’ Principles of the Moral Life. |
| Seedtime | 55 minutes (per rose) – Watch 7 videos, averaging under 8 minutes each |
| Feedtime | Approx 1 hour 30 minutes (per rose) hour |
| Directive | For each video watched, spend 10-15 minutes extra study. This study must include the course reading, and may be supplemented by any other of the suggested resources on the page. |
Course materials for these roses are found here.
Season 1 – Course 5 – Theological and Cardinal Virtues [two roses]
These two roses break down to slightly less of a time commitment than the last few. Advice given for Part 3 remains the general guideline…
| Faith Formation | Aquinas 101 Part 5 – Roses A-B – Theological and Cardinal Virtues – |
|---|---|
| Objective | Come to know virtues more deeply through the thought of Aquinas. |
| Seedtime | 35 minutes (per rose) – Watch first 4 videos for Rose A Remaining 5 videos for part B |
| Feedtime | Approx 60-75 mins (per rose) hour |
| Directive | For each video watched, spend about 15 minutes extra study. This study must include the course reading, and may be supplemented by any other of the resources referenced on the page, as you find most beneficial. |
Course materials for these roses are found here.
Season 1 – Course 6 – Christ and the Sacraments [four roses]
Here less videos make up the seedtime, and we are asked to spend a little longer per video in ‘feedtime’ to come to grips with the roses. Whilst this might not be strictly necessary in order to generally understand the content, the idea is not to rush through these concepts which have such a direct application to our Catholic spiritual lives, and to give them a little more time to sink in deeply and change our prayer and experience.
| Faith Formation | Aquinas 101 Part 6 – Roses A-D – Christ and the Sacraments – |
|---|---|
| Objective | Look in more depth at the Incarnation and the Sacraments of the Church |
| Seedtime | 30-35 minutes (per rose) – Watch 4 videos for each rose |
| Feedtime | Approx 60-80 minutes (per rose) hour |
| Directive | For each video watched, spend 15-20 minutes extra study. This study must include the course reading, and may be supplemented by any other relevant resources, as you find most beneficial. |
Course materials for these roses are found here.
Season 1 – Course 7 – Virtue [two roses]
This is the seventh and final section, with two final roses to go!
| Faith Formation | Aquinas 101 Part 7 – Roses A-B – Virtue– |
|---|---|
| Objective | Explore Virtue through Thomistic teachings |
| Seedtime | 40 minutes (per rose) – Watch 5 videos, averaging about 8 minutes each |
| Feedtime | 1 hour 15 minutes (per rose) hour |
| Directive | For each video watched, spend 15 minutes extra study. This study must include the course reading, and may be supplemented by any other of the suggested resources on the page. |
Course materials for these roses are found here.
Conclusion!
If you’ve made it to here by working through all the roses above, praise God! I pray that your study has been blessed and helped you to draw closer to Jesus, and that in offering it to Him through Mary She has taken you in a special way under Her Mantle.
For now we have no specific follow on roses in the area of Aquinas and Metaphysics, but as the Thomistic Institute release more in their Second Series on Science and Faith, we will look at ways this this too might translate into roses, and update things.
In the meantime, feel free to try other roses, to undertake independent study or to simply move as the Spirit leads you! God bless.
Golden Rose 
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