Welcome to our daily rosary meditation. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

Today we meditate on the life of St. Thomas Aquinas, the universal doctor of the church, the most important teacher in the Catholic

Church. We have the great privilege of having Mass at the tomb of St. Thomas Aquinas in Toulouse.

Now, Thomas was born in 1225 near Aquino in Italy, into a noble family,

and at the age of five, he was sent to the Benedictine Abbey of Monacassino,

where he began his early education.

But when he was 15, the Emperor Frederick II, who was always fighting with the Pope,

he took over the monastery and the monks and the students they all had to leave.

So Thomas went to the University of Naples and this was very providential. Nothing happens except what God wills or allows.

And God wanted Thomas to go to Naples for the experience of two very important things.

First of all, it was in Naples that Thomas encountered the radical living of the Dominicans.

The Dominicans who lived this radical poverty

depending on divine providence for everything.

They lived poverty so that they could be free for prayer

and for study and for study

and for sharing the faith with others.

But secondly, it was there in Naples

that Thomas Aquinas encountered the writings

of the philosopher Aristotle.

So at the age of 19, totally against his family's wishes.

...