Wisdom from the Old Testament on Prayer and the Spiritual Life – Fr. Stephen Ryan, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Thomism, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Catholicism, Philosophy, Christianity

4.8 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fr. Stephen Ryan argues that the Old Testament remains a vital guide to prayer and the spiritual life because Scripture reveals God’s friendship, sanctifies time, and forms the practices of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.

This lecture was given on February 19th, 2026, at University of Tulsa.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Fr. Stephen Ryan was born and raised in Boston and entered the Order of Preachers in 1987. He was ordained a priest in 1993 and, on completion of doctoral studies in Scripture, was assigned to the Dominican House of Studies in 2000. He teaches Scripture and the biblical languages.

Keywords: Almsgiving, Ascetical Life, Bible And Prayer, Friendship With God, Liturgical Year, Old Testament, Prayer, Sabbath, Spiritual Life

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Timistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.3	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:22.5	to mystic institute.org. By God's grace and by faith and by the sacraments, we've been made members
0:33.7	of this family of God. God created the world for communion to draw us into communion with
0:44.0	himself. A communion brought about in and through the church. And we've been caught up in that
0:50.9	great dragnet of the kingdom and share in the life of the church,
0:55.3	a divine institution founded by Christ with ancient roots stretching back to Abraham,
1:01.3	our father in faith. St. Thomas Aquinas held that the ancient fathers, and I think here he was
1:07.9	thinking of people like Moses or Isaiah or Jeremiah.
1:13.4	They, by observing the sacraments of the law, that is the rights of the Old Testament law,
1:20.9	were brought towards Christ through the same faith and the same love that we are still brought towards him. He said that in the suma
1:31.1	in the third part, question eight. This is because the grace of the new law that is the Holy Spirit
1:37.6	preceded the state of the new law. God's spirit was active in the world from the very first day of creation.
1:47.7	Seating, I want to return to the Old Testament to recover some aspects of biblical teaching
1:53.1	on God, on prayer, and the spiritual life that remain directly relevant to our lives today.
2:01.5	In approaching this from a biblical perspective, one of the central truths I'd like to convey
2:06.8	has been summarized by St. John Paul II in this sentence.
2:11.3	The Word of God is the first source of all Christian spirituality.
2:17.6	The Church uses this phrase the Word of God in three ways.
2:22.0	It refers, first of all, to Jesus Christ, the word spoken by the Father,
	...

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