This lecture was originally announced on Rorate last year (in this post).
From the International Society of Scholastics:
That man's very rational nature demands he give worship to God is an important conclusion of Thomistic ethics -- that supernatural worship builds on the natural, is equally important. Yet in the debates on liturgy in the last forty years little time has been spent examining man's nature and using this as a basis for evaluating religious ceremonies.
On Saturday 20th March, Patrick W. McCloskey, Executive Director of the International Society of Scholastics, will use the philosophical and scientific principles developed by St. Thomas Aquinas to investigate the kind of worship man's rational nature demands of him. He will then examine which approach to the Mass cooperates with these natural requirements and which frustrates these natural requirements - since it is the same God who instructs us to have Mass and who created man's nature, it would be a contradiction in God's providence for Him to prefer worship which is less conducive to this nature.
This lecture will be presented in the Sapientis Online Education virtual classroom, where you will have the chance to interact with students and instructors live, using the latest in internet conferencing technology.
After a short three hours, using reason alone, you will be able to explain:
-Why man needs to worship God.
-The connection between internal and external worship.
-What external worship should look like in order to realize this connection.
This course is recommended for anyone involved in promoting either the Traditional Latin Mass or a more reverent form of the Novus Ordo or, in fact, any one promoting reverence in any other of the Church's liturgies. As the approach is based on logic and common-sense philosophical principles it should enable you to show friends, family, the choir director and perhaps even the parish liturgical committee why the liturgy should be reverent.
A follow-up discussion will be hosted on the ISS blog "Veritas Rerum" to help you further refine your understanding and answer objections.
Course details:
When: this Saturday, March 20th at 12:00 noon EST.
Where: Online! After you sign up we will email to you the classroom link, password, and instructions.
Price: $15 per computer (you may invite as many people as can fit around your monitor!)
If you are unable to attend, you can still sign-up and we will email you a recording of the talk in mp3 format together with any handout materials.
