Looking for Summer Wisdom (and Sanity)? Albertus Magnus Center Offers July Course in Madison, Wisconsin

As per custom, the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies is offering a summer study program, this time in Madison, Wisconsin on St. Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Faith from the Secunda Secundae of the Summa Theologiae. The dates are July 27-31, 2020. In this Covid-19 world, it is a relief to know that some worthwhile social and ecclesial activities are getting underway again. The course will be accompanied by Traditional Latin Masses.

“Without Faith It Is Impossible To Please God” (Hebrews 11:6)

St. Thomas’ Treatise on Faith

The St. Albert the Great Center for Scholastic Studies will hold one of its annual summer theology sessions for the first time this year in Madison, Wisconsin, at the St. Paul University Catholic Center on the Campus of the University of Wisconsin. This program will be focused on a close reading of St. Thomas Aquinas’s treatise on the virtue of faith in his Summa Theologiae II-II.

The daily academic schedule will include lectures and discussion-style seminars. The seminars focus on a detailed reading of the great texts of the theological tradition, the aim of which is to arrive at a deeper knowledge of truth through a collaborative work of reasoned dialogue. The lectures provide an opportunity for certain topics that arise out of the reading to be explored in greater depth. One of the highlights of the course is the formal scholastic disputation to be held at the conclusion of the program.

In addition to the academic program, there will also be ample opportunity to participate in the rich liturgical life of St. Paul’s. Daily Mass will be available in the usus antiquior (‘extraordinary form’) of the Roman Rite. For our aim is not merely to study the sacred Scriptures but to contemplate the divine mysteries of the faith. Taking St. Thomas as our model both in study and in prayer, our studies draw their life from the sacred liturgy of the Church.

More details, including the profiles of the five faculty members, may be found here. 

Event: Third Summorum Pontificum Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, with Cardinal Burke, June 11-14, 2020

We are very excited to be able to announce this conference, which is being held under the auspices of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and Una Voce Mexico. It promises to be a very rich cultural and spiritual experience:

Summer Study Program on Galatians with Daily Traditional Mass

Overview: Each summer brings with it a number of opportunities for further education in congenial Catholic settings. This August 12-16, the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine and the Albert the Great Center for Scholastic Studies are partnering with the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest to offer a five-day theology program studying the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians with the aid of St. Thomas Aquinas's superb commentary.

Albert the Great Summer School in Wisconsin, August 12-16, 2019: Study St. Thomas on Galatians, with Daily Latin Mass

"No Longer I Who Live, But Christ In Me"

St. Thomas's Commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians

Albert the Great Summer Program 2019 – USA

August 12 – 16, in Wausau, Wisconsin

The Angelic Doctor

The Albert the Great Center, which has held summer programs in Norcia, Italy, for several years, is expanding its offerings by holding a summer theology program in the USA for the first time, in collaboration with The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine. The primary focus of this week-long intensive course will be St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, supported by St. Thomas Aquinas's superb commentary on the same.

According to St. Thomas, Galatians is about the grace of Christ as it exists in his Mystical Body, which is the Church, and in particular, as it exists in the sacraments of Church, for "in the letter ... superfluous sacraments are rejected against certain men who wanted to join the old sacraments to the new ones." Galatians and the commentary on it bring forward important considerations on the unchangeableness of sacred doctrine ("even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be anathema"), on the mystical identification of the Christian with Christ, on the setting-aside of the Old Covenant in consequence of its messianic fulfillment, and on the confrontation of Church hierarchs by their subjects -- all subjects under considerable discussion in our day.

Event: Seventh Annual Sacred Liturgy Conference, May 28-31, 2019, in Spokane, Washington

Registration is now open for the 7th annual Sacred Liturgy Conference, hosted this year by the Diocese of Spokane.

Schola Cantus Angelorum is pleased to announce the seventh annual Sacred Liturgy Conference, to be held in Spokane Washington from May 28 to 31, 2019. It will take place at the state-of-the-art Hemmingson Center on the campus of Gonzaga University. The liturgies will be held at the beautiful nearby Churches of St Aloysius and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes. 

St Aloysius

Norcia summer theology program, June 17-28

From June 17–28, 2018, the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies, in partnership with the Monks of Norcia, will hold its seventh summer theology program in Norcia, Italy.

This summer’s program will be “Human Suffering and Divine Providence: Thomas’s Commentary on the Book of Job.” We will read and discuss St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Job, considered one of the saint’s finest Biblical commentaries, dedicated to a close analysis of an Old Testament book that has always been a favorite with preachers, moralists, and artists.

Norcia Summer Theology Program - Syllabus & Last Call for Enrollment

The 2017 Norcia Summer Theology Program of the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies, "Divine Power in a Hidden Way," dedicated to the theology of the sacraments, will be starting up in a month's time: July 2-14. We still have room for last-minute applications, so if you've been tottering on the edge about coming, now's the time to make the final decision. A full description of the program and practical details may be found at the above link.

The syllabus for the seminars will be as follows (each seminar to be based on a reading from St. Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences IV):

Announcing the 2017 Summer Theology Program in Norcia -- Aquinas on the Sacraments

Agriturismo Casale - the base of our operations

The Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies is happy to announce that registration is now open for the July 2017 summer theology program in the town of Norcia. This will be our sixth summer program since 2011. We are especially excited to be studying the sacraments, with a close look at baptism and the Holy Eucharist, through the lens of Book IV of the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard by St. Thomas Aquinas, which has some of the Angelic Doctor's most extensive and intriguing discussions of sacramental theology from his entire career. The program directors will be Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P., Christopher Owens, and Peter Kwasniewski. Fr. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., the founding prior of Norcia, will join us for a lecture and conversation.

Update on the Norcia Summer Theology Program -- Still Accepting Applications

As mentioned here before, the beautiful ancient town of Norcia -- home of the traditional Benedictine monks famed for their Gregorian chant and artisanal beer -- will be the backdrop of the fifth annual Summer Theology Program of the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies. The course runs from July 10–24, 2016 (the instructional part runs until July 22, with an optional weekend in Rome the last couple of days).

This year our theme is the Epistle to the Hebrews. With this short but inexhaustibly profound sacred text as the primary point of reference, participants will follow the great interpretive tradition of the Church, especially as found in St. Thomas Aquinas's unsurpassed commentary.

I am glad this year to be on the faculty, together with Fr. Thomas Crean, OP, Fr. Cassian Folsom, OSB, and other tutors.

The daily schedule will allow participants easy access to the rich liturgical life of the Benedictine monks -- daily Low Masses, High Mass, and the chanted Divine Office, celebrated at the birthplace of SS. Benedict & Scholastica. The schedule includes the town’s festive celebration of the Feast of St. Benedict on July 11th, pilgrimages to the nearby towns of Assisi and Cascia, and the aforementioned final weekend in Rome.

Event: English-Language Summer School in France, accompanied by the Traditional Latin Mass

We have received the following announcement from the Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian. (We have slightly edited it for this posting). 

Last year, at the initiative of Bp. Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon, the the Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian hosted an English-language Summer School (Pro Civitate Dei, aimed at the renewal of Catholic culture) for young Catholics in the south of France.  

The Summer School consisted of lectures, discussions, informal conversations, times of conviviality and acts of piety. Every day we had sung Lauds, Vespers and Compline, as well as a High Mass, all in the Extraordinary Form. In the course of the Summer School, one of the participants, a former Protestant, was received into the Catholic Church. 

In 2016 we will repeat this same programme, from May 30 until June 5. You can read more on the Pro Civitate Dei blog. 

More pictures of this year's Summer School can be found in an album at the Fraternity's Facebook page: Pro Civitate Dei Summer School.

The Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian (Fraternidad de San José Custodio - FSJC) is a Public Association of the Faithful that was founded in 2010 by Bishop Dominique Rey of Frejus-Toulon. It got its own seminary last year, with the mandate to form priests from North and South America in order to serve as missionaries in Europe. While it is theoretically "bi-formal" with the seminarians being taught both forms of the Roman Rite, it has a clear predilection for the Vetus Ordo. We have previously posted about the work of this seminary (see The New World Steps Forth to the Rescue and Liberation of the Old: A Seminary in Europe and for Europe with Vocations from the Americas and Report and Events of the Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian: - the New World evangelizing the Old.)