Adoro Te Devote

“For your love I have studied and toiled and kept vigil.”St. Thomas Aquinas

Many pastors, theologians, and students will relate to Aquinas’ language above regarding studying, toiling, and late nights of vigil – and some would probably attribute the difficulty of understanding Aquinas himself as the cause of such labors! In addition, those entrenched in today’s tendency toward compartmentalization may find themselves focusing exclusively on the second half of Aquinas’ sentence. As a result, they may miss seeing the motivation, foundation, and ultimately the end towards which Aquinas directed these actions: love. To counter this, Paul Murray’s book, Aquinas at Prayer: The Bible, Mysticism and Poetry, aims to use Aquinas’ prayers, Scriptural commentaries, and poetry, to show this saints’ interior love of God. Murray’s work is not merely a devotional text, nor is it meant to be. Instead, it aims to shape the readers’ view of theological work and beckons them to seek the same interior synthesis that shaped Aquinas’ life and work.

Reply to Objection

Before examining the heart of this theologian, philosopher, and poet, Murray feels a burning necessity to dispel doubts he assumes many of his readers, especially those venturing into scholastic texts for the first time, hold. Surely someone who writes with such an intellectual tenor was too committed to the next step of deductive logic to bend to the movements of the Holy Spirit? Wasn’t his prayer a self-directed conversation about the next article to be written in the Summa? Surely someone so intent on clarifications, distinctions, and analogies couldn’t be motivated by love to an outpouring of poetic verse?

Although it only comprises a small percentage of the book, Murray’s response to these questions is one of the strongest sections of the work and is essential for understanding subsequent chapters. By harnessing an understanding of medieval culture, and most importantly, relevant quotes from Aquinas himself, he demonstrates that Aquinas does not draw such a simplistic distinction between head and heart. Rather, Murray reveals that Aquinas views rigorous study as a means to perfect both the intellectual and the affectual parts of a man such that “not only does he receive…knowledge into his mind, he also becomes one thing with [it]… by love and affection.” (pg. 10) Murray also invites the reader to view all of Aquinas’ life through the lens of his final days, where Aquinas, after seeing a mystical vision of heavenly things, puts down his pen, announces “everything seems as so much straw in comparison,” and lives out his few remaining days marked by silence. As Murray claims, “It is the silence of a man, living for years in the midst of the ordinary squabbles and conflicts of academe, who was yet able to be somehow at ease, and to live a quite extraordinary interior life. It is the silence of a mystic on campus.” (pg. 29)

Aquinas as a Model for Students of Divine Truth

Having dismissed these objections from his reader’s mind, Murray launches into the heart of his exposition, bringing the best of textual analysis, literary techniques, and linguistic knowledge to bear on Aquinas’ lesser-known texts and to demonstrate Aquinas’ passionate interior life. It is at this point that a casual reader may find their mind wandering. But the scholar will be invited to see Aquinas as a model for imitation in his humble integration of prayer, theology, and life.

First, Murray insists that Aquinas’ copious production of books was not an insatiable attempt to satisfy the vice of curiosity but rather is an indicator that Aquinas truly experienced his work as a form of prayer. Various theologians describe the process of reaching union with God using different points of emphasis; Aquinas emphasizes reaching this goal by a living knowledge of God.Various theologians describe the process of reaching union with God using different points of emphasis; Aquinas emphasizes reaching this goal by a living knowledge of God. Share on X Thus, according to Murray, we can ascertain that as Aquinas grew in living knowledge, he began to increasingly enter into this union. This union is what drove his seemingly super-human exposition of knowledge. Murray illustrates this point most clearly with a prayer he attributes to Aquinas: “May all work that is done for you delight me, Lord, and all response not centered on your presence be wearisome.” (pg. 47)

In the reverse direction, as Murray develops his analysis, he continually highlights examples of Thomistic theological principles shaping both Aquinas’ prayer life and non-scholarly works. For example, in his discussion of the “Prayer to Obtain the Virtues”, commonly but not definitively attributed to Aquinas, Murray convincingly highlights how profoundly Thomistic the structure of theological, cardinal, and minor virtues is in the prayer. To Murray, not only does this attest to Thomas’ authorship but also serves as an example of complete harmony of the expressions of the heart and the framework of the mind. Elsewhere, Murray identifies Aquinas’ heart as a teacher as he translates his theological premises to simple verse:

Christ, Good Shepherd, bread divine /

show to us your mercy sign.

Feed us still, still keep us thine /

that we may see your glory shine in the kingdom of the good. (pg. 235)

Finally, Murray frequently identifies the theme of humility in Aquinas’ work as strong evidence for and an example of a deep and active spiritual life. Lest any lingering doubt remain in his readers’ minds regarding this, Murray highlights Aquinas’ modest requests for prayer in his inaugural lecture as a Master of the Sacred Page and the rare use of “I” in a prayer about personal insufficiency. Murray portrays an Aquinas who was acutely aware of his own interior poverty in the face of an encounter with the majesty of God. Murray portrays an Aquinas who was acutely aware of his own interior poverty in the face of an encounter with the majesty of God. Share on X

Clarification and Conclusion

Murray’s work, comprehensive although not needlessly long, won’t consistently engage all readers. Murray attempts to satisfy the differing interests of the modern mystic, the skeptical scholar, and the literary critic, but unless one finds himself to be the rare combination of all three, it’s likely that some sections will be found to be unnecessarily detailed. In addition, Murray’s esteem for Aquinas threatens at points to obscure his argumentation – he is not coming to Aquinas as an impartial observer and attempting to adjudicate the facts of his prayer life, but rather as an impassioned student and friar in the same religious order eager to guide his readers into an encounter with his mentor.

Yet, precisely because of this, Murray is able to convince the reader to let Aquinas’ prayer life illuminate one’s own. Aquinas’ scholarly works may still seem marked by a divide between head and heart, but Murray is able to effectively argue that this doesn’t mean that there was a distinction in his soul. Rather, Murray’s book calls for us to study Aquinas’ works in harmony and prefer none as an exclusive model. Murray ultimately draws the reader to consider whether his own theological work reflects a differentiated interior and exterior or is merely a selective outflow from an integrated mind and heart.

Murray concludes his book with a reflection of Aquinas’ famous hymn, Adoro Te Devote (Devoutly, I Adore You), written regarding Holy Communion. It is a fitting topic for Murray to end on, since much of Murray’s book argues that Aquinas’ spiritual life shares aspects with the Incarnation represented within this hymn – hidden, quiet, seemingly ordinary, but a home for the presence of God bursting into the world.

“For your love I have studied and toiled and kept vigil.”

St. Thomas Aquinas

Image Credit: Diego Fornero | Flickr