Angelicum Thomistic Institute

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Angelicum Thomistic Institute

To foster theological research rooted in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas
(1)

16/06/2026

David Hume’s foundational critique positions miracles as violations of the immutable laws of nature. This lecture responds to the Humean challenge by re-evaluating the ontology of natural laws through a classical Thomistic lens. Rather than prescriptive dictates that bind reality, physical laws are properly understood as descriptive formulations of regularities arising from the inherent essences of created things. Because God is the transcendent First Cause and ultimate Author of nature, He maintains the unique prerogative to act praeter-naturam (apart from nature) to bring about miraculous effects directly.

Drawing upon contemporary Thomistic distinctions, this talk provides a precise definition of a miracle as a causally particular mode of divine governance (gubernatio divina) that goes beyond regular conservation. Finally, the lecture unpacks the essential mechanism that allows creatures to receive this extraordinary agency without violating their ontological integrity: potentia oboedientialis (obediential potency). As a metaphysical inclination residing within the essence of all created beings, obediential potency leaves nature perpetually open to being elevated and transformed by its Creator, demonstrating that miracles do not break nature, but fulfill a latent capacity within it.

12/06/2026

Happy Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!
"It was a divine decree that permitted one of the soldiers to open his sacred side with a lance. This was done so that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death on the cross, and so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: They shall look on him whom they pierced. The blood and water which poured out at that moment were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting.
Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove that nests in a hole in the cliff, keeping watch at the entrance like the sparrow that finds a home. There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, draw water from the wells of your Savior; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise, dividing into four rivers, inundating devout hearts, watering the whole earth and making it fertile.
Run with eager desire to this source of life and light, all you who are vowed to God’s service. Come, whoever you may be, and cry out to him with all the strength of your heart. “O indescribable beauty of the most high God and purest radiance of eternal light! Life that gives all life, light that is the source of every other light, preserving in everlasting splendor the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your divinity from the dawn of time! Eternal and inaccessible fountain, clear and sweet stream flowing from a hidden spring, unseen by mortal eye! None can fathom your depths nor survey your boundaries, none can measure your breadth, nothing can sully your purity. From you flows the river which gladdens the city of God and makes us cry out with joy and thanksgiving in hymns of praise to you, for we know by our own experience that with you is the source of life, and in your light we see light."

(From Office of Readings)

07/06/2026

Happy Feast of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ!

"Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bo***ge and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation."

31/05/2026

Blessed Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity!

"We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly, in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit."

(From Office of Readings)

25/05/2026

Join us for the last installment of our 2026 Online Series on Divine Action. Mariusz Tabaczek, O.P. will present on "Miracles and the Mechanics of Nature: Laws, Essences, and Potentia Oboedientialis in the Thomistic Tradition" https://bit.ly/49lD1cp

24/05/2026

Blessed Pentecost Sunday!
"When the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God.
He had promised through the prophets that in these last days he would pour out his Spirit on his servants and handmaids, and that they would prophesy. So when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed in this way to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God’s creation. The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ. Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant. So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the first-fruits of all the nations.
This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like lightning."

(From the Office of Readings)

15/05/2026

Join us on May 20th for the next installment of the Project for Science and Religion's online series on Divine Action. Walter Grant from the University of St. Thomas (MN) will speak on "Providence, Freedom, and the Efficacy of Prayer." Click the link for details: https://bit.ly/4u86T48

14/05/2026

🇱🇹 Tomistų Klubas, the new ATI Chapter in Kaunas, Lithuania, is holding its inaugural event on 20th May 2026. Dr. Lina Šulcienė, professor at Vytautas Magnus University, is speaking on the topic 'Pralaimeti Tiesai? Intelektualumo Paieškos Pagal Šv. Tomą Akvinietį'. The talk will be in held in Lithuanian.

Laukiame visų!

15/04/2026

🇱🇹 ATI director Fr. Philip-Neri Reese, O.P. is coming to Vilnius University on April 24th! The Sed Contra chapter are hosting a discussion between Fr. Reese and Prof. Monika Morkūnaitė on arguments for the existence of God at 14:00. This will be followed at 16:00 by a talk from Fr. Reese on the topic Thomism: Friend or Foe of the Ontotheological Critique? Laukiame visų!

12/04/2026

Blessed Sunday of Divine Mercy!

Indirizzo

Pontifical University Of Street Thomas, Largo Angelicum, 1
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https://angelicum.it/thomistic-institute/, https://angelicum.it/thomistic-institute/event/2026-student-summer-seminar-go

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