Some books lift the spirit. Others improve character. Others sharpen the mind. This one does all three.

Truly great Catholic devotional books that transform you heart, intellect and soul can be counted on the fingers of two hands. This is one of them.

Drawn from St. Thomas Aquinas’s masterpiece, the Summa Theologicae, and from his other writings, it features:

365 daily meditations, for each day of the liturgical year
Retreat conferences for priests and for the laity
St. Thomas’s magnificent hymns ...

... all translated from Aquinas’s Latin into simple English. Together, these meditations will:
enliven and enrich lackluster spiritual life
stimulate growth in virtue, and give strength to resist vice
improve your grasp of essential dogmas and doctrines
aid in proper reception of the Holy Eucharist, and in making good confessions.

“These meditations may truly be called a compendium of the Summa, since they are culled mostly therefrom ... and arranged, with references to the original, for daily use throughout the year,” observes translator E.C. McEniry, OP. The book is ingeniously organized:

PART ONE: For Advent, excerpts from St. Thomas on the Incarnation, followed by sections on the Birth of Our Lord, His Infancy and Public Life. For Lent: reflections on Our Lord’s Sufferings and Death on the Cross. For Easter and afterwards: your regeneration through grace, through glorification and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and through the Eucharist, ending with the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

PART TWO: From July through Advent, five sections deal with God and His Attributes, the Three Ways of Spiritual Advancement (purgative, illuminative and unitive), and finally St. Thomas’s treatment of the Four Last Things.
Following the meditations are 17 topics (with exercises) for spiritual retreats from St. Thomas, including “The State of Perfection,” “The Good Use of Time,” “The Necessity of the Three Vows,” and “The Works of the Active Life”
Lastly, prayers by St. Thomas for before and after Communion, for obtaining virtues and other special intentions -- and a short prayer which Aquinas himself said every day

Reminders for you, from St. Thomas’s 365 daily meditations (partial list) The Greatness of Divine Love * If Man Had Not Sinned, Would God Have Become Man? * Four Blessings of Christ’s Birth * Suitableness of the Holy Name * The Virginity of Mary * The Diligence of the Magi * Mary Interceding with Jesus * The Active Life of Christ * Christ’s Poverty * The Conversion of St. Paul * The Priesthood of Christ * A Compendium of Christ’s Teaching * How We Should Be Disposed Towards the Word of God * The Usefulness of Meditating on the Mysteries of Christ * The Presentation of Christ in the Temple * How to Offer Ourselves to God * The Yoke of Christ * The Imitation of Christ * The Study of Wisdom * The State of Sinners * The Narrow Gate * The Renunciation of Worldly Things * Good Works * The Necessity of Carefulness * Interior Reformation

536pp. Hardcover.