Contemplating Life: Book Review 5

"It is no great thing to live long, nor even to live forever; but it is indeed a great thing to live well Oh, let us love eternal life!" 

On Prayer and the Contemplative Life by St. Thomas Aquinas

As I've said in the last blog post, part of my goal in reading and reviewing the books I have is to stretch my mind. My intent is to grow in areas that I would not readily grow in, whether that means reading massive volumes of history, study naturopathic methods, or immerse myself in philosophy.
Thomas Aquinas accomplishes the latter.

"There are two kinds of lives in which Almighty God instructs us by His Sacred Word - namely, the active and the contemplative."

 I found his work both intellectually stimulating as well as spiritually challenging. As a Reformed Christian, I have spent the bulk of my teenage and adult life studying Reformed theology. And I have found that throughout the years there are certain points of Christian practice that become rote. Thomas Aquinas breathes warmth and fervor into the practice of prayer. My understanding was renewed with his (and Augustine's, who is quoted frequently throughout the book) fervor.

"In the one we toil that so the heart my be purified for the Vision of God, in the other we repose and we see God; the one is spent in the practice of the precepts of this temporal life, the other is occupied with the teachings of the life that is eternal." 

I highly recommend this book to any Christian wanting to deepen and challenge their understanding of prayer and of living the Christian life. Thomas Aquinas also makes some very well-thought-out arguments for Roman Catholic practices (praying to saints, the monastic orders, etc.) that I have often arbitrarily brushed off as wrong without really understanding them. While I still do not agree with these practices, it is good to be challenged by them. I came away with a deeper understanding of my own faith, as well as a renewed zeal and love for prayer and a life devoted to God.