St. Thomas Aquinas

For students, scholars and anyone facing hard reading.

Aquinas wrote several million words in a working life of about twenty-five years. He prayed before he wrote, and his prayer before study asks for exactly the things a person doing serious intellectual work needs — and none of the things they might be tempted to ask for.

The Prayer

Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom,
origin of all being,
graciously let a ray of Your light penetrate
the darkness of my understanding.

Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born:
sin and ignorance.

Give me a keen understanding,
a retentive memory,
and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally.

Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations,
and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.

Point out the beginning,
direct the progress,
and help in the completion.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer After Study

Thank You, Lord, for what I have understood,
and for the patience to sit with what I have not.
Let what I have learned make me more useful
and less proud. Amen.

About This Prayer

The last line is the working writer’s prayer: point out the beginning, direct the progress, help in the completion. Anyone who has stared at a blank page knows those are three separate problems, and that the third is usually the worst.