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Teaching Young People How to Think

Invocation by the Cardinal-Archbishop of Los Angeles

(35th Anniversary 2007 Newsletter)

Before leading you in our invocation this evening, I would like to first of all offer my congratulations to Thomas Aquinas College. One can think of a variety of qualities, virtues, and attributes of this College, but the one that comes to mind most readily to me and is the most satisfying is that unlike so many other places of higher learning, Thomas Aquinas College teaches young men and women how to think.

It is amazing the people I meet, young people who have graduated from places of higher learning who simply never learned how to think, never learned how to find the roots, the principles, and the values for their own beliefs in life, much less the profession or career in which they are engaged.

So, of all the many tributes one could give to Thomas Aquinas College, I would say thank you for teaching generation after generation of young men and women, steeped in our Catholic faith and tradition, to learn how to think and to search for the truth, aided by our Faith. That is a tremendous contribution you make, and I hope you go on making it for hundreds of years to come.

Given the great faith tradition of Thomas Aquinas College, I have decided to use as the invocation the prayer we used for meals during the recent conclave in Rome to elect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. It is in Latin, so feel free to join in.

Benedicite.
Edent pauperes et saturabuntur. Et laudabunt Dominum qui requirunt Eum. Vivent corda eorum in saeculum saeculi.
Gloria Patri....
Pater noster....
Oremus.
Benedic, Domine, nos et haec tua dona, quae de tua largitate sumus sumpturi.
Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Jube, Domine, benedicere.
Ad cenam vitae aeternae perducat nos
Rex aeternae gloriae.
Amen.

-- 35th Anniversary 2007