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THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE E-LETTER
NOVEMBER 2020
 
 
 
 
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CAMPUS LIFE 
MULTIMEDIA
 
   
Construction Update on the John Paul II Athletic Center Update on the John Paul II Athletic Center  
     
Dr. John F. Nieto: Arguments Against Listening to Rock Music Dr. John F. Nieto: Against
Rock & Roll
 
     
Fr. Buckley: TAC as “The Cherry on Top of the Whipped Cream” Fr. Buckley:
TAC as the
“Cherry on Top”
 
     
Lecture: Dr. Carol A. Day on the Place of Books 7-9 in Euclid’s Elements Dr. Carol A. Day on Books 7-9 in Euclid’s Elements  
     
Rev. Mark Bachmann, O.S.B. (’82) on “The Catholic Man” Podcast Rev. Mark Bachmann (’82) on “Catholic Man”   
     
New Issue of the Aquinas Review New Issue of
The Aquinas Review
 
     
Educational Entrepreneur Margaret Walsh (’15) on EWTN (Part 1) Margaret Walsh (’15) on EWTN
(Part 1)
 
     
Educational Entrepreneur Margaret Walsh (’15) on EWTN (Part 2) Margaret Walsh (’15) on EWTN
(Part 2)
 
     
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  UPCOMING EVENTS  
   
Thanksgiving Day
No classes / office holiday
November 26
 
   
Day After Thanksgiving
No classes / office holiday
November 27
 
   
First Semester Examinations
December 4-11
 
   
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
No classes / office holiday
December 8
 
   
Christmas Vacation
December 12 - January 10
 
   
Residence Halls Close
December 12
 
   
Christmas Eve
December 24
Office holiday
 
   
Christmas
December 25
Office holiday
 
   
New Year’s Eve
December 31
Office holiday
 
   
Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God
January 1
Office holiday
 
   
Residence Halls Re-open
January 9, 12:00pm
 
   
Second semester classes begin
January 11
 
   
Legatus Summit East Seminar:
Knowing Your Faith

January 14
 
   
Feast of St. Thomas
January 28
 
   
 IMEMORIAM  
   
Billie John Ellis
September 17
Benefactor


Martin Scheller Morehart
October 8
Benefactor

Paule M. Ford
October 16
Mother of Catherine (O’Donnell ’77), Paul (’78), Marguerite (Grimm ’79), Patrice (Atchley ’81), and Jacqueline (Lemmon ’87); grandmother of Genevieve Grimm (’05), Michael Grimm (’06), Maria (Mochow ’07), Paula Grimm (’08), Cecilia (Lemmon ’10) Dickman, Matthew Grimm (’10), Clare Atchley (’12), Kateri (Lemmon ’13) Whalen, Liam Atchley (’14), Angelique (Cotugno ’14), Adrienne (LaFave ’14), Br. Faustino (Sebastian’14) Lemmon , Sarah Lemmon (’16), Thomas (’17), Juliet Atchley (’18), Teresa (’19), Rose (Lemmon ’20) Brittain, Dominique Atchley (’22), Therese Lemmon (’22), and Abraham Lemmon (’24)

Lawrence M. Reilley
October 26
Member of the Los Angeles & Ventura Board of Regents

Martha Mary Rita Smillie
October 24 
Mother of Mark (’83), Susanne (Munro ’85), John (’87), and Andrew Smillie (’95); grandmother of Marie (Cantu ’10), Katie (Meckley ’10), Clare (Forrester ’12), Tess (Hohne ’13), Monica (’14), Sara (Finnegan ’15), Margaret (Bascom ’16); Michael (’18), Ciara (’21), and Hannah (’24)

Irene Montgomery
October 26
Wife of College Governor Mark Montgomery

Alex Trebek
November 8
Friend

 
   
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HOLY TRANSFORMATION
Ongoing Renovations in New England Chapel

When Thomas Aquinas College acquired the century-old, former site of a New England preparatory school in 2017, it inherited a chapel that was all but perfect for its new campus — grand, beautiful, historic and spacious — save for one important exception: Constructed in 1909 for a school founded by the charismatic evangelist Dwight L. Moody, Russell Sage Chapel was designed for Protestant worship and, as such, lacked many of the essentials for Catholic liturgy.

Aided by a generous gift from an anonymous benefactor, the College has since begun to transform the Chapel for Catholic use. Last year it renamed the building in honor of its new patroness, Our Mother of Perpetual Help, and many more benefactors stepped forward to provide chalices, vestments, holy water fonts, and other key liturgical items. Meanwhile, construction crews have worked on numerous renovations, some large, others small, to make Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel a fitting home for Our Eucharistic Lord.

“The character of the Chapel is growing as we’re growing,” remarks Irene Collins, a sophomore on the New England campus, which has seen its student body double in size in just one year. Adds Dean Thomas J. Kaiser, “It’s amazing that this chapel, which suits our needs so well, was built by non-Catholics over 100 years ago. Looking at the design of this whole campus — but especially the Chapel — it seems that God had something in mind for us all along.”

► Continue reading
 
 

Drawing of the planning sanctuary and raredos

Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon outside chapel

Station of the Cross inside: Jesus Dies on the Cross

Sanctuary, currently under construction.
 

A PILGRIMAGE FOR LIFE
Sister Visits the Site where Angela Baird (’00) Died Praying for the Unborn

For many  years Madalene Baird has wanted to hike in the Los Padres National Forest, just outside the California campus of Thomas Aquinas College, to see for herself the place where her sister Angela (’00) died in 1997. One week ago, she finally got the opportunity.

“I had always thought that if I ever come to Southern California again, I would go do that hike, and then a friend invited me to visit,” says Madalene, the director of religious education at her parish in Walla Walla, Washington.. “We had talked about coming out sometime around the second weekend of November, and I pulled up the calendar to see what that Friday was. I stopped when I saw the date: November 6” — exactly 23 years after Angela’s death.
“It hit me really hard,” she says. “I thought, ‘This cannot be a coincidence. It would be so beautiful to do the hike on the anniversary.’”

On November 5, 1997, Angela Baird and a group of fellow TAC students were taking advantage of a mid-semester break to go camping, when she slipped on some rough terrain and plunged 60 feet down a rocky, sheer cliff. She died early the next morning in an operating room in neighboring Ventura.

But there is much more to Angela’s story.

► Continue reading

 

Madalene Baird next to the cross marking the site of her sister's fatal fall.
Madalene Baird 

Angela Baird ('00)
Angela Baird ('00)
 
 

FROM TRAGEDY TO A “BEAUTIFUL COMING TOGETHER”
New England Sophomore Enters Fully into Life of the Church

Students, tutors, and their family members recently gathered in Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel on the campus of Thomas Aquinas College New England, for a joyous occasion: Sophomore Benjamin Domnarski made his First Holy Communion and received the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Born and raised only an hour away in Palmer, Massachusetts, Ben received little catechesis as a boy. Although baptized, he attended Mass only a handful of times and never understood the significance of what he saw at the Catholic liturgy. By the time he was a teenager, he was living what he describes as an agnostic lifestyle. Nearing the end of high school, he seriously considered a career in graphic design and attending art school. But then tragedy upended his plans. 

In July of 2019, Ben’s mother experienced a serious fall while working in the family’s barn, passing away shortly after. “It was totally unexpected; it was out of left field,” Ben recalls. “And it was at a time in my life when you’re at this major juncture between adult and child,” What held him together through this period of suffering was prayer. Prompted by this great loss to search more earnestly for God, Ben told his family, while still at the hospital, that he intended to look more seriously into the Catholic faith.

► Full story   

 

Ben Domnarski ('23)
Ben Domnarski ('23)
 
 

FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College's Alumni Blog

• “Consuming politics in the same way we root for our favorite sports teams is comfortable,” writes Dr. Lane (Smith ’04) Scott in American Greatness, the political website for which she serves as an assistant editor. “We flatter ourselves that we are an informed, self-governing people.” A scholar, a farmer, a writer, and a homeschooling mother of five, Dr. Scott takes to task fellow conservatives and Christians who grouse about the recent elections without taking stock of their own involvement in it, or lack thereof. “Real political action takes time and sacrifice. Self-rule — self-government — is much more difficult than spectator politics,” she contends. “We must show up at the polls — not just to vote, but also to work, observe, and oversee.”

• The subprior of Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey in Hulbert, Oklahoma, where 10 Thomas Aquinas College alumni are brothers, Rev. Mark Bachmann, O.S.B. (’82) recently appeared as a guest on “The Catholic Man” podcast. Over the course of the one-hour interview, he spoke of the importance of Gregorian chant, both to his Benedictine community and to the Church as a whole. Chanting the Divine Office requires a certain amount of “investment” in terms of education and work, he explains, but its beauty and richness give meaning — and bear witness to — the prayerful life of a monk. “We’re getting in tune, we’re meeting up with the way the Church has prayed for centuries and centuries.”

• Educational Entrepreneur Margaret Walsh (’15) recently appeared on consecutive episodes of EWTN’s At Home with Jim & Joy to discuss her company, Secret Garden Educational Pathways, which offers tutoring and remediation service for students with special needs. In the course of the interviews, she spoke of her time at the College, as well as the way her faith and her education have informed her ministry, which she likened to a vocation. “Seeing the connection between special education and the philosophy and theology I was doing in college was really eye-opening for me,” she said. “Even though students who have special learning needs might learn a little differently, it still follows a pattern that Aristotle saw long ago.”

► Faith in Action blog
 
 

Dr. Lane (Smith ’04) Scott
Dr. Lane (Smith ’04) Scott

Rev. Mark Bachmann, O.S.B. (’82)
Rev. Mark Bachmann, O.S.B. (’82)

Margaret Walsh (’15)
Margaret Walsh (’15)
 
 

PRAYERS FOR CHRISTMAS
Chaplains to Offer Novena of Masses

Beginning on December 16, and ending on Christmas Eve, the chaplains of Thomas Aquinas College will offer the College’s Annual Christmas Novena of Masses. “We first came up with the idea for the Christmas Novena five years ago, as a way for the College’s friends to pray for their loved ones and their intentions,” says President Michael F. McLean. “The idea was so well received that the Novena has become an annual tradition.”
 
Each person enrolled in the Novena will receive a beautiful, personalized card from the College. On the front, the card features a nighttime photo of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, framed by a seasonal green border. Inside, it informs recipients of their inclusion in the Novena, as well as the name of their sponsors. The cost for each card, which includes shipping and handling, is $5.
 
More than just a Christmas greeting, the Novena card brings the promises of nine Holy Masses and the prayers of the students, faculty, chaplains, and staff of Thomas Aquinas College. “This is a wonderful way for our friends to include their loved ones in the spiritual life of the College,” says Dr. McLean. “We invite everyone to enroll, and hope all of our friends will join us in praying for the entire College community this Advent and Christmas.”

► Enroll now!

 

A Christmas Novena
 





 

 
 
 
 
 
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