Dear Parents,

Responding to increasing efforts of government authorities to limit the spread of COVID-19, the Board of Governors, pursuant to the unanimous recommendation of the College’s Instruction Committee, has authorized me to take the steps necessary to return students to the safety of their homes and families. Their education this academic year will not stop, however. They will be given guidance from the Dean’s Office to help them prepare for the commencement of online instruction, which will begin next week and continue until the semester’s work is complete.

Audio

“From Valley Forge to Appomattox: 
George Washington and the
Formation of the American Nation”

by The Hon. J. Leon Holmes
United States District Judge (retired)
Eastern District of Arkansas
President’s Day Lecture
California - February 21, 2020
New England - March 5, 2020
St. Vincent de Paul Lecture and Concert Series

On Thursday night, Chaplain Rev. Greg Markey organized a Rosary Procession “in reparation for our sins and the sins of our nation,” and with the intention of an end to the spread of the novel coronavirus afflicting the country and the world.

The procession, which began and ended at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel and worked its way around the New England campus, also remembered St. Gregory the Great’s Miraculous Procession to end the plague in 590 AD.

In light of recent developments regarding the novel coronavirus, Thomas Aquinas College is taking additional steps to minimize the disease’s potential effects on our two campuses.

On Wednesday morning Thomas Aquinas College’s chaplains began leading the community in praying the following Novena to St. Joseph for protection from the novel coronavirus. The novena will be recited at every Mass offered on campus, concluding on March 19, St. Joseph’s Feast Day.

Please join us in praying for the safety of the Thomas Aquinas College community, the health of those who are most vulnerable, and for all public-health officials who are working to contain COVID-19.

Novena to St. Joseph

On Tuesday, in between Don Rags sessions, students at Thomas Aquinas College, California, made their way to St. Augustine Hall for the semi-annual campus blood drive. United Blood Service set up a makeshift clinic in one of the classrooms, and donors dropped by throughout the day.

Each fall, during the mid-semester break for Don Rags, the students of Thomas Aquinas College host an Open-Mic Night to showcase their musical talents. On Wednesday night, the event took place on both campuses. In New England (above) the concert was held in Gould Hall, and in California (below), St. Joseph Commons.

Last weekend Meany Gymnasium hosted the championship games in this year’s intramural basketball tournament on the New England campus.

In the men’s tournament, the team captained by Ignatius Ifenuk (’22) bested the one led by Tony Burkhard (’23) 2-1 in the best-of-three-game series. In the women’s championship, sophomore Margaret Short’s team swept classmate Fiona Mohun’s squad in two straight games.

For the first time last Friday night, the students of Thomas Aquinas College, New England, participated in the Lenten practice of praying the Stations of the Cross in Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel. Their devotion was made possible thanks to the installation of 14 hand-painted stations — scenes depicting the passion and death of Christ — that now line the Chapel walls. Like their counterparts on the California campus, the New England stations have a noble history and reflect the role of Providence in the life of Thomas Aquinas College.

Below are photos from this afternoon’s Ash Wednesday Mass, attended by sudents, tutors, and their families in Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel on the New England campus …

… and photos from the midday Mass in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel in California: