Book Review: Praying in the Presence of Our Lord by Mike Aquilina

Praying in the Presence of Our Lord: With Saint Thomas Aquinas by Mike Aquilina

Thomas Aquinas, a great technical and precise theologian of the 1200s, was given the task of creating poems to be part of the liturgy for the newly-declared Feast of Corpus Christi. The feast celebrates the Incarnation, the Second Person of the Trinity made flesh like us, especially in the Eucharist, the sacrament whereby we receive His very Body and Blood. Thomas's poetry has became a staple in the Catholic Church, though few know that he wrote Pange, Lingua or Panis Angelicus or Adoro Te Devote. They are different in style from the Scholastic precision of his Summa Theologiae. The Summa is dry and hard to read with out some preparation and training in scholastic writing. The hymns are lyrical and vivid. But all his writings are one in content, having the love of and for God at their centers.

Aquilina presents these five poems (the other two being Lauda, Sion and Verbum Supernum) in Latin and English with seven short meditations, each on a few lines from the poem. Aquilina draws insights from Thomas's other works to expand the meaning and the significance of the hymns. He also connects them to our spiritual lives. In the introduction, Aquilina recommends using these meditations the way Thomas usually prayed, in the Eucharistic presence. I did not have that luxury with this reading but hopefully in a future re-read I can. The book ends with Thomas's prayers before and after communion, so the book would be handy to take to daily Mass.

This book is a fine devotional for spending a good, long month with Thomas and Jesus.

Highly recommended.