Another Academic Year Begins at the Dominican House of Studies!
August 29, 2014
The 2014-2015 academic year kicked off this week at the Dominican House of Studies, beginning with a Mass of the Holy Spirit on Monday, August 25th. In his homily Fr. John Langlois, OP, president of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, exhorted faculty and students to be ever mindful of the goal of teaching and learning in a Dominican context: the salvation of souls. The Dominican studentate boasts its largest number in over forty years, with fifty-four student brothers at various levels of formation attending classes at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. The Pontifical Faculty’s new students includes the newest members of the studentate, fourteen simply professed brothers recently assigned to the House of Studies following their yearlong novitiate in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Pontifical Faculty also welcomes this year five instructors who are new or who have returned after being away for some years: Fr. Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap., lecturing on contemporary Christology; Fr. Mark Mealy, OSFS, and Ms. Sofia Seguel, both teaching Canon Law courses; Sr. Maria Kiely, OSB, teaching Greek; and Mr. David Grothoff teaching philosophy. To meet the needs of the student body that now ranges from pre-theology studies to the Doctorate of Sacred Theology, well over twenty professors are teaching courses this semester. May all teachers and students this year be inspired and assisted by the intercession of St. Thomas Aquinas: O Infinite Creator, who in the riches of Thy wisdom didst appoint three hierarchies of Angels and didst set them in wondrous order over the highest heavens, and who didst apportion the elements of the world most wisely: do Thou, who art in truth the fountain of light and wisdom, deign to shed upon the darkness of my understanding the rays of Thine infinite brightness, and remove far from me the twofold darkness in which I was born, namely, sin and ignorance. Do Thou, who givest speech to the tongues of little children, instruct my tongue and pour into my lips the grace of Thy benediction. Give me keenness of apprehension, capacity for remembering, method and ease in learning, insight-in interpretation, and copious eloquence in speech. Instruct my beginning, direct my progress, and set Thy seal upon the finished work, Thou, who art true God and true Man, who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.
✠
Image: Mass of the Holy Spirit, August 25th, 2014, DHS
