The Service of Wisdom: The Focus of Dominican Life - Paperback

by Raimondo Spiazzi (Author), John Martin Ruiz (Translator), James Dominic Brent (Foreword by)

Dominican life is a service of Wisdom. Such is the teaching of the Italian Dominican Father Raymund Spiazzi. Following the principles of Thomas Aquinas, and drawing upon other Dominican saints as well, Father Spiazzi explains his teaching over the course of many short conferences. Saint Dominic received the grace of a special love and service of wisdom and a charism to "communicate wisdom with joy." Saint Dominic also organized a form of religious life--communal, liturgical, and apostolic--so that others might share in the same grace, charism, and service. The whole form of life established by Saint Dominic for his order has its raison d'etre in the love and service of truth--the incarnate wisdom. The followers of Saint Dominic are called to cultivate wisdom in all of its forms--philosophical, theological, and mystical. The regular life of prayer and study, liturgy and fraternity cultivates the manifold wisdom of God in our souls. Father Spiazzi illuminates how. He discusses the theological virtues, intellectual and moral virtues, the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, the Beatitudes, the sacraments, and much more. All of the elements of Dominican life together give harmonious unity to the mind and the interior life by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Contemplative activity informs our actions, and the Holy Spirit also makes us effective servants, friends, lovers, spouses, worshipers, preachers, and teachers of the eternal wisdom of God. Christ, wisdom, and eternal truth, become the reason for living and working for the salvation of souls.

Author Biography

Raimondo Spiazzi, OP (1918-2002), was an Italian Dominican, internationally renowned teacher and scholar. He received his doctorate in sacred theology from The Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome. His vast activity as a writer and priest made him one of the most prominent personalities of the Catholic world in Italy and abroad.