Starts Tuesday 2 March
We often hear the phrase ‘follow your conscience’. But what exactly does the word ‘conscience’ mean? How does ‘follow your conscience’ differ from ‘anything goes?’ How important is the role of ‘conscience’ - in the eyes of the Church and, more importantly, in the eyes of God? How can we understand the ‘primacy of conscience’ and the way it relates to the ‘primacy of truth’?

This four-week seminar is guided by the above questions. The overall approach taken is summed up in the phrase ‘lessons of encouragement’.

Crises & dimensions, thinking & willing

Starts Thursday 4 March
This is a repeat of the Feb 2021 Evening Course
In Unit I we focused on some general principles underlying the development of a healthy spirituality. In Unit II we will focus more on particular concrete facets of spirituality. Walker Percy, the American essayist, wrote: “It is pilgrims we are, wayfarers on a journey, and not pigs, not angels.” (Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins: Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World, Avon Books, 1978, 104.)

Pilgrims frequently come to crossroads, choices must be made – sometimes without much knowledge of what the consequences might be.

Starts Tuesday 20 April
Lion is a 2016 Australian biographical drama film directed by Garth Davis from a screenplay by Luke Davies based on the 2013 non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley.

It is a heart-warming and an incredible real life story of Saroo Brierley, a 5-year-old Indian boy, who gets separated from his poor family. An empty train carriage drags him to Kolkata, a city that doesn't speak his language.

Starts Wednesday 21 April
Next to the Psalms the Song of Songs was the most commented upon book of the Old Testament in the pre-modern Church for it was held to be a mystical work that spoke of the Love of God. But from the seventeenth century on, with the rise of modernity, the Song fell out of fashion. Scholars argued that the Song was simply a small collection of very earthy erotic poems and the idea that they held deeper mystical meanings was, they argued, nonsense. In recent years, however, attention has once again turned to the Song and

Remembering & anticipating, imagining & feeling

   Starts Thursday 6 May
In Unit I we focused on some general principles underlying the development of a healthy spirituality. In Unit II we began to focus more on particular concrete facets of spirituality. In Unit III we will continue to do that. We often hear the advice: “Forgive and forget”. Why might this be very bad advice? What is the relationship between the past and the future in shaping the human journey?

What place do images, symbols and rituals have in human thriving? Can we think well without imagination being a crucial part of the process?

Rev Dr Andrew Murray SM

  Starts Tuesday 1 June

This course will involve a careful reading of texts of Aristotle on nature and the workings of nature beginning with Physics I – III and then Meteorology I & II.  Contrast will be made with the early modern conception of nature, much of which we live with today.  For Aristotle, nature is a principle of motion and the world is understood best through its most sophisticated substances – human beings.  Nevertheless, Aristotle was interested in the details of natural events and we will reflect on wind, rain, the saltiness of the sea and earthquakes, among other things.

St Patrick’s Parish Covid-19 Safety plan covers Aquinas Academy. The Parish plan is registered with the State Government and may be viewed on the Parish web site.

A copy of this plan is also available here.

Specific procedures applying at Aquinas Academy are as follows: Chairs, table tops and other surfaces are disinfected prior to all classes; coffee and tea and biscuits are served rather than self-served.

Michael Whelan SM PhD, Director