Here is a guided meditation for Day 2 in honor of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelic Doctor), drawing from themes commonly associated with novenas and reflections on his life around his feast (January 28). Many novenas highlight his purity, temperance, and pursuit of wisdom through grace, so this day often focuses on his love of purity and how his chaste, disciplined life allowed his intellect to soar toward God.
You can use this for quiet prayer time, perhaps before the Blessed Sacrament, with a candle or an image of St. Thomas.
Settle into silence.
Take slow, deep breaths. Make the Sign of the Cross. Invite the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Spirit, enlighten my mind and purify my heart as You did for Your servant Thomas.”
Opening Prayer (the famous prayer for study composed by St. Thomas himself):
Ineffable Creator,
Who out of the treasures of Your wisdom
have appointed three hierarchies of Angels
and set them in admirable order high above the heavens,
and have disposed the different portions of the universe
in such marvelous array,
You Who are called the True Source of Light
and super-eminent Principle of Wisdom,
be pleased to cast a beam of Your radiance
upon the darkness of my mind
and dispel from me the double darkness of sin and ignorance
in which I have been born.
You Who make eloquent the tongues of little children,
fashion my words and pour upon my lips
the grace of Your benediction.
Grant me penetration to understand,
capacity to retain,
method and facility in study,
subtlety in interpretation,
and abundant grace of expression.
Amen.
Scriptural foundation (from 1 Thessalonians 4:7, often linked to reflections on St. Thomas’s purity):
“For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness.”
Meditation – St. Thomas, Lover of Purity
Imagine young Thomas Aquinas, a noble youth entering the Dominican Order against his family’s wishes. Locked away by relatives who tried to tempt him from his vocation, he faced trials that tested his resolve. Legend tells of a woman sent to seduce him—yet he drove her away with a burning brand from the fire, crying out for God’s help. In that moment of fierce temptation, angels girded him with a cord of chastity, preserving his purity forever.
St. Thomas was no cold intellectual. His mind was ablaze with love for God, but that fire burned cleanly because his heart and body were disciplined. He fasted rigorously, prayed through the night, and lived temperance in all things—food, sleep, comforts—so his intellect could ascend to contemplate divine truths without distraction. His famous Summa Theologica flows from a soul unclouded by passion’s fog; his Eucharistic hymns pour from a heart detached from earthly desires and united to Christ in the Sacrament.
Reflect quietly:
- What “temptations” or attachments cloud my mind today—gluttony, sloth, impure thoughts, endless distractions from screens or worries?
- How do I use (or misuse) my body and senses? Do they serve my pursuit of God, or pull me downward?
- St. Thomas teaches that true wisdom begins with purity of heart (as Jesus says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” – Mt 5:8). Without chastity in its broad sense (purity in body, mind, and intention), even great learning remains shallow.
- Where is God inviting me to greater self-mastery so my soul can be a clearer mirror reflecting His light?
Purity is not mere repression; for Thomas it was freedom—freedom to love God wholly, to think clearly, to write profoundly, to adore deeply in the Eucharist (his greatest joy). His life shows that the intellect shines brightest when the heart is chaste and ordered toward the One who is Truth itself.
Closing Reflection & Petition
O glorious St. Thomas Aquinas, lover of purity and master of sacred doctrine, you who were called the Dumb Ox yet became a vessel of divine light: Obtain for me the grace of purity in body, mind, and soul. Help me to flee every occasion of sin, to practice temperance, and to seek God above all fleeting pleasures. May my studies, work, and daily life be illumined by the same radiant wisdom that filled you. Intercede especially for students, teachers, those struggling with temptations against chastity, and all who seek deeper union with Christ in the Eucharist.
St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.End with an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.
Make the Sign of the Cross.
May this meditation help you draw closer to the Lord through the example of the Angelic Doctor.
St. Thomas Aquinas, intercede for you and all who seek truth in love!
Pray Day 1
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sweet Jesus, Body and Blood most Holy, be the delight and pleasure of my soul, my strength and salvation in all temptations, my joy and peace in every trial, my light and guide in every word and deed, and my final protector in death. Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you.
Amen
(Mention your request here…)
Say 1: Our Father… Say 1: Hail Mary… Say 1: Glory Be…
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