Parish offers virtual series on Doctors of the Church

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HYDE PARK — The social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed an opportunity to create outlets for bigger and more profound devotions.

That was the scenario for Nicole Held, a St. Thomas Aquinas parishioner, who is in charge of “Pints with Aquinas,” a monthly series on the Doctors of the Church.

“Since I hadn’t seen anyone in our parish for a long time because of COVID, and because my husband and I had just returned from a sabbatical year in Madison, Wisc., I wanted to get together with others in our parish,” she said about the creation of the series. “Another reason was to create a larger devotion to St. Thomas Aquinas as our parish patron.”

The program’s first goal was to learn about and gain devotion for St. Thomas Aquinas himself and his teachings. The initial talks were led by Dr. Harrison Kleiner, a philosophy professor and vice provost at Utah State University.

“Since that was a success with about 10 parishioners joining in, I thought we could continue to learn about other Doctors of the Church,” said Held.

The Catholic Church has named 36 men and women as Doctors of the Church; these are saints who are recognized for the outstanding merit of their ecclesiastical writing.

After Kleiner’s talks, Dr. Richard Sherlock, a USU philosophy professor, led a three-part talk on St. Augustine.

“The last two sessions were on the four women Doctors of the Church,” Held said.

With St. Thomas Aquinas’ feast day on Jan. 28, the first talk of the new year also will be by Kleiner, who will revisit Aquinas, Held said.

Being able to see other people via Zoom “without our masks helps us to connect once again with old friends, and reminds us that God has not deserted us,” she said.

She suggested that everyone should find new ways to interact with one another through the challenging times that the pandemic has presented, and she encouraged others “to keep the faith alive and trust in God during this time of social distancing.”