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 JMC : Saint Thomas Aquinas / by Raïssa Maritain

XVII How He Preached

HUMILITY and sweetness touch the heart of God and the hearts of men.

When Saint Thomas preached in Naples everybody ran to hear him, and his words were so touching that from time to time he had to pause because the faithful were weeping.

But when he preached before students and Masters he made them tremble rather than weep: he recalled to them the great responsibilities of the learned, their duties in regard to those souls that expected the truth from them; and he taught them respect for the most humble Christians who know, by their Catholic faith, more things and more important things, than the great philosophers with all their philosophy. He loved to say to them:

"To-day a poor old woman knows more about the things of God than in the past all philosophers put together."

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