From February 1 through 3rd, Ave Maria University had the privilege of once again hosting the annual Aquinas Conference, co-sponsored by the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal (based in Ave Maria) and the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies. The theme of this year’s conference was “Thomas Aquinas and the Eucharist: Pathways to Revival”, formed in response to the U.S. bishops’s call for a three-year Eucharistic revival (with this year being the third year, culminating in the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis this summer). For several days, world-class theologians from all over the country, and indeed from all over the world, were present here in Ave Maria to share their expertise in sacra doctrina, sacred doctrine, as it relates to St. Thomas’s treatment of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

            The conference featured ten plenary speakers and over seventy presenters in concurrent sessions. We furthermore had the privilege of being visited by Bishop Frank Dewane, of our own Diocese of Venice, who celebrated Mass on Friday February 2nd, and by Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of the Archdiocese of Detroit, who gave a keynote address in the Ave Maria Parish Church on the evening of February 2nd. Among the many incredible and illustrious speakers who shared their wisdom with us were:

• Fr. Romanus Cessario, O.P., of Ave Maria University, who spoke on “The Priest and the Eucharist”
• Fr. Reginald Lynch, O.P., of the Dominican House of Studies, who spoke on “Sign, Sacrifice, and Moral Virtue: Aquinas and the Thomistic Tradition on Moral and Mystical Signification in the Eucharist”
• Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., of the Dominican House of Studies, who spoke on the question of “Is the Last Supper a Trinitarian Event?”
• Dr. Franklin Harkins, of Boston College, who spoke on “Addressing “Substantial Confusion” Among U.S. Catholics: Thomistic Insights on Transubstantiation”
• Dr. Matthew Levering, of the University of St. Mary of the Lake (Mundelein Seminary), who spoke on “Aquinas and Old Testament Types of the Eucharist”
• Dr. Michael Barber, of the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, who spoke on “Panis Angelicus and the Eucharistic Revival: Recovering Aquinas's Theology of the Eucharist as the New Manna”
• Fr. Guy Mansini, O.S.B., of Ave Maria University, who spoke on “Sacrifice, History, and the Consummation of World Order”
• Dr. Roger Nutt, of Ave Maria University, who spoke on “Really, Truly, and Substantially Present, but ‘Not in the Manner in which Bodies are in a Place’: Thomas Aquinas on The Dimensions of the Host and the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist”
• Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P., of the Dominican House of Studies, who spoke on “Eucharistic Hermeneutics of Sacred Scripture in Thomas Aquinas”
• Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, O.P., of the University of St. Thomas, who spoke on “Looking through the Lattices: Albert and Aquinas on the Sacramental Signification of the Eucharist”
• Fr. Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P., of the University of Fribourg, who delivered a powerful closing keynote address on the topic of “Thomas Aquinas and John Scotus on the Celebrant of the Eucharistic Sacrifice”

During the conference, Ave Maria also proudly hosted her own faculty and graduate students presenting in concurrent sessions, along with numerous other scholars and students from universities and seminaries across the globe. Our campus store and representatives from Emmaus Academic press were present throughout the conference offering a selection of hundreds of theological titles that were solidly Catholic and theologically robust. All in all, between all speakers and participants, we had at the conference well over two hundred people actively engaged in the work of contributing to the theological foundation of the national Eucharistic revival.

The presence of the Spirit in our presenters and in our conference participants was palpable. We can only hope and pray that the work which was shared and moved forward during the conference may contribute to the revival of authentic Eucharistic devotion and an increase in adoration for Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament, throughout our country. As reiterated by many of our presenters, the only possible foundation for an authentic revival of love and reverence for our Eucharistic Lord is a firm theological grasp of the Blessed Sacrament, its purpose, and its status as the source and summit of both the Christian life and sacred doctrine. For we can only love that which we know and which we have contemplated with our intellect and its assent of faith.

May the heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.

Adoremus in aeternum sanctissimum Sacramentum!