Word to the Wise
Saturday, November 15, 2025 - Saturday in the 32th Week in Ordinary Time
[Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9 and Luke 18:1-8]When peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, your all-powerful word, from heaven's royal throne bounded.....For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew, serving its natural laws...[Wisdom]
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2025 ST. ALBERT THE GREAT O.P.. bishop and doctor of the Church
[Wisdom 18;14-16; 19:6-9 and Luke 18:1-8. These scriptures may vary at Dominican locations. St. Albert the Great is significant to us.]
St. Albert the Great, O.P. [1200-1280] was called "great" even during his own lifetime. He was noted for his study of nature and "its natural laws." But, amongst us Dominicans, he is noted for the wisdom he showed in taking a young and brilliant Italian Dominican friar under his wing and teaching/tutoring him - Thomas Aquinas, O.P.. St. Albert lived a long life by the standards of his age - 80 years - even outliving his pupil, Thomas, who died in 1274!
St. Albert personified the seeker of wisdom that we have heard about from the Book of Wisdom over the past few days. All of nature that was available to him came under his rigorous scrutiny. In portraits or statues of him, he is often depicted holding a lab vessel or a frog along with a book. He could see the hand of the Creator in all of nature. He is rightly considered a patron of scientists, especially in the natural sciences.
His abilities were not limited to science, however. He recognized the unique intellectual talent of the newly professed Thomas Aquinas who had been sent to Paris to study under him, and took him along to establish a new Dominican "studium" in Cologne, Germany. Albert was also, over his objections, made a diocesan bishop, but served a short time before being released from that ministry to return to the classroom and research. His dedication to the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom make him a special inspiration to his Dominican brothers and sisters and, indeed, all those who pursue a life of research and teaching in the natural sciences. AMEN