Motto: Verbum Spirans Amorem

The Word that Breathes Forth Love

Our motto captures important features of Aquinas’ philosophy as well as of his theology, notably his
account of the human psyche as the image of the Trinity called to journey by grace into communion
with the Holy Trinity:

• In the Holy Trinity, God the Son is the Father’s Word, perfectly expressing the Father and the divine plan;
• In the Holy Trinity, Father and Word together ‘breathe forth’ the Holy Spirit, who is ‘Love Proceeding’. By the Spirit, Father and Word eternally love each other and love those called into the divine friendship.
• The human being draws concepts from experience, and organises them intellectually. We are then able to express things as they are, by an ‘interior word’ that can come forth in speech and in action.
• If we ponder things, ponder ourselves, ponder other people, as they really are, we can appreciate them truly, loving them as they deserve to be loved – our words can breathe love. We mirror the Holy Trinity.
• When we are drawn into God’s friendship, the Holy Spirit crafts us in the likeness of Christ, who is God the Son and the Father’s Word and Wisdom. By the Wisdom which is the Spirit’s Gift, we begin to share God’s perspective on all things, and so can value them ‘from God’s point of view’.
• The Wisdom to whom we are conformed is the Word who breathes forth the Divine Love. Hence if we participate in the Divine Wisdom, the Word who dwells in us breathes the Holy Spirit into us: we participate in the Spirit by Charity – we come share God’s own friendship.
• Thus, if we are attuned to God’s perspective on ourselves, and on others, we begin to value ourselves and them as God does: we share God’s vision for, God’s delight in, ourselves and those he gives us to care for. In the life of God’s friends, the Word breathes forth a divine love. Hence we journey, and help others journey, towards more perfectly mirroring the Holy Trinity.