 Welcome back tan fans and father Robert Nixon on our last episode to in this little mini series on the great spiritual master Thomas a campus. This has been quite a journey for me. I've had just a great time So today we're gonna just recap a handful of things a little bit of his biography touch on some of the the great works I'm gonna ask you some some other questions about some of your favorite works of his and what we can you know take take from this great man this great master not just great author but great Spiritual holy man and how we can apply that in our life today But let's begin as we always do father with a quick prayer. Yes, kind of Almighty God we employ your grace and your wisdom through the intercession of the venerable Thomas a campus May our hearts remain faithful to your commands May we walk your straight and narrow path which leads us to the kingdom of eternal joy Through Christ our Lord our bed. Amen. Thank you father. Well, let's just Let's just begin like this. What are We're talking about the man not just the author, you know the man himself What are the virtues or charisms? Do you think that Thomas a campus has to teach us today? You know what when we look at his life not just his writings his life. What should we try to emulate? He exemplifies The the quiet achiever he was someone who was this tremendous author who was highly respected as a spiritual Counselor and preacher yet. He always chose to remain in the background as much as he possibly could He was offered leadership of his community He was offered various professional ships and academies and so forth But no, he was committed to living the quiet life to which he committed to which he had bound himself by vows And within this life. He exemplified fantastic humility So here is one of the the greatest authors of the time one of the most recognized spiritual authorities But he prefers to go about the quiet daily domestic tasks With the minimum of fuss to keep himself in the background and he even preferred for his works such as the imitation of Christ to be published Anonymous them. So I think this is something we can learn from so many people in this world are pushing themselves Forward and trying to make the most of what they do rather He was happy to do the work for the love of God for the service of his fellow man And then just step back from it That's beautiful. And yeah, I think The pride and vanity of this world with our social media and our ability to get instant feedback on everything we say and do and everyone is now with You know, their smartphones and have constant communication with people. I think it feeds That vanity and so a campus is a great role model for humility. I mean the guy You know, yeah, he lived in a different time period but but pride Arrogance and ego and vanity were as much alive then as it is today Just manifest maybe in a different way today very much so and and he was really Recognized that he found his greatest peace and joy in this life In silence and in solitude I think this is a powerful lesson which we could learn from a lot today because as you say we're assailed by by constant information by distractions by streams of entertainment and To step back from this, you know to think well, I'm going to take Take a day or even to take a morning or an afternoon of quietness and solitude Such a wonderful thing and we can learn from this is a lesson of monastic and religious life in general But Thomas the campus particularly exemplifies that His fidelity I think also is something so he was committed to religious life for For about 70 years. He lived this enclosed life this very regular life And there's a saying attributed to St. Gregory the great R. J. Quad and Gis Do what you do In other words stick with what your with what your duties are Don't look for changes for promotions for movement all the time But be content with the lot which God gives you because it's a grace from God And you know we can find our happiness within that As long as we're properly disposed It reminds me of another great tan classic that we have the abandonment to divine providence by Jean Pierre de Cassaud Yeah, a wonderful work. Yeah, and he talks about fulfilling the duties of your station in life That's how my dad always defined success is one who Fulfills the duties of their station in life and the accompanying Theological point of that which a campus as you're talking about a campus as a man as a holy man It reminds me of the sacrament of the present moment and I would encourage our listeners All those tan fans out there busy moms with lots of little kids Busy dads, you know going to work or working mothers trying to manage both Yeah, wherever whatever their station in life is, you know the purpose of this whole series of podcast fathers is for our customers To find new spiritual directors and certain saints and so I would encourage our listeners To invoke the intercession of Thomas a campus who's often deemed to be blessed or venerable And ask his intercession to help them find stillness and quiet in their life, you know because in the busy world I think we actually it's it's one thing to say turn off your cell phone But I think we actually have to ask saints to help us do that and to help, you know Ask the intercession of Thomas a campus to help you find silence and solitude in your busy life And one of the things in another work by him which will be which will be out in a little while Silence and solitude he talks about in the midst of the busyness of the world Constructing within our hearts this little arc this this refuge of solitude to which we can revert in times of need And this is so important because people in different states of life Whether they're a busy mother whether they're a businessman whether they're doctor or lawyer or whether they're a priest or religious You know we all need this place of refuge and to realize that where we're called whatever station of life we find ourselves in Is precisely what God wants us to be doing at the present moment this full commitment and this is something which he exemplified so well You know wasn't focused on the past wasn't focused on the future but on fulfilling what it was God was asking him to do at any moment of time And of course God never asks us to do anything which is beyond our capacity Yeah, that's beautiful All right, so you know what what's well, you know what when we were just before we started recording you mentioned another Work of a campus that we hadn't talked about before and I think it's just worth mentioning it's Saint Lidwina of shydom did I get that right tell us about that because anytime anytime a saint writes about a saint I kind of find it fascinating So so this was a saint who Who Thomas a campus actually attended while she was on her deathbed and she related to him all of her visions of of hell and purgatory and heaven And she's quite remarkable in a number of ways her sickness began after she after she had an ice skating accident So I didn't realize ice skating was a thing back then me neither obviously it was yeah and she's also regarded as being the first Recorded victim of multiple sclerosis. Wow. Yeah, so it's a it's a tremendous work and Unfortunately or surprisingly not as well-known as it deserves to be we as tan does publish a book on her saint lead Lidwina if I'm saying it right of shydom. Yeah, now it's it's a name which has got innumerable variants Got it here. Well, we do publish it. It's not a campus's translation But if anybody's interested in you know in this the saint that a campus knew personally, you know, that's a fascinating thing to me So I'm gonna check this out, but yeah, we should probably talk about publishing her biography by a campus That would be a very special thing So I just thought that was neat to to mention that's another interesting point of his life that yeah Sad at someone else's deathbed who became a saint. You know, I mean, that's a beautiful thing now Let me ask you this of all his works and you've you've read many of them and you've translated quite a few What's your favorite? Well, I really love the meditations on death and One of the things in the rule of Saint Benedict is the council that we should keep death always before our eyes And this is a book which puts it into practice in such a powerful and moving way So it's it's a short book, but it's I would say it's a life-changing book Our episode on that we could have talked hours about that, you know, yeah So now if this was I'm totally understand how that's your favorite because I think now the ones I've read it's also my favorite because That that man who he fictionally creates is dying on his deathbed and thinking about how he's wasted his life It's just powerful So I can only imagine having translated that, you know, it would have been a very enjoyable thing but also Perhaps intimidating thing as well because of the reality of the subject Oh, yes, indeed But what you know, is that where you would tell people to begin? I mean, you know, perhaps but I mean if you were If you were telling how to begin with of course, I would really advise he's most famous for the imitation of Christ, which is An immortal classic of Christian literature So I would encourage everyone to read that if you haven't read it already if you have read it already It's certainly worth revisiting And yes, a wonderful work So what do you think? What do you think his future is in the church, you know, if we're in 2022 and 3022 if people are still on the earth, we know that their church will be here You think we'll still be reading a campus or you think he'll be put up on the on the bookshelf and be forgotten Well, you know, I think within the past couple of decades there's been an increase in interest in him And a while ago I put on a retreat at our monastery on the imitation of Christ And some people had said, you know, is anyone still interested in this book anymore? You know, it was a classic when we read this is older people and And it was booked out straight away. It was tremendous to see the interest in it Not only from people of all ages, a lot of very young people So I think Thomas Akepas actually is very appealing to the contemporary reader His wisdom is timeless. It's not fixed to any particular situation or whatever He speaks straight to the human heart, the human condition So I'm pretty confident that assuming the final judgment hasn't come by By 3020, which I wouldn't rule out altogether Assuming that the world and the church therefore is still in existence I believe that the writings of Thomas Akepas will still be read Well, I hope that you and I one day with our glorified bodies get to sit up there And have a nice conversation with Akepas in heaven and say, hey, thanks for writing all those things Because that gave you something to translate and me something to publish So that would be a great luncheon with the great Thomas Akepas one day So if we see him up there, we'll have to make sure we corner him and say Hey, sit down and have a drink with us The sound's incredible Well, thank you for this series on Thomas Akepas Father You've been masterful in your own explanation of all this I've learned a ton and I'm sure our listeners and our customers at Tan Are going to be very edified by everything you've had to say So we'll pray for you and you pray for us And we'll together seek the intercession of Thomas Akepas Thank you, Conan God bless you