{"id":3360,"date":"2011-10-03T07:00:37","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=3360"},"modified":"2016-12-15T11:18:40","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T18:18:40","slug":"catena-aurea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/03\/catena-aurea\/","title":{"rendered":"Ch-ch-chain…Chain of Fathers*"},"content":{"rendered":"

A while ago I wrote a post where I listed\u00a0all the resources<\/a> I draw upon each week in the composition of my commentary on the Sunday Mass Readings.\u00a0I realized today that I forgot to mention one very important resource: the “Catena Aurea”.<\/p>\n

So what is this “Catena Aurea”? I first heard about it on an episode<\/a>\u00a0of the world’s greatest podcast, “Catholic Stuff You Should Know”<\/em>.\u00a0The Catena is a book, a Scriptural commentary whose name, when translated from the Latin, means “Golden Chain”.<\/p>\n

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Mr. T pities the fool who don’t read the Catena!<\/p><\/div>\n

As the podcast episode explains, the Catena Aurea is a commentary on the Gospels which was assembled by St. Thomas Aquinas…<\/p>\n

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St. Thomas: The man who wrote pretty much everything ever written…<\/p><\/div>\n

…wait…Aquinas…again?! Really? I wish this guy had written a book on time management – he produced sooooo much stuff! Where did he find the time?!<\/p>\n

Anyway…where was I? Oh yes, the Catena… It’s a commentary on the Gospels and was assembled at the request of Pope Urban IV in the Thirteenth Century. The Pope wanted to improve the quality of the homilies in the Church and asked Aquinas to produce this book as a preaching tool for the clergy.<\/p>\n

It’s not Aquinas himself who wrote the commentary. Instead, the commentary for each verse is a collation of everything the Early Church Fathers had to say about each verse. Anyone who’s ever read some of the works of the Fathers will have sense for what a mammoth<\/span>\u00a0task this would be! And the good news? His commentary is\u00a0available for free online:<\/p>\n