Aquinas Institute Princeton

Homily: Persistence in Prayer - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily given by Fr. Zack Swantek at the end of Fall Break, on Sunday, October 19, 2025. Full homily text and links to prayer resources. 

Homily: Increase Our Faith - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily given by Fr. Zack Swantek the week of midterms, on Sunday, October 5, 2025. Full homily text. 

Homily: Throwaway Culture vs. a Civilization of Love: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily given by Fr. Zack Swantek on Sunday, September 28, 2025. Full homily text. 

Homily: Be Like the Dishonest Steward? 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily given by Fr. Zack Swantek on Sunday, September 21, 2025. Full homily text.

Homily: Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Homily given by Fr. Zack Swantek on Sunday, September 14, 2025, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Mass concluded with our annual Eucharistic Procession on campus. Full text of the homily

Fr. Brandon O'Brien - The Great Gatsby at 100

Fr. Brandon O'Brien spoke at Princeton University as part of our Aquinas Institute Lecture series on February 27, 2025. His talk was titled: "The Great Gatsby at 100: Understanding Catholic Literature through the Lens of F. Scott Fitzgerald and His Greatest Novel." Watch the Video here.This talk will explore the intersection of Catholicism and literature, using the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby as a guide. It will explore how literature can shape personal and spiritual growth and delve into the Catholic perspective on art as an act of creation that reflects divine beauty and truth. It will contrast modern literary criticism with a Catholic interpretation, which uncovers deeper universal truths in Christian and non-Christian works. Finally, it will examine the biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald and discuss how understanding Catholicism enriches the understanding of literature, particularly in light of the tragic context of The Great Gatsby (an allegory for the Roaring Twenties) and its reflections on moral decay and the abandonment of hope.
Father Brandon O’Brien, JCL, graduated from Hofstra University (where he studied English and American literature). He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Rockville Centre in 2013, and in 2021, he received a Licentiate in Canon Law (J.C.L.) from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He currently serves as a Tribunal Judge and Adjutant Judicial Vicar for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He has had articles published in The Dunwoodie Review, The Jurist, and The Catholic Social Science Review.

Bronwen McShea - Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition

Dr. Bronwen McSchea spoke at Princeton University as part of our Aquinas Institute Lecture Series on December 2, 2024. Her talk was titled: "Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition." Watch the video here.While many people are aware of the important intellectual and literary contributions of modern Catholic women such as St. Edith Stein and Flannery O’Connor, it is not widely appreciated that there is a long line of Catholic women scholars, scientists, and writers stretching back to the Patristic era. In this talk, Dr. McShea draws from her new book, Women of the Church (Ignatius Press), and highlights a range of brilliant and faithful women from the monastic, humanistic, and university traditions who can inspire Catholic intellectual life and culture today. Bronwen McShea is a historian and author based in New York City. She is also the Spring 2025 Teilhard de Chardin SJ Fellow in Catholic Studies at Loyola University Chicago. Previously she has held research and teaching positions at Columbia University, the University of Nebraska Omaha, and Princeton University, among other institutions. Additionally, she serves as an advisory editor for the Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu (IHSI) in Rome. With advanced degrees from both Harvard University and Yale University, she is a scholar of early modern European history and of the history of Catholicism from late medieval to modern times. As a writer, speaker, and artist, McShea is concerned broadly with the Christian faith as a bearer and shaper of culture.

Homily: Syllabus for Discipleship - 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily given by Fr. Zack Swantek on Sunday, September 7, 2025, the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time and the day of the Canonization of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis. Full text of the homiily

Bishop Erik Varden - The Monastery as SCHOLA DEI

On October 26, 2024, the Aquinas Institute hosted a special conference on Princeton University's campus, Beyond the Impasse: Theological Perspectives on DEI. Among the featured speakers was our closing address from Bishop Erik Varden, the Norwegian Catholic prelate, spiritual writer, and Trappist monk who has served as Bishop of Trondheim since 2020. In his lecture, Bishop Varden brought his distinctive blend of monastic wisdom, theological depth, and pastoral insight to bear on one of the most pressing questions facing both the Church and the academy today.Read the full text of the lecture.
Watch the video of the lecture.
 

Homily: The Lowest Place - 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily given by Fr. Zack Swantek at our Opening Masses for the semester on Sunday, August 31, 2025, the 22st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Full text of the homily can be found at: https://fatherzack.com/f/the-lowest-place-22nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time