St Thomas Aquinas (died 1274) was a mighty man in the history of western philosophy and Christian theology. A man of deep prayer and contemplation, Thomas penned some rich and beautiful hymns about the Eucharist, parts of them still sung and recited today. Pray with Thomas' words, asking his prayerful intercession for our contemporary Church.

Today's liturgical readings give us the awed prayer of a man even mightier in the history of God's People. King David was a most complex character. Loveable for his humble start as a shepherd-boy and his attractive personality, a source of pride for his achievements for his people and nation, yet he was also a very flawed personality, a ruthless bully, outrageous murderer and guilty of other sins besides. But in his frail humanness, is he not a mighty magnifying mirror of the sins and faults and weaknesses of all of us ?

Like David's proud presumption in wanting to "build a house for the Lord," don't we also rush into following our own ideas about what God might want of us? But when Nathan the prophet told David what God's own plans and vision for His people really were (yesterday's first reading), David went and "sat before the Lord" in humble prayer and awe and gratefulness. What he heard was far beyond his wildest, limited, dream for God's house.