st. thomas aquinas

Et ideo convenienter divina sapientia homini auxilia salutis confert sub quibusdam corporalibus et sensibilibus signis, quae sacramenta dicuntur.

my translation of aquinas

And therefore it is fitting that Divine wisdom gives the help of salvation to men through these various corporeal and sensual signs, which are called sacraments.

the newadvent.org translation, "literally translated by fathers of the english dominican province"

Divine wisdom, therefore, fittingly provides man with means of salvation, in the shape of corporeal and sensible signs that are called sacraments.

while i fully realize that it's my word here against the fathers of the dominican order, i've never seen auxilia used to denote anything other than an aid or help. while "means" could easily fall in this realm, "means" has an entirely different connotation with regards to salvation. i believe aquinas meant for the sacraments to be aids or helps of salvation, not vehicles, causes, or purveyors of it.

This argument seems strong to me and sufficiently plausible for us to conclude that if God were to decide that from this day forward He is going to will to send rain at the utterance of some word pronounced by someone, then that word, once uttered, would be just as properly a cause of the rain brought about by God at its utterance as heat is a cause of heat. And this seems altogether true. For a creature has nothing except from God's will alone, which grants it to the creature freely and contingently.

gabriel biel, whether the sacraments of the new covenant are effective causes of grace, p.3-4

Monastic theology is a theology of admiration and therefore greater than a theology of speculation: both words describe the act of looking. But the gaze of admiration adds something to the gaze of speculation. It does not necessarily see any farther, but the little it does perceive is enough to fill the whole soul of the contemplative with joy and thanksgiving.

leclercq, the love of learning, p.226

Monastic theology is, in a way, a spiritual theology which completes speculative theology; it is the latter's completion, and fulfillment. It is the added something, the sursum in which speculative theology tends to transcend itself and become what St. Bernard calls an integral knowledge of God: integre cognoscere.

This is what endows monastic theology with both its limitations and its lasting value. The effort it represents is always necessary if theology, while remaining scientific, is to avoid becoming purely abstract (one might venture to say: devitalized); and, as Peter the Cantor expresses it, sacred doctrine is not to be manufactured like machinery.

leclercq, the love of learning, p.223-224

Scholastic theology has recourse more frequently to the philosophers; monastic theology contents itself more generally with the authority of Scripture and the Fathers. But the fundamental sources in both cases are the same. Theology is a method for reflecting on the mysteries revealed in Christian origins.

leclercq, the love of learning, p.223

The scholastics are concerned with achieving clarity; consequently they readily make us of abstract terms, and they never hesitate to forge now words, the profanae vocum novitates which St. Bernard, for his part, avoids. Not that he refuses to use the usual philosophical terminology which through Boethius had come down from Aristotle: on occasion he will use forma, materia, causa efficiens or esse matierale; he does not recoil from the concepts current in the schools, as for example that of satisfactio. But, for him, this terminology is never more than a vocabulary for emergency use and it does not supplant the biblical period.

leclercq, the love of learning, p.200

Monastic knowledge is determined by the end of monastic life: the search for God.

leclercq, the love of learning, p.197

The difference between scholastic theology and monastic theology corresponds to the differences between the two states of life: the state of Christian life in the world and the state of Christian life in the religious life. The latter was what was, in fact, until the end of the twelfth century, unanimously called the 'contemplative life.' It was contemplateive because of its organization and orientation, even if some of those who led it also took part - to a greater or lesser extent depending on the time and the region - in some active service for the Church.

leclercq, the love of learning, p.196

The monastery is then a Jerusalem in anticipation, a place of waiting and of desire, of preparation for that holy city toward which we look with joy. His biographer wrote of a disciple of St. Bernard, the Blessed David of Himmerod, who was always smiling: 'He had, like the saints, a face shining with joy; he had the face of one going toward Jerusalem.'

jean leclercq, the love of learning, p.56

The content of monastic culture has seemed to be symbolized, synthesized, by these two words: grammar and spirituality. On the one hand, learning is necessary if one is to approach God and to express what is perceived of Him; on the other hand, literature must be continually transcended and elevated in the striving to attain eternal life.

jean leclercq, the love of learning, p.53