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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow QUESTION LXXXVI.: OF OFFERINGS. - Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 2 (Summa Theologica - Secunda Secundae Pt.2)

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Subject Area: Philosophy
Subject Area: Religion

QUESTION LXXXVI.: OF OFFERINGS. - St. Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 2 (Summa Theologica - Secunda Secundae Pt.2) [1274]

Edition used:

Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas. A Translation of the Principal Portions of the Second part of the Summa Theologica, with Notes by Joseph Rickaby, S.J. (London: Burns and Oates, 1892).

Part of: Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, 2 vols.

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QUESTION LXXXVI.

OF OFFERINGS.

Article I.

The name of offering is common to all presentations made for the worship of God; so that if anything is presented for that worship, to be consumed in any sacred action, that is to be done upon it, it is both an offering and a sacrifice; but if it is so presented as to remain entire, set apart for purposes of divine worship, or to be spent for the use of the ministers of religion, it will be an offering and not a sacrifice.

Article II.—Are offerings due only to priests?

R. A priest is appointed to be a sort of middleman and mediator between God and the people, as we read of Moses;1 and therefore it belongs to him to deliver the divine decrees to the people; and again that which comes from the people, in the way of prayers and sacrifices and offerings, ought to be paid to God through the priest. And therefore the offerings that are made by the people to God belong to the priests; not simply to convert them to their own use, but also to dispense them faithfully, partly by expending them on what belongs to divine worship, partly on what belongs to their own maintenance, because “they that serve the altar partake with the altar;”2 partly also for the use of the poor, who are to be supported, so far as possible, out of the property of the Church, because our Lord also had a purse for the use of the poor, as Jerome says.

[1 ]Deut. v. 5, 27.

[2 ]1 Cor. ix. 13.