Who Do You Say That I Am? Liturgy and the Meaning of Life | Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P.

Fr. Smith's handout can be found here: tinyurl.com/3knfh8y5 This lecture was given on January 14, 2023, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the intellectual retreat entitled, "The Mystery of the Liturgy." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P. was born in California and raised in Indiana. He discerned a vocation to the Dominicans while studying music and philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and joined the St. Joseph Province of the Order of Preachers in 2008. After the novitiate in Cincinnati and philosophy and theology studies at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., Fr. Innocent was ordained to the priesthood in 2015 by Archbishop Charles Brown. Fr. Innocent’s teaching and research interests include homiletics, liturgy, sacramental theology, ecclesiology, and sacred music. His S.T.L. thesis, “In Collecta Dicitur: The Oration as a Theological Authority for Thomas Aquinas,” explored the importance of the liturgy as a source for scholastic theology. His doctoral dissertation, “Doers of the Word: Bible Missals and the Celebration of the Dominican Liturgy,” focused on medieval manuscripts of the Bible that also contain liturgical texts for the celebration of Mass. Fr. Innocent examined manuscripts at libraries and museums throughout Europe and North America that form an important but previously understudied body of evidence for understanding the liturgical reception of the Bible and the development of the liturgy in the Middle Ages. In addition to publishing popular and scholarly articles related to theology, liturgy, and music, Fr. Innocent has edited chant books that make the musical and liturgical tradition of the Dominican Order available for use in the contemporary liturgy.