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Unearthing Your Ten Talents!

Kevin Vost  /  02/22/10

Hello iibloom readers. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to be writing to you today, because my new book, Unearthing Your Ten Talents: A Thomistic Guide to Spiritual Growth Through The Virtues and the Gifts, now exists in the papery flesh. You see, the book is inspired and informed by the writings of the Angelic Doctor (St. Thomas Aquinas) himself, and his great gift to me (through the workings of the Holy Spirit) was to bring me back to a life in Christ and his Church five years ago after more than two decades of atheism.

Alright, I'm planning a series of 12 monthly articles on iibloom.com introducing to you the ideas in this book, and if I'm not mistaken, this introductory article appears in the "life" section. This works perfectly because though St. Thomas Aquinas is often associated with lofty abstract thought (indeed lofty to the point of the intellectual intimidation for some -- e.g., "He's over my head -- way too deep for me!"), I've found his writings on psychology and anthropology, on the nature of the mind and the nature of man, the most complete, inspiring, and practical guides to daily living that I've ever come across in my 13 years as a psychologist and nearly 50 years as a bookworm.

Many modern psychologists, ala Freud, dig deep into man's nature seeking out dirt, while St. Thomas Aquinas sought and unearthed treasure. Unlike many modern psychologists, St. Thomas was not nearly so interested in how low we can go as in how high we can rise. If I were stranded on a desert island with access to only one book (besides the Bible) on the nature of man, it would undoubtedly be Thomas' Summa Theologica (which may seem a bit like cheating, since it's over 3,000 pages in double column print, and is actually structured like 38 books in one).

So what's my modest new tome (and this series of articles) about? Good question. I invite you to read St. Matthew 25:14-30 to get in the spirit, and now I'm going to cut to the chase. Our theme is the parable of the master and his servants and its fundamental lesson that God expects us to make the most of all of the "talents" he has given us. In my experience, this is often interpreted to mean making the most of our unique skills and abilities, which we are indeed to do. St. Thomas though once wrote a collection of commentaries from the early Church Fathers on this parable, (in the Catena Aurea or Golden Chain on the Gospel of St. Matthew) and it would seem that their primary focus was not so much on those unique talents displayed by you or by me, but on those fundamental common talents, shared by you and by me by the very nature of our common humanity, shaped as we all are in the image of God.

You see, I'll be using the term "talents" metaphorically to talk about ten virtues that St. Thomas details in the Summa Theologica with unparalleled thoroughness and depth of understanding. These include the four classic natural moral "cardinal" virtues of fortitude, temperance, justice, and prudence that perhaps you've heard or read about (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church - CCC, nos. 1803 -1811 for a pithy summary), the three God-infused theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, about which St. Paul wrote so eloquently in 1 Corinthians (see also CCC, nos. 1812-1845), and also three intellectual virtues of understanding, science, and wisdom that we don't often hear so much about. Actually, the term "talent" will incorporate more than the virtues alone, since I'll show that St. Thomas explained to us how these virtues are interrelated and intertwined with other virtues that form their "parts," the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, and even the seven sacraments.

These "talents" will be grouped in the Talents of Learning (intellectual virtues), the Talents of Living (moral virtues) and the Talents of Loving (theological virtues). We'll examine how these talents arise from the very nature of man as made in the image of God by virtue of our intellects and our wills. We'll focus on one specific talent per month, and they may well appear in the various different categories here at iibloom - life, love, faith, or culture, because they bear upon them all, We'll see how they can perfect our God-given powers to know the truth, seek the good, love ourselves and our neighbors, attain happiness, and glorify that great Master who has so generously blessed us with so many valuable talents. So, I invite you to read along in the months ahead. Next up, Understanding...Understanding, the first of the Talents of Learning.

May God continue to bless you with talents,

Kevin Vost, Psy.D.

Click here to purchase a discounted copy of Kevin Vost's Unearthing Your Ten Talents as well as Fit for Eternal Life and Memorize the Faith.

Dr. Kevin Vost is an expert and contributing writer for iibloom. Kevin's diverse background includes supervising disability adjudicators, professor of psychology, weightlifting instructor, Research Review Committee Member for American Mensa and renowned author. Visit: http://www.drvost.com