RIP: Stanley L. Jaki, OSB: Bridge Builder

God has called Father Jaki home to be with Him - with his parents and teachers, with Gilbert and Frances, with Pierre and Hélène Duhem - with Fresnel and Mersenne and Pasteur and Volta and Galvani and Galileo and Newton - with Alexis Carrell and Sigrid Undset and Karl Stern and Fr. Kneller - with Jordanus and Oresme and Buridan - with Sts. John Fisher, Benedict, Aquinas and Augustine... and with Mary and Joseph.

I have no idea what arrangements will be made for his funeral Mass, but I know what the "responsorial Psalm" verse ought to be:

God "disposed everything according to measure and number and weight" (Wis 11:20)

Nearly every one of his books quotes this line. During the Middle Ages it was the verse most often quoted of Sacred Scripture (I can give his reference for that, but have no heart just now to go looking for it.)

It may sound unbelievable to hear, but there was a certain line of Chesterton's which I first read in one of Jaki's books (the one on GKC, of course!) because at that time I did not own the Chesterton book.

It ought to be carved in his tombstone:

The rebuilding of this bridge between science and human nature is one of the greatest needs of mankind.
[GKC, The Defendant 75]

I believe Father Jaki was the pre-eminent builder of that bridge...

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.

Please stay tuned for a very important announcement to follow....

Science, it must not be forgotten, lives by hope no less than does religion.
[Jaki, Catholic Essays 27]