Most of the Faithful Have Never Been Shown What Holiness Really Is

We live in an age overflowing with Catholic information: books, talks, podcasts, videos, conferences, devotions, parish programs. Yet very few environments provide what actually forms a soul:

The great tragedy of modern Catholic life is that most of the faithful have never been shown what holiness really is—or how to grow in it.

The Church today is rich in content but poor in formation. It is one thing to read about the spiritual life; it is another to be trained in it.

We have inherited a faith that is no longer integrated. We know scattered doctrines, prayers, rules, and devotions—but not the unifying vision that orders the whole Christian life: the pursuit of perfection, above all the perfection of charity.

The rich Catholic tradition on grace, virtue, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the interior life, and the stages of growth is often unknown even to devout Catholics.

Priests and religious receive formation in houses of formation. Lay people, by contrast, are left to assemble their spiritual life from fragments—without an integrated system or a trusted, learned guide.

This is the gap the Aquinas Institute was founded to address.

• ordered teaching

• a coherent path

• guidance

• accountability

• structure

• and the steady practice that leads to growth

Restoring an Integrated Path to Holiness

The Aquinas Institute for Christian Perfection was founded to restore what has been missing in modern Catholic life: an integrated, ordered, and livable path to holiness grounded in the Church’s spiritual tradition.

Instead of isolated doctrines, scattered devotions, or disconnected practices, the Institute provides a coherent whole. Participants are formed through a unified account of the spiritual life — grace, virtue, prayer, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the pursuit of the perfection of charity — and are shown how to apply it concretely to their own lives.

An Overview of the Formation Program

The Aquinas Institute for Christian Perfection is a structured, year-long formation program led by Dr. Matthew DuBroy that restores the integrated, ordered, and livable path to holiness found in the Church’s spiritual tradition.

It brings together the essential elements of real spiritual formation — systematic instruction in the principles of the interior life, personal guidance in applying those principles to one’s vocation and circumstances, and a stable community — so that ordinary Catholics can grow in holiness within their state in life.

Why Trust Us?

My work is rooted in formal theological training and years of teaching within the Church’s own tradition. I hold a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) – the highest level of formal theological degree the Catholic Church grants – and I’ve spent more than a decade teaching theology and Latin with a focus on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomistic tradition.

My formation began in seminary and continued through advanced Thomistic study. This is not hobby-level theology. It is precise, careful, ecclesial, and ordered toward the truth — and toward real growth in charity.

Over the years, I have seen again and again that even devout Catholics often lack a clear picture of what holiness is, or how to grow in it. Goodwill is not the problem. What’s often missing is a real framework – and the kind of guidance that helps one actually apply the Church’s principles to the concrete circumstances of life.

This Institute is simply the concrete form that emerged once I realized that teaching alone wasn’t enough – people needed structure and real coaching, not just the general principles. I am handing on what the Church has already taught – but doing so in a form that lay Catholics can actually receive, understand, and live.

The Formation Ecosystem

Serious Teaching

Weekly live online sessions taught by Dr. Matthew DuBroy present the principles of the spiritual life clearly and systematically. Drawing from the riches of the Catholic tradition - especially from St. Thomas Aquinas, the Carmelite doctors, Ignatian discernment, and the classic Thomistic commentators - these sessions provide the doctrinal and spiritual architecture needed for real growth.

Teaching supplies what most Catholics lack: a unified map of the spiritual life. But knowledge alone is not enough. People naturally have questions that go beyond the weekly topic — questions that arise from their own prayer, struggles, and circumstances. That’s why further support is built into the program that is adaptive to those needs.

Personal Coaching

Every member receives three months of one-on-one coaching directly with Dr. DuBroy at the beginning of the program. Coaching exists for a simple reason: it is not obvious how to apply the general principles of the spiritual life in the concrete reality of one's life.

It is helpful to learn these general principles, but one does not immediately become an expert in them upon having learned them for the first time. Coaching helps bridge the gap between principles and practice. It provides individualized guidance, helps establish a livable rhythm of prayer, clarifies priorities, and offers direction when obstacles arise. Without this personal application, people remain unsure, and good intentions do not become stable habits.

Regular Q&A Sessions

Beyond weekly formation and coaching, members have access to dedicated Q&A sessions for all their additional questions that fall outside the scope of the class topics. One learns best from one's own questions, and so this is the place to be able to ask them without having to wait until the topic comes up in class.

Q&A allows members to receive timely, tradition-grounded answers exactly when they need them. It helps fill in the gaps between each member's own questions and the general principles that need to be learned.

Community Support

Participants also have access to a private, moderated member forum for encouragement, shared reflection, and discussion of the weekly material.

This is not a crowded or noisy chat group, but a small and committed community of Catholics pursuing the same goal: growth in holiness.

Community provides steady motivation, accountability, and the sense of not walking the path alone — something especially important for those living their vocation in the world.

Teaching, coaching, Q&A, and community together create a complete structure for spiritual growth. Teaching gives the principles; coaching shows how to apply them; Q&A offers timely clarity; and the community provides support and stability.

This combined structure allows the program to remain serious while respecting the real limits of modern family life. Serious formation requires time — there is no shortcut to depth — and even small weekly commitments, sustained over a year, can produce genuine transformation. The aim is not to overload your schedule, but to build a steady rhythm that allows these truths to take root.

Together, these elements form a true house of formation for the laity — a traditional model adapted faithfully for ordinary Catholics seeking to grow in holiness within their vocation.

Why These Components Work Together

How the Year Unfolds

Quarter 1 — Fundamentals I: Overview of the Spiritual Life

This first quarter lays out the architecture of the spiritual life with particular emphasis on charity as perfection of Christian living . Members clarify and strengthen the foundational elements of their plan of life, supported by their initial three months of personal coaching with Dr. DuBroy.

Themes include:

• Sanctifying grace

• Justification

• The perfection of the Christian life

• Charity: friendship with God

• The stages of spiritual growth and the place of mysticism

• The primary means of growth in the tradition (sacraments, merit, and prayer)

• Developing a plan of life

Purpose:
To provide an overview of the spiritual life and ground members in the traditional theological principles and practices that make real growth in Christian perfection possible.

Quarter 2 — Fundamentals II: Penance and the Forgiveness of Sins

This quarter focuses on what the tradition teaches about the forgiveness of sins as the healing of all the effects of sin. It explores what sin truly is and how the virtue of penance — and its principal acts (confession, contrition, and satisfaction) — plays a key role in that healing and in the reconciliation of offended parties, above all God.

Themes include:

• Sin as a real deformation requiring interior healing

• The debts of eternal and temporal punishment

• The three acts of the virtue of penance (contrition, confession, and satisfaction or reparation)

• Acts of satisfaction as a means of purification and growth

• Christ’s satisfaction for our sins

• Indulgences in the life of the Church

• Purgatory and the completion of purification

Purpose:
To ground members in the traditional principles that explain how damaged relationships — including our relationship with God — are healed, and to help them grow in the practice of the virtue of penance.

Later in the Year

After these two foundational quarters, the second half of the year continues with further topics drawn from the Church’s spiritual tradition — such as growth in the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity), discernment of spirits, the practice of prayer, purification and mortification, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the role of the sacraments in the life of grace, the interior dynamics of the passions and temperaments, and the relationship between virtue and vice. Each cohort engages only a selection of these topics, and the specific sequence is adapted to the needs and pace of the community, always following the traditional principles of Christian perfection.

Why a Full Year?

Most Catholics approach the spiritual life the way many people approach getting in shape:

energy, good intentions, a few bursts of effort — and then a slow slide back into old habits.

Everyone wants holiness.
But wanting is not training.

1. Why a Year-Long Program?

Because You Don’t Work Out for 90 Days and Call Yourself Fit.

Nobody says: “I went to the gym for three months. I’m all set for life now.”

Why?
Because fitness is not an event — it’s a way of life.
The moment you stop training, you lose strength.

It is exactly the same with the spiritual life.

Virtue grows slowly, by repetition and stability.
If you stop forming the soul, the soul drifts.

Three months can inspire you.
But it cannot form you.

Lasting transformation requires a sustained rhythm over time — not intensity for a season but constancy for a year.

That’s why the program requires a year-long commitment to begin:
to break the cycle of short-term bursts and give people the time framework that actually produces change.

And importantly: you can continue beyond the year.
Some people in our calls were worried that the program lasted only a year — but this is something you can do for years to come.

2. “But I’m Busy.”

So are all the people who work out consistently.
The key is the minimum effective dose.

Busy people can still get strong — because they follow a system designed to get maximum results in the smallest realistic time.

That’s exactly how the Institute is designed.

We do not ask people to live like monks.
We do not overload them with hours of content.

We have scaled everything down to the minimum effective dose of spiritual training:

• a weekly session

• clear, actionable principles

• coaching touchpoints that keep you aligned

• community support that carries momentum

Nothing excessive.
Nothing burdensome.
Nothing extraneous.

Just the essential structure that keeps you progressing — steadily, sanely, sustainably.

Just like a well-designed strength program, this is the least amount of training necessary to keep growing without backsliding.

3. Why This Works and Why Nothing Else Does

Reading books is like watching workout videos.
Listening to Catholic podcasts is like watching athletes train.
You may learn something — but you don’t change.

People don’t grow spiritually because they lack desire.
They don’t grow because they lack:

• structure

• accountability

• feedback

• continuity

• a long-term plan

A good strength coach doesn’t just tell you what exercises to do.
He teaches you how the body works, so that:

• you can troubleshoot plateaus

• adjust intelligently

• avoid injury

• and keep progressing on your own

The Institute works the same way.

You don’t just get “spiritual workouts.”

It forms you intellectually in the principles of the spiritual life.

You are not simply “getting holier.”

You are learning why each step works so that you can navigate the spiritual life with clarity for the rest of your life.

4. The Logic Is Simple

• You want holiness.

• Holiness requires training.

• Training requires consistency.

• Consistency requires a year-long structure.

• And the structure must be as lean as possible so busy people actually stay with it.

People don’t grow spiritually because they lack desire.

They don’t grow because they lack:

• structure

• accountability

• feedback

• continuity

• a long-term plan

A good strength coach doesn’t just tell you what exercises to do.
He teaches you how the body works, so that:

• you can troubleshoot plateaus

• adjust intelligently

• avoid injury

• and keep progressing on your own

The Institute works the same way.

You don’t just get “spiritual workouts.”

It forms you intellectually in the principles of the spiritual life.

You are not simply “getting holier.”

You are learning why each step works so that you can navigate the spiritual life with clarity for the rest of your life.

Who is this for?

This program is for Catholics who want to take the spiritual life seriously — not as an occasional interest, but as a real path to holiness. It is for those who sense that the Church’s tradition contains far more wisdom than they have ever been given, and who want to be formed in that tradition in a steady and intentional way.

This is for you if:

• You want a clear, unified understanding of the spiritual life — grace, virtue, prayer, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the stages of growth.

• You want to be guided by the Church’s spiritual tradition, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, the Carmelite doctors, Ignatian discernment, and the classic Thomistic commentators.

• You are tired of piecing together your formation from random talks, YouTube videos, devotions, or scattered advice.

• You want to grow in charity — not vaguely, but in a structured, concrete, and traditional way.

• You want someone learned, trustworthy, and grounded in the tradition to guide you and answer your questions.

• You want stability and accountability, not one more short-term burst of spiritual intensity.

• You are willing to give God consistent time, even if your schedule is busy.

• You want clarity and confidence in your prayer life, and in discerning where God is leading you.

• You want to understand how to apply general principles to your actual vocation, responsibilities, temperament, and struggles.

• You want to be part of a small, serious community of Catholics who are striving for the same goal.

• You want to be challenged to live up to your true calling — the call to become a saint — and you want formation that treats that vocation with the seriousness it deserves.

This program does not require you to be advanced, educated, or already disciplined.

It only requires good will, seriousness, and a desire for God.

And most importantly:

This is not a mass-market program.

It is for the comparatively few Catholics who sincerely want to be formed as the Church has traditionally formed souls — carefully, patiently, and according to sound theological principles.

How It Works

Weekly Seminar on the Spiritual Life

Thursdays, 8:00–9:15 PM (Eastern)

Each quarter includes ten live weekly seminars led by Dr. Matthew DuBroy.

These are interactive, discussion-oriented sessions that present the principles of the interior life clearly and systematically.

Replays of every seminar are available for the year.

Regular Q&A Sessions

At least one live Q&A session each month, with additional sessions added as needed.
To make attendance easier, scheduling is done using a monthly Doodle or group poll so members don’t have to commit to a fixed second weekly time.

• Length: 60–75 minutes

• Questions may be asked live or submitted in advance

• Recordings are available for the year

Personal Coaching (First 3 Months)

Every member receives three individual coaching sessions to be used within the first three months. Each session lasts 75 minutes and is scheduled through Calendly.

Coaching helps integrate the general principles into your actual life — your duties, struggles, temperament, prayer, and circumstances — so you begin the year with clarity and a realistic, livable plan.

Community Platform

The entire program community is hosted inside Circle, a private online platform designed for stability, simplicity, and focused discussion.

• Weekly Zoom links and replays are in Circle

• Q&A recordings and resources are organized there

• Members can share reflections, questions, and encouragement

• No social media noise or distraction

Live seminars are held on Zoom, with recordings stored securely via Vimeo and accessed through Circle.

Time Commitment

The weekly rhythm is straightforward and manageable:

• One weekly seminar (75 minutes)

• Optional monthly Q&A sessions

• Personal coaching in the first three months

The program is structured to fit the real life of lay Catholics — serious formation without an overwhelming schedule.

All seminars and Q&A sessions are recorded. This ensures that members with shifting family or work responsibilities never fall behind.

Why We’re Using Circle Instead of Facebook

The spiritual life requires a quiet, intentional environment. Facebook is loud, distracting, and constantly pulling your attention in many directions. That is the opposite of what we are trying to build.

Circle gives us a space that is:

• private

• peaceful

• focused

• free of noise and distraction

• built intentionally for formation

This is not a social media group. It is a kind of digital cloister — a place for prayerful reflection, thoughtful questions, discussion, and steady growth in holiness.

And it is simple to use. If you can use email or Facebook, you can use Circle. Joining takes only a few seconds.

My hope is that it becomes a sacred space for you — a place where you feel supported, understood, and guided in the journey toward Christian perfection.

Testimonials

Dr. DuBroy teaches traditional Catholic doctrine in a practical and down to earth way. His program teaches both general concepts and individual life application in spiritual direction. I always leave class with a deeper love of God as well as more knowledge of the Catholic faith to help me teach my children. Dr. DuBroy organizes and presents information in a way that is digestible and accessible for busy parents. He is incredibly patient and full of zeal. I highly recommend Aquinas Institute of Christian Perfection!

-Christine Alvarez (wife & homeschool mom)

"A gift to the next generation!"

"His clarity and precision made difficult concepts easy to understand."

Even with my degrees in theology and philosophy, I often encountered topics that were difficult to fully understand and break down for my students. Dr. DuBroy clarified these complex issues and helped me structure them in a way that made them accessible and easy to teach. His ability to explain difficult concepts with precision and clarity was invaluable.

-Perry Smith (former colleague & theology teacher)

"I hesitated to add anything else to my schedule

— but this study actually saved me time.”

The book study hosted by the Aquinas Institute far exceeded my expectations. The fellowship was genuinely enjoyable & the conversations opened up ideas I am surprised I had never seriously considered before! As a busy homeschool mother of many, I hesitated to add anything else to my schedule but I actually found that this study saved me time by keeping me focused rather than drifting between podcasts and YouTube videos for answers to my faith-related questions. Dr. DuBroy provides a wealth of knowledge & is a tremendous asset to any friend of tradition looking to authentically live out their Catholic faith. Highly recommend!

-Kenzie Mormile (wife & homeschool mom)

Pricing

The House of Formation Program — $2,000

A full-year household membership includes:

• Weekly Live Formation Seminars - focused teaching time with Dr. DuBroy about topics of the Spiritual life.

• Weekly Guided Q&A Sessions - time to address questions that are outside of course material with Dr. DuBroy.

• 3 Months Individual Coaching (1 coaching slot) - Each household membership includes one individual coaching slot, with the option to add a second.

• Private AICP Community Access - A moderated, mission-driven online community for accountability, encouragement, and support.

Two ways to enroll:

• Pay in Full: $1,800
  Save 10% for paying up front with a one time payment.

• Payment Plan: $333 today, then 10 monthly payments of $167

The House of Formation Program is a full-year commitment, designed to give you the stable structure and ongoing formation necessary for real growth in the interior life.

Spouse / Teen 3-Month Coaching Add-On — $200

• If your spouse or a mature high-school student would also like their own 1:1 coaching during the initial 3-month phase, you can add them for a one-time $200.

• They’ll participate in the same live formation and receive their own individual coaching during that opening phase.

Additional Coaching

(beyond initial 3 month coaching included in the House of Formation program)

Coaching is only available to those enrolled in the House of Formation Program.

Quarterly Coaching – Three extended 90-minute sessions spaced across the remaining nine months of the formation year.

Monthly Coaching – Nine 60-minute sessions for steady accountability and guidance.

Weekly Coaching – Weekly 45-minute sessions for those who want the most intensive support.

* price remains the same since you begin weekly coaching in the first month

Founders Letter

One of the great sorrows of our time is how poorly the Church’s own tradition has been handed on. In recent decades, we have seen a growing recovery of the liturgical tradition, and young theologians are once again being drawn to the depth of the Church’s doctrinal and philosophical heritage. There is real hope and real renewal underway.

But the Church’s spiritual theological tradition — the ordered, precise teaching on the spiritual life, virtue, prayer, ascetical practice, and growth in charity — has remained largely unknown to most Catholics. Even many faithful Catholics who love the tradition have never been shown this treasure.

While the Church is, in many ways, crumbling around us, I lament that there remains a treasure of wisdom left dormant — a treasury so few turn to, even though it contains the very resources needed to rebuild.

I have made it my mission to be at least some small part of the recovery of our Catholic heritage. There is a great, time-tested wisdom sitting quietly, waiting to be handed on to the people who are dying for the truth — the full truth — and nothing but the truth.

If you desire to discover some of these great riches, then I would be honored to walk with you this year.

— Dr. Matthew J. DuBroy

BEGIN YOUR YEAR OF FORMATION

If you’re ready for serious, structured Catholic formation

— grounded in the Church’s spiritual tradition —

we would be honored to walk with you this year.

House of Formation Enrollment

One Time Payment in Full
($200 Savings)

$1,800

House of Formation Enrollment

Monthly Payment Plan
Deposit & 1st Month Today - $334

then $167/month for 10 months

A simple monthly rhythm to spread out tuition.

Want More Coaching?

Add as much or as little as fits your needs

House of Formation Enrollment

Every Membership Includes:

• Weekly Live Formation Sessions giving structured training in the spiritual life

• Member Only Q & A Sessions

• Community Forum & Support

• 3 Months of Initial 1:1 Coaching

  • (for one household member, with the option to add a second)

Spouses and mature high schoolers are welcome to Weekly Live Sessions and Q&A Sessions.

Tuition: $2,000

There are 20 avilable spots for this cohort.
Enrollment officially closes on Monday, Dec. 1st (or when the 20 spots are filled).

Choose the enrollment option that works best for your household below.

A full year of structured Catholic formation bringing clarity, order, and real spiritual growth into your daily life — grounded in the Church’s spiritual tradition and supported by faithful community.

After enrolling in the House of Formation Program, you can add optional coaching packages to support your formation throughout the year:

• Quarterly Coaching — 3 × deep 90-min sessions

• Monthly Coaching — 9 × 60-min sessions

• Weekly Coaching — 52 × 45-min sessions

• Spouse/Teen Add-On (first 3 months)