Dear Parishioners:
This Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, is also called “Word of God” Sunday. I would like to offer you the following quotes regarding the Scriptures, the Word of God:
2 Timothy 16-17: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
St. Jerome: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”
St. John Chrysostom: “To become an adult Christian, you must learn the Scriptures.”
Pope St. John Paul II: “Learning to read the Scriptures is fundamental for the believer: It is the first step of a ladder, which continues with meditation and thus, real prayer. Prayer based on biblical reading is the principal way of Christian spirituality.”
Vatican II: “Through the Scriptures, therefore, the invisible God, out of abundance of his love, speaks to His people as friends and lives among them, so that God may invite and take them into friendship with Himself.”
“This sacred Synod urges all the Christian faithful to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures… Therefore, the faithful should gladly put themselves in touch with the sacred test itself.”
I strongly believe that every Catholic home should have a Bible in it; the Word of God should be in your home, blessing your home. I also encourage you to Google: “Bishop Robert Barron: free daily homily.” He will send you a free homily based on the Gospel reading for the day; it will arrive by email. Read the Gospel for the day and then read his reflection. I, myself, do it every day. It will help you to grow in your spiritual life.
Sunday after Sunday, we come to Mass to be challenged by the Word of God and then nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. Just think, every Sunday (in fact, every day when we celebrate Mass) I, as the priest, ask Christ to come down from heaven and be with us in Holy Communion. That is an extraordinary event!
As you may already know, this church year, we will be reading largely from the Gospel of Mark; last year we largely read from the Gospel of Matthew. Mark was the first Gospel written, about 60 AD. It is the shortest of all the Gospels. I like to call Mark’s Gospel the “Readers’ Digest” gospel. Many of the stories in St. Mark are greatly amplified in Gospels of St. Luke and St. Matthew, which were written about 10 years later. So, for this year, let us grow in our knowledge of Christ by growing in our knowledge of the Gospel of St. Mark.
Remember: Together, we can do something beautiful for God.