November 29: Reflections On the Scripture Readings For The 1st Sunday of Advent

To help you prepare for this coming Sunday, here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website. This Sunday is the 1st Sunday in Advent, and features a portion of Jesus' Olivet Discourse from the Gospel according to St. Luke. It also marks the beginining of a new liturgical year; in the three year cycle of readings which the Catholic Church uses, we are going from Cycle B to Cycle C.

You can find my own weekly study (along with Don Schwager's meditation) on my website. Don, by the way, also has some beautiful and profound meditations and resources for the Advent season, found here. Our family has used these every year since our boys were small.

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Reflections on the Sunday Scriptures for the younger ones in your family by Emily and Jeff Cavins can be found at Family Night .

Here also is the link to the current weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

The Navarre Bible Commentary for each reading can be viewed here.

Discussion and charitible comments are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

The Beatles, A 1000 Years From Now

This is pretty funny, but it may need some background.

There's a method of interpreting the Bible used by a lot of modern scholars that claims to be able to know what the Bible means simply by looking at what is in the biblical text, in the history of that time, and what they find in other literature written about the same time as the Bible. They then publish large and numerous books of their findings called "the assured results of critical scholarship." Needless to say, they don't take into consideration what the Church has always taught about what the Scriptures say, which is often in conflict with their own findings. This would be merely interesting if it were not the scholarly view that dominates most college and university Scripture programs, as well as most diocesan and parish based Bible studies. It is also the view that is reflected in the footnotes of the translation of the Bible that is most used by American Catholics. This view invaribly leads to a dry, skeptical impression of the Bible by the average Catholic, which in turn also leads to people giving up on studying the Scriptures completely. I've see it happen again and again.

Anyway, this video is a humorous look at what scholars studying the Beatles, using this same type of scholarship, might say about them 1000 years from now (please ignore the usual vulgar You-Tube com-box comments attached to this video. It is a great shortcoming of the internet that any potty-mouthed adolescent has an easy, anonymous forum for inane attention seeking).

November 22: Reflections On the Scripture Readings for Christ the King

To help you prepare for this coming Sunday, here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website. This Sunday is the Solemnity of Christ the King and the Gospel reading is Jesus' testimony about his Kingdom before Pontius Pilate.

You can find a great article over at the Rosary Light and Life page about the Kingdom of God and how Christ is the King of all creation and of our lives here. If you'd like a MS Word formatted copy of the this particular article, e-mail me and I'll forward it to you. You can find additional articles there on this subject here and here.

You can find my own weekly study (along with Don Schwager's meditation) on my website.

Once again, here are reflections on the Sunday Scriptures for the younger ones in your family with Family Night by Emily and Jeff Cavins.

Here also is the link to the current weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

The Navarre Bible Commentary for each reading can be viewed here.

Discussion and charitible comments are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Ted Sri: Navigating the Scriptures (mp3/RealAudio)

Catholic Answers LIVE
November 16 2009

Navigating the Scriptures

Guest
Ted Sri

Description
BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Edward Sri is provost and professor of theology and Scripture at the Augustine Institute’s Master’s in Catechetics and Evangelization program in Denver, Colorado. He is the author of two Catholic best-selling books, including The New Rosary in Scripture: Biblical Insights for Praying the 20 Mysteries (Servant) and The Da Vinci Deception: 100 Questions About the Facts and Fiction of The Da Vinci Code (Ascension Press) (coauthored with Mark Shea). His most recent book, on men-women relationships, is called Men, Women and the Mystery of Love: Practical Insights on John Paul II’s Love and Responsibility (Servant). He also is the author of Mystery of the Kingdom: On the Gospel of Matthew (Emmaus Road), Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology of Mary’s Queenship (Emmaus Road) and Dawn of the Messiah: The Coming of Christ in Scripture (Servant) and a co-author of the popular apologetics series, Catholic for a Reason. Edward is a founding leader with Curtis Martin of FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). He appears on EWTN and regularly writes and speaks on Scripture, apologetics and the Catholic faith. He also serves as a visiting professor at Benedictine College, where he taught full-time for nine years. Edward holds a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He now resides with his wife Elizabeth and their four children in Littleton, Colorado.

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Israel displays coins from ancient Jewish revolt

I just love this stuff. In another life, I could have been an archaeologist:

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel displayed for the first time Wednesday a collection of rare coins charred and burned from the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple nearly 2,000 years ago.

About 70 coins were found in an excavation at the foot of a key Jerusalem holy site. They give a rare glimpse into the period of the Jewish revolt that eventually led to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in A.D. 70, said Hava Katz, curator of the exhibition.

The Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire and took over Jerusalem in A.D. 66. After laying siege to Jerusalem, the Romans breached the city walls and wiped out the rebellion, demolishing the Jewish Temple, the holiest site in Judaism.

The coins sit inside a glass case, some melted down to unrecognizable chunks of pockmarked and carbonized bronze from the flames that destroyed the Temple.

"These really show us the impact of the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century," said Gabriela Bijovsky, an antique coin expert from Israel Antiquities Authority. "These are a very vivid, dramatic example of that destruction."

"The most important coins we have are from those last four or five years of the rebellion against the Roman army, and one coin we found was actually minted very close to the destruction of the Second Temple," she said.

The coins were excavated from an ancient street below the Temple Mount, experts said. Archaeologists had to sift through debris and remove boulders thrown off the Temple Mount during the Roman raid before they found the road and the hoard of coins.

Today the Al Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the temples. Muslims refer to the site as the Noble Sanctuary, marking the spot from where they believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. The conflicting claims make the site one the most explosive issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The coins are part of a larger exhibition in Jerusalem's Archaeological Garden, showing a collection of antique coins that have been uncovered over the past three decades.

The exhibition shows not only coins minted in Jerusalem during the rebellion but also European, North African and Persian coins that were found around the holy site from various periods.
"This just shows the international character of the city," Katz said. "It shows the importance of Jerusalem to generations of people ... the importance of Jerusalem never faded away for Jews, Christians and Muslims," she said.

[SOURCE]

The destruction of the Temple they are speaking of, of course, is the same incident Jesus was speaking about in the Gospel reading from last Sunday's Mass (see previous blog entry here.]. Funny how the accuracy Scriptures are continually verified by the witness of history.

7th Annual West Coast Biblical Conference, January 22-24, 2010

The folks over at St. Joseph's Communications and The St. Paul Paul Center for Biblical Theology are again offering their premier Bible conference for those who are interested in gaining in their knowledge and love of God's Word. The three speakers are top-notch, and these events are always fun and spiritually fruitful, with lots of great Bible study material available for your buying pleasure.

This years conference is focused on the Gospel of John. Concurrently, The St. Paul Center is offering a free online mp3 on that Gospel. Check it out here (on the right hand side of the page).

Here are the details of the Conference.

The basics:
7th Annual West Coast Biblical Conference
John ~ The Sacramental Gospel
Riverside Convention Center - Riverside, CA
January 22-24, 2010
Speakers:Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. Brant Pitre and Prof. Michael Barber

Registration is Open!

Hope Amid the Catholic Bible Study Wasteland

Great post over at The Pertinacious Papist about the state of Catholic biblical studies since the Second Vatican Council. As can be attested by any orthodox Catholic who loves the Scriptures but is repulsed by the lifeless critical method of mainstream scholarship, it is positively painful to see what the average Catholic is offered in the way of parish based Scripture study and in Catholic colleges. No wonder so many Catholics who had an initial interest in getting to know more about the Bible end up turning to more invigorating Protestant material and presentations (sometimes making the entire journey to Protestantism as a result), or just say to heck with the whole thing.

It's not not all dead and negative, however, as the writer quoted by the blog (Joe Martin) points out and as I often tell anyone who will listen. There are great Bible study materials if you know where to look for them. That's one of the purposes of this blog and my website, and I hope to be able to post info about where to find said resources as time goes on -- so stay tuned.

November 15: Reflections On the Sunday Mass Scripture Readings

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website. This Sunday's Gospel is the from the Jesus' Olivet Discourse, where he prophesies the destruction of the Jewish temple as well as his own Second Coming.

Once again, here are reflections on the Sunday Scriptures for the younger ones in your family. Check out Family Night by Emily and Jeff Cavins.

You can find my own study (along with Don Schwager's meditation) on my website.

Here also is the link to the current weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

The Navarre Bible Commentary for each reading can be viewed here.

Discussion and charitible comments are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

On the Road and Running Late

Sorry for the delay on posting this week's Scripture study and updating the website. I'm on the road right now and looking for a few minutes to get it done. Hopefully later today we'll have our act together. If you need my own weekly study before then, please e-mail me directly and I'll send it to you. Thanks for your patience!

Question Box: Where Do I Begin?

Q. I just bought my first Bible: where do I start? Do I just dive in or should I have a more structured approach?

A. After a couple of decades of reading and studying the Bible, and of creating and leading Bible studies, I think I've come to the conclusion that to really read the Bible in a way that will help you grow in knowledge and, more important, spiritually, a two track aproach is the best: Devotion and Study.

First, you should be reading the Bible everyday. Just reading it; praying to the Holy Spirit before and after, reading little by little, meditating on that little bit and over time becoming familiar with it. This is really the basis of growing in love for God and his Word and it is something that comes over a long time of doing it. A ready-made way of doing this, of course, is by using the readings that the Church hears at daily Mass. That alone is enough to feed your soul and help it grow.That's number one.

At the same time, if you really want to grow in an in-depth knowledge of the Scriptures (which will also benefit you in your daily Bible reading), you need to study the Scriptures in a more systematic manner. Some people like "topical" Bible studies where you study a theme of Scripture for several weeks (like, for example, about famous men or women in the Bible, courage, faith, stewardship, parenting, discerning God's will, etc.). Personally, I prefer starting out by getting involved in a study which gives you a broad picture of salvation history. Two very popular programs are Jeff Cavins "Great Adventure/Bible Timeline" series and another series Cavin's did with Dr. Scott Hahn on EWTN called "Our Father's Plan." Studies like this will help you get that "Big Picture" that will make the rest of your Bible study come alive and be more understandable.

After that, you should start studying the Bible book by book. There are several ways you can do this. You can join a good Catholic Bible study group if there is one being offered near you. Also, there are a lot of good Catholic Bible study guides and commentaries that you can use (like the Ignatius Study Bible and the Navarre Bible commentaries) to go through each book one by on your own. If you like to download mp3s, there are some very good Catholic Bible studys that you can download and listen to at your leisure. Some can be found at ewtn.com in their audio library (especially studies on the Gospels). There is a site called St. Irenaeus Ministries that has on-going Catholic studies of many books of the Bible. Just these alone should keep you busy for a while.

So, to re-cap: the best way to learn the Bible is to read a little of it every single day for spiritual edification and to grow in familiarity. At the same time, be studying at least one book of the Bible all the time so that you can grow in knowledge and have a solid foundation to your daily Bible reading.If you need more information or resources, please visit my main webpage, found here.

Hope that helps. :)

November 8 -- Reflections On The Scriptures for this Sunday's Mass Readings

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website. This Sunday's Gospel is the story of the Widow's Mite.

New for this week: reflections on the Sunday Scriptures for the younger ones in your family. Check out Family Night by Emily and Jeff Cavins.

You can find my own study (along with Don Schwager's meditation) on my website.

Here also is the link to the current weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

The Navarre Bible Commentary for each reading can be viewed here.

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings (not available yet at the time of this posting, but keep checking back here--or there--for updates).

Discussion and charitible comments are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!