June 26, 2011: Study and Meditations on this Sunday's Scripture Readings

To help us prepare for this coming Sunday, here are the readings, studies and reflections for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings. This Sunday Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Here are the Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

My own weekly study can be found here under "Current Study."

Here are three audio reflections on the readings by Sister Ann Shields, Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Robert Barron.

Here are a pair of Catholic Bible study podcasts (each about an hour long):
- St. Martha's Adult Faith Formation.
- Franciscan Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother

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

Further study resources for the Readings: St. Charles Borromeo Bible Study can be found here, and Catholic Matters can be found here.

Please consider supporting those who provide these free resources.

Discussion, questions and charitable comments are always welcome. Have a blessed week!

June 19, 2011: Study and Meditations on this Sunday's Scripture Readings

To help us prepare for this coming Sunday, here are the readings, studies and reflections for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings. This Sunday is Trinity Sunday.

Here are the Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

My own weekly study can be found here under "Current Study."

Here are three audio reflections on the readings by Sister Ann Shields, Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Robert Barron.

Here are a pair of Catholic Bible study podcasts (each about an hour long):
- St. Martha's Adult Faith Formation.
- Franciscan Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother

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

Further study resources for the Readings: St. Charles Borromeo Bible Study can be found here, and Catholic Matters can be found here.

Please consider supporting those who provide these free resources.

Discussion, questions and charitable comments are always welcome. Have a blessed week!

June 12, 2011: Study and Meditations on this Sunday's Scripture Readings

To help us prepare for this coming Sunday, here are the readings, studies and reflections for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings. This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.

Here are the Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

My own weekly study can be found here under "Current Study."

Here are three audio reflections on the readings by Sister Ann Shields, Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Robert Barron and St. Martha's Adult Faith Formation.

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

Further study resources for the Readings: St. Charles Borromeo Bible Study can be found here, and Catholic Matters can be found here.

Please consider supporting those who provide these free resources.

Discussion, questions and charitable comments are always welcome. Have a blessed week!

The Catechism on Sacred Scripture - Conclusion: Sections 134 to141

IN BRIEF
 
134 All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ, "because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ" (Hugh of St. Victor, De arca Noe 2,8:PL 176,642: cf. ibid. 2,9:PL 176,642-643).

135 "The Sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God and, because they are inspired, they are truly the Word of God" (DV 24).

136 God is the author of Sacred Scripture because he inspired its human authors; he acts in them and by means of them. He thus gives assurance that their writings teach without error his saving truth (cf. DV 11).
137 Interpretation of the inspired Scripture must be attentive above all to what God wants to reveal through the sacred authors for our salvation. What comes from the Spirit is not fully "understood except by the Spirit's action' (cf. Origen, Hom. in Ex. 4, 5: PG 12, 320).

138 The Church accepts and venerates as inspired the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New.

139 The four Gospels occupy a central place because Christ Jesus is their center.

140 The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God's plan and his Revelation. The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old; the two shed light on each other; both are true Word of God.

141 "The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord" (DV 21): both nourish and govern the whole Christian life. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps 119:105; cf. Is 50:4).


Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church 

The Catechism on Sacred Scripture - Sections 131 thru133

SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
 
131 "And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigor, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life."¹⁰⁹ Hence "access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful."¹¹⁰
 
132 "Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology. The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms of Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture."¹¹¹
 
133 The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.¹¹²

109 DV 21.
110 DV 22.
111 DV 24.
112 DV 25; cf. Phil 3:8 and St. Jerome, Commentariorum in Isaiam libri xviii prol.:PL 24,17B.

Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church 

June 5th : Study and Meditations on This Sunday's Scripture Readings

To help us prepare for this coming Sunday, here are the readings, studies and reflections for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings. This Sunday (in most dioceses in the U.S.) is the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord.

Here are the Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

My own weekly study can be found here under "Current Study."

Here are three audio reflections on the readings by Sister Ann Shields and Fr. Robert Barron.

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

Further study resources for the Readings: St. Charles Borromeo Bible Study can be found here, and Catholic Matters can be found here.

Please consider supporting those who provide these free resources.

Discussion, questions and charitable comments are always welcome. Have a blessed week!

The Catechism on Sacred Scripture - Sections 128 to130

The unity of the Old and New Testaments
 
128 The Church, as early as apostolic times,¹⁰⁴ and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God's works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son.

129 Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself.¹⁰⁵ Besides, the New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament.¹⁰⁶ As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.¹⁰⁷
 
130 Typology indicates the dynamic movement toward the fulfillment of the divine plan when "God [will] be everything to everyone."¹⁰⁸ Nor do the calling of the patriarchs and the exodus from Egypt, for example, lose their own value in God's plan, from the mere fact that they were intermediate stages.

104 Cf. 1 Cor 10:6,11; Heb 10:l; l Pet 3:21.
105 Cf. Mk 12:29-31
106 Cf. 1 Cor 5:6-8; 10:1-11.
107 Cf. St. Augustine, Quaest. in Hept. 2,73:PL 34,623; Cf. DV 16.
108 1 Cor 15:28.

Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church