"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
My mum sent me this lovely quotation the other day from the late Cardinal Basil Hume:
Once, while preaching in a parish, I suddenly caught sight of a young mother with her child, and you could see the love between them. I was terribly tempted to say to the Congregation: ‘Forget what I am saying and look over there, and you will see what we mean to God’” – Cardinal Basil Hume.
This week was the feast day of St. Dominic, so I thought I would share a rather religiously nerdy joke I came across recently…
A Dominican and a Jesuit were arguing about whether the Dominicans or the Jesuits were more favored by God. Finally, they decided that the only one who could settle the matter was God. So they prayed, the heavens opened up, and a piece of paper came fluttering down. When they picked it up, this is what it said:
My children,
Please stop quarreling about such absurd and trivial matters.
Sincerely,
God, O.P.
(You’re welcome Jenna…)
A few people have recently asked me where I get the material for my “Lectionary Notes” posts. Here’s the process I go through each week:
1. After we conclude our Bible Study in the JP2 Group, we all go to the church next door for adoration. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament I read the Lectionary Scriptures for the following week and spend a little bit of time praying through them.
2. When I next have some time, I read through the texts again using my NIV Study Bible.
Regarding Bible translations, translators have to make a choice between translating from the original language word-for-word (“formal equivalence”) or providing a looser translation but which attempts to better convey the thought expressed by the original writer (“dynamic equivalence”). This essentially results in a trade-off between readability and fidelity to the original words of the text. I quite like the NIV in that it falls somewhere between formal and dynamic equivalence, but with a leaning more towards dynamic equivalence.
The NIV is not a Catholic Bible and unfortunately therefore is missing the books of Wisdom, Sirach etc. Some of the study notes also have a non-Catholic skew, but on the whole it has excellent cross-references and always at least offers an interesting point of view.
3. The next book I reach for is my Ignatius New Testament Study Bible. I can’t say how much I love this book. It’s the RSV translation, which follows the “formal equivalence” approach. I would not-so-humbly suggest that it is a far superior translation to the NAB which is used in the Lectionary. Ignatius Press have produced a superb resource here, with excellent notes, maps and word studies. Every Christian should own a copy – it’s a bargain at $16. I will wait here while you click on the link and go and order a copy from Amazon. Seriously, I’ll wait…Done? Okay, let’s continue!
The readings this week focus around the Gentiles (those of non-Jewish ethnicity) and their place in salvation history. In the First Reading we hear the Lord proclaim through the Prophet Isaiah, that His house will be a house of prayer “for all peoples” and in the Psalm we sing about God’s glory being proclaimed “among all nations”. In the Second Reading, St. Paul gives us some insight into the relationship between the Jews and Gentiles in God’s plan for salvation. Finally, in the Gospel we read about Jesus’ encounter with a Canaanite women who, although a Gentile, is granted her request by the Lord because of her great faith.
Last week John Stott fell asleep in Christ.
Dr. Stott was born in England in 1921. As a teenager, he came to faith in Christ through the Anglican church. He would go on to dedicate his life to serving Christ for the next seventy years.
As well as being Curate and Rector of All Souls Langham Place for thirty years, he was a superb scholar, authoring over fifty books, including “Basic Christianity”. He lived a modest life and the royalties of his books were poured back into missionary work and leadership training overseas. Even after retiring, he continued to work tirelessly for the Kingdom and continued to inspire the new generation of Bible teachers. All of this earned him something of a household name among evangelicals.
A great quote yesterday from Happy Catholic:
“We are not citizens of this world trying to make our way to heaven; we are citizens of heaven trying to make our way through this world … we live as those who are on a journey home; a home we know will have the lights on and the door open and our Father waiting for us when we arrive. That means in all adversity our worship of God is joyful, our life is hopeful, our future is secure. There is nothing that we can lose on earth that can rob us of the treasures God has given us and will give us.” – The Landisfarne
I grew up watching “Happy Days”. How come I never remember The Fonz getting baptised?!