{"id":59566,"date":"2015-11-10T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=59566"},"modified":"2015-11-09T22:30:53","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T05:30:53","slug":"pope-francis-on-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2015\/11\/10\/pope-francis-on-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis on the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On the occasion of the publication of the new Bible for youth, Pope Francis has written a very personal account of his own relationship with Scripture.<\/em><\/p>\n

Writing the prologue to the new German edition of the Youcat Bible, which will be published Oct. 21, Pope Francis speaks lovingly of an old, worn-out Bible he has carried around for half his life.<\/em><\/p>\n

He counsels young people on the best approach to reading the Bible so it brings the Light of the World into their lives and doesn\u2019t end up\u00a0on a shelf.\u00a0<\/em>It is, he reminds readers, a \u201cdangerous\u201d book in certain parts of the world: owning one can lead to jail or torture.<\/em><\/p>\n

And he quotes Mahatma Gandhi, who said,\u00a0\u201cYou Christians have in your hands a book containing enough dynamite to shatter all civilization.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u00a0is the Pope\u2019s prologue…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Pope-Francis\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My dear young friends:<\/span><\/p>\n

If you could see my Bible, you would not be particularly impressed. What\u2014that\u2019s the Pope\u2019s Bible? Such an\u00a0old, worn-out book!<\/span><\/p>\n

You could buy\u00a0me a new one for $1,000, but I would not want it. I love my old Bible, which has accompanied me half my life. It has been with me in\u00a0my times of joy and times of\u00a0tears. It\u00a0is my most precious treasure. I live out of it, and I wouldn\u2019t give anything in the world for\u00a0it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I really like this new Youth Bible. It\u2019s so colorful, so rich in testimonies: testimonies of the saints, testimonies of young people. It is so inviting that when you start to read at the beginning, you can\u2019t\u00a0stop\u00a0until\u00a0the last page.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then \u2026? And then it disappears on a\u00a0shelf, collecting dust. Your children find it one day and bring it to the flea market.<\/span><\/p>\n

It must not come to that.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you something: There are more persecuted Christians in the world today than in the early days of the Church. And why are they persecuted? They are persecuted because they wear a cross and bear witness to Jesus. They are convicted because they own a Bible. The Bible is therefore a highly dangerous book\u2014so dangerous that you are treated in some countries as if you were\u00a0hiding\u00a0hand grenades in your\u00a0closet.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a non-Christian, Mahatma Gandhi, who once said: \u201cYou Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So what do you have in your hands? A piece of literature? Some nice old stories? Then you would have to say to the many Christians who go to prison or are tortured\u00a0because they own a\u00a0Bible: \u201cHow foolish\u00a0you are; it\u2019s just a piece of literature!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

No. By the word of God\u00a0has Light come into the world, and it will never go out. In Evangelii Gaudium<\/em> (175) I said, \u201cWe do not blindly seek God, or wait for him to speak to us first, for \u2018God has already spoken, and there is nothing further that we need to know, which has not been revealed to us.\u2019 Let us receive the sublime treasure of the revealed word.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So you have\u00a0something divine in your\u00a0hands: a book like fire! A book through which God\u00a0speaks. So notice: The Bible is not meant to be placed on a shelf, but to be in your hands, to read often\u2014every day, both on your own\u00a0and together with others. You do sports together or go shopping together. Why not read the Bible together as well\u2014two, three, or four of you? In nature, in the woods, on the beach, at night in the glow of a few candles \u2026 you will have\u00a0a great\u00a0experience!<\/span><\/p>\n

Or are you afraid of making a fool of yourself in front of others?<\/span><\/p>\n

Read with attention! Do not stay on the surface as if reading a\u00a0comic book! Never just skim the Word of God! Ask yourself: \u201cWhat does this say to my heart? Does God speak through these words to me? Has he touched me in the depths of my longing? What should I do?\u201d Only in this way can the force of the Word of God unfold. Only in this way can it change our lives, making them great\u00a0and beautiful.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to tell you how I read my old Bible. Often I read a little and then put it away and contemplate the Lord. Not that I see the Lord, but he looks at me. He\u2019s there. I let myself look at him. And I feel\u2014this is not sentimentality\u2014I feel deeply the things that the Lord tells me. Sometimes he does not speak. I then feel nothing, only emptiness, emptiness, emptiness\u2026. But I remain patiently, and so I wait, reading and praying. I pray sitting, because it hurts me to kneel. Sometimes I even fall asleep while praying. But it does not matter. I\u2019m like a son with the father, and that is what\u2019s important.<\/span><\/p>\n

Would you like to make me happy? Read the Bible!<\/span><\/p>\n

Pope Francis<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the occasion of the publication of the new Bible for youth, Pope Francis has written a very personal account of his own relationship with Scripture. Writing the prologue to the new German edition of the Youcat Bible, which will be published Oct. 21, Pope Francis speaks lovingly of an old, worn-out Bible he has carried around for half his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[302,2094,373,3413],"class_list":["post-59566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-bible","tag-pope-francis","tag-sacred-scripture","tag-youth-catechism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59566"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59902,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59566\/revisions\/59902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}