nunblog: Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We've reached the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray:

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this, until Jesus comes again in glory.

Open my mind today to the gift of life and truth your Word offers me through the Church. By your Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom and strength to put this Word into practice and to become, myself, a presence of Jesus for people who are looking for you.

Jesus, eternal Word and Son of the Father, live in me with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Today's chapters are John 8-10.

When I think of all the richness in the Gospels, I just want to cry over our racing through three chapters a day. Today's selection is another example of why you need to make the Gospels your daily bread. Every single chapter we are reading today contains absolutely essential material, probably things you have heard your whole life (maybe even quoted). Promise me you will come back to them often, but not at this speed!!!

In Chapter 8, Jesus, who will later tell the disciples that he is the Truth, assures the crowd "the truth will make you free" (8:32). How many violations of the truth there are in our society today! We are asked to deny (or at least ignore) the most fundamental of truths, and on the most baseless of claims. Jesus tells us where that will lead. Only the truth will make (and keep) us free. Do we believe him?

With Chapter 9 and the healing of a man born blind, we are coming closer to the apex of the Book of Signs. Notice how the formerly blind man not only sees Jesus, but comes to recognize him and acknowledge the truth with a freedom that allows him to lose his place in society, in the family, even his rightful place in the worshiping community in the Temple. As he aligns himself with Jesus the "Lord" his parents deny him and the religious authorities refuse to even reckon with his testimony since he was born blind (and therefore "in sin"). They claim to have perfect vision, "but your sin remains," Jesus tells them pointedly.

And Chapter 10? You know it in your heart: "I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and mine know me. And for these sheep I will give my life."

Start reading here.

For additional background

This year for "Buy a Nun a Book Day," one of the first books I received was Dr John Bergsma's Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood. As I read it, I saw how many of the Old Testament "types" and institutions we read about through the year were fulfilled (super-abundantly) in Jesus and in the Church. This is especially clear in the Gospel of John, which in a way is the most "priestly" of the four Gospels.

If you have questions about the priesthood in the Church, or about the difference between our baptismal participation in the priesthood of Christ and that exercised by our ministerial priests, or even simple questions like why Catholics call priests "Father" (when Jesus said, "Call no one on earth 'father'"), or if you would like to see in a fuller way how very many Old Testament types were pointing to Jesus and to the Church, this very readable book is for you.

I am happy to recommend this volume of The Four Gospels in an edition directed to young readers and their parents. The text of all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in the New Revised Standard Translation is accompanied by FAQs that a middle-school reader might ask (or, to be honest, anybody reading the Gospels for the first time). The footnotes were prepared by a team of Scripture scholars for parents and guardians, making the book ideal for family Bible reading.