Finish Reading the Bible with Me!

Today we complete our year-long project of reading the Bible from cover to cover! But first, let us pray: 

Lord Jesus, you have come!

You have come to us through nature to reveal the Father.

You have come to us in prophecy that prepared the way for the Incarnation.

You have come to us in history and lived among us for thirty-three short years.

You have come to us in the sacred words of the Gospel that make your presence new every time they are proclaimed to us.

You have come to us in the Eucharist, where you remain to be with us.

You have come to us in our neighbor in need.

You have come to us in our neighbor's kindness.

You have come to us in the lives of your greatest imitators, the saints.

And you will come to us.

You will come to us one by one at our death.

You will come to all of us who have ever lived at the great day of the Wedding Feast.

For this you were born!

For this we were born!

 Your holy card 
awaits!

Oh, Lord: Complete what you have done for us!

Amen!

Send  thenunblogger  an email  (@ gmail)  with your name and mailing address so you can get a holy card in commemoration of having read the whole Bible during this Pauline Family Year of the Bible!

Today's chapters are Revelation 21-22 and Psalm 150! 

What perfect words we read on Christmas Day! The Angel could have announced it to the shepherds in the Bethlehem field: "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race" (Rev 21:3). God has always been Emmanuel, God with us. It is we who have not been with God. But the Incarnation, Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus accomplished something new (21:5): In our reading today, the "new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride for her husband," is coming "down from Heaven from God" (21:2). It is all the work of God and the gift of God.

All the things St Paul said about marriage as a great mystery of Christ and the Church become real here: the most perfect union of the most perfect human spouses in the history of humanity was only a child's pencil sketch of the communion with God that human beings were created for. St Paul's image of the Church "built as a Temple upon the foundation of the Apostles" (see Eph 2:20-22) is also reflected here, even thought there is no Temple in the city; no "place" where God is, because there is no "place" where God isn't. God is all in all.

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let the hearer say, “Come.” Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water (Rev 22:17).

Psalm 150 is the closing doxology of the final "book" of the Psalter, and the closing doxology of the Psalter itself. The cymbal crash it calls for is entirely appropriate.

Finish reading Revelation here and finish the Psalter here.

Here's a musical setting of Psalm 150 that I really like. No vocals, sadly, so you can listen to it while you read the Psalm. It's done with pipe organ, but you can add your own cymbal crash!

For more background

Years ago I attended a lecture series by Dr James Papandrea on the Book of Revelation and found it very helpful. His book, The Wedding of the Lamb: A Historical Approach to the Book of Revelation, is kind of expensive, but there is a Kindle version in case you are looking for a companion to Revelation by a Catholic theologian. 

Another helpful resource (one that I am currently reading) is by Dr Michael J. Gorman, a Scripture scholar who is a particular expert on St Paul. Gorman is a United Methodist, but he teaches at a Catholic seminary and I have no hesitation about recommending his work. Catholic readers will just find that most of his immediate applications are to mainline Protestant experiences, rather than Catholic parish life. (By the way, I find Gorman's understanding of Paul on "Cruciformity" very much in line with our Founder's thought and with the teachings of St John Eudes.)