Pastor’s Keyboard: It was in seventh grade that the idea of reading the Bible cover to cover first came to me.  There was only one problem.  My family had only one Bible, it was a gift to my parents on their wedding day.  It was a huge white King James Bible.  The words were beautiful when they came off the tongue. It difficult to understand.  So, I got a dictionary to lay beside my Bible as I read it as often as I could over a number of months.  The only problem was that some of the words that meant one thing in the 1600’s meant something very different in the 1900s.

Nevertheless, I fell in love with it especially when I got to the gospel and the epistles of St Paul. At times in the Old Testament I felt like I was there with Moses and the Israelite people, I was with David in his journey to become King.  And then I met our Jesus and walked with him from birth till death and resurrection.  I then traveled with his apostle Paul on his many journeys and eventually ended up at the end and beginning of all things in the book of Revelation.

I can’t say I understood it all or liked it all (especially Chronicles).  Yet the Word of God became alive for me and I have found sustenance, comfort, encouragement, mercy, and correction in it ever since.  When I finally became a Catholic, I was amazed by how much scripture was in the hymns, prayers, and actions of the Mass.  Because of the way the Lectionary was put together I started to see like never before why both the Old and New Testament were valuable and necessary to understand each other. We have such a great treasure in scripture that I worry we don’t take advantage of nearly enough.  The Mass is literally soaked in scripture!  I fear that we miss so much of it and I am so sad when those who have left the practice of the faith will say that they never heard the Word of God till they left.  When the fact is, they heard it every Sunday filling every crevice of the Mass.  But that’s it!  They Heard but did not Listen.  This is the danger for us too every Sunday and for some every day.  Let us together make a new commitment to not only hear the Word of God through every Mass each Sunday but to listen out for it!  Then we will always be fed by it (whether the homily and the music is good or bad) , we will always be inspired (no matter how much we struggle to overcome sin and at times fall), we will always know we are loved (even when some around us don’t speak or act loving toward us, sadly at times even in the house of the Lord they do this), and we will have Joy!  A joy and confidence that nothing and no one can take from us!  Be Attentive! Christ wants to speak to you Now!!!

Your Brother and Father in Christ,

Fr Scott