Dear Parishioners,

This Sunday has been named by Pope Francis, “Word of God” Sunday. It is a brand new name for this Sunday since it was only instituted 2 years ago. The Pope wishes for all Catholics to know and to love the Word of God in order to foster unity with the Jewish people and other Christians. He also recognizes that the Bible can only be understood with the help of the Holy Spirit and in the community of the faithful.

I know, however, that many Catholics find reading scripture to be difficult and they think that only special people can or should read it. This is not what the Church has ever taught and in recent times all the Holy Fathers and the Second Vatican Council have taught the opposite. So, in order to encourage you all to actually read the Bible, I would like to offer a simple way to begin.

Last year Ascension Press produced a podcast called “The Bible in a Year” with Fr. Mike Schmitz. With just twenty minutes a day, every day, he is able to read the entire Bible out loud and give a reflection on each passage. He does not read the whole thing from beginning to end but instead reads a couple chapters from 2 or 3 books at a time. He keeps the main narrative of the Bible going while using supplementary books in scripture (such as the Prophets, letters and Wisdom literature) to fill out what is going on.

I missed the original run of this podcast last year. Yet, many people have recommended it and have told me how much they got out of it. So after spending the last three weeks listening to it, I see the great value of it and I now recommend it to anyone who is reading this. So, if you would like to find out more information on how to subscribe to this podcast, please check out their website here:

https://ascensionpress.com/pages/biy-registration

It’s easy, free and will greatly change your world view to a more biblical one.
God bless!

Fr. Carter

P.S. We are going to start the next phase of our Parish Bible study. But, we are going to wait for the Omicron variant to subside before we start. So please be patient and stay tuned.