"Credible Witnesses of Christ Present in the Scriptures"

As Fr Mike and Sherry head to Germany, I will try to forestall any blogging lull that could result from their tour abroad. Nonetheless, I do hope that we receive periodic updates on Bavaria's autumnal splendor and their activities. 

Today Cardinal Bertone discussed the ways in which young people could be encouraged to take the scriptures more seriously. He called for more attention to the role of credible witnesses who take the Word seriously in their own lives and compel young people to the same. 

Nevertheless, one notices that many of these young people show a surprising interest in the Bible when the syncrony is reached not as much, at least in the beginning, through the authority of a Biblical page called the Word of God, but by adults working who go to them as patient teachers and credible witnesses of the greatest figure, who is Jesus; in other words, people who when they say the Word of God, demonstrate it with their own life.

Let us fervently pray for such witnesses!

More Synod News

As a complement to Fr Mike's previous post, I think the words addressed to the synod fathers from the founders and leaders of the new ecclesial movements have much of the same character as those from the superiors of the various religious orders present. I particularly enjoyed these words from the found of the Community of Sant'Egidio, the historian, Andrea Riccardi:

"Gregory the Great teaches us that the Word grows with he who reads it. It enlightens the poor, guiding us to understand that to be close to them is to be close to Christ Himself. Thus emerges the structural dimension of the Christian: the disciple. ... At a time of a whirlwind of words, the Word matures in silence. ... At times the Word is chained by projects, protagonists, and ideological readings. ... To evangelize is not a technique, but to overflow with the Word. The Synod can be the right moment to promote a mature season of love for Scripture in the people of God. Strengthened by a century of biblical culture, is it not time to develop devotion to the Sacred Text among the people of God? Christian men and women will thus become - as Chrysostom says - 'simple with intelligence' in a complex world".

More from the Synod

Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago made the following comments during his intervention at the Synod on the Word of God ongoing in Rome:

"To speak of the Word of God in the Church is to speak of the Word of God in the lives of believers. Pastors should attend to conversion of the imagination, the intellect and the will of those to whom they proclaim the Word of God and for whom they interpret Scripture. Too often, the contemporary imagination has lost the image of God as actor in history. The contemporary intellect finds little consistency in the books of the Bible and is not informed by the 'regula fidei'. The contemporary heart has not been shaped by worship and the submission to God's word in the liturgical year. If the power of God's word in Holy Scripture is to be felt in the life and mission of the Church, pastors must attend to personal context as well as to inspired text."