Category: Scripture

2 min read

Scripture

The Tree of Life In Genesis

Father Ray Ryland

March 26, 2020 7:27 am March 26, 2020

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Genesis 2:9 introduces us to the tree of life: “Out of the ground the Lord God made grow every tree that was delightful to look at and good for food,…

Genesis 2:9 introduces us to the tree of life: “Out of the ground the Lord God made grow every tree that was delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life also in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” According to Genesis 2:16-17, God told Adam, “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden [evidently including the tree of life] except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die” — that is, become subject to death.

Why did God make Adam and Eve subject to this danger? For Adam and Eve’s wills to be free, there had to be the possibility of misusing them. Otherwise, our first parents would have been mere automatons.

The tempter, the father of lies, persuaded Eve (and through her, Adam) that eating the forbidden fruit would confer divine status on them. Indeed, the tempter spoke the truth, but with an entirely different, ominous meaning. By this act of disobedience, she and Adam certainly would know good and evil. But how? By themselves, actually becoming evil, disobedient to God.

Note that the fruit of the tree of life, which was believed to confer eternal life, was not forbidden to Adam and Eve not prior to their fall, but after their fall. Only then — and for Adam and Eve’s ultimate benefit — did God forbid them to eat the fruit of the tree of life (see Gn 3:22-24). In their condition of disobedience they would eternally have been cut off from God. It was an act of mercy for God to prevent them from plunging themselves into damnation. God had in mind the new Adam through which he would restore to the human race the possibility of eternal life lost in the fall of Adam and Eve.

What became of the tree of life after the fall? God drove out our first parents, “stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gn 3:24). Again, God took precaution against fallen humanity being eternally separated from Him. We know now the new Adam reopened the way to eternal life.

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5 min read

Scripture

Bible 101: A Brief Introduction to Wisdom Literature

Sister Anna Marie McGuan

March 24, 2020 8:12 am March 24, 2020

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The Wisdom literature of the Old Testament is an eclectic collection of proverbs, moral lessons, riddles, warnings, extended meditations, and philosophical inquiry and debate. It also includes hymns and even love poetry in the Song of Songs. The human authors of the Bible took an interest in more than just religious subjects, as anyone who reads the Bible can attest. The Wisdom literature is a prime example of that broad outlook.

The reason for this length and breadth of interest is that wisdom comes to us in many forms. There is, of course, the wisdom that we learn from God himself through revelation. There is also wisdom to be gained from human experience and reflection. For example, the question “What is it to be just?” or “What does the just man do?” can be answered from a religious perspective or from a more secular bent. The answers may be different, but they are not contradictory.

The Wisdom literature exposes us to both types of reflection, especially in the books of Proverbs and Sirach. Some of the proverbs or sayings could be considered truisms, but they do contain ageless, sage advice, along with a lot of common sense. For example, “Where words are many, sin is not wanting; but those who restrain their lips do well.” (Prv 10:19), or: “Unjust anger can never be justified; anger pulls a person to utter ruin.” (Sir 1:22).

Book of Job

Besides given sound advice, the biblical authors were not afraid to ask hard questions. In fact, they challenged inadequate understandings of wisdom and insufficient answers to questions about the meaning of suffering, diminishment and death. This, for example, is clearly the case in the book of Job. The question behind the book of Job is the enigma of the just man who suffers.

The answers given by Job’s friends, namely, that he is being punished for his sins or that there is some hidden thing he has done to displease God, are proved inadequate again and again as Job verbally spars with his interlocutors. The poetry of this book is powerful; according to some authors, it is by far the most skillful and elevated poetry in the Bible.

The final chapters are quite surprising because God answers Job, in a certain sense, but does not allow Job’s human intelligence to have dominance over the mystery of suffering. The poetry of God’s speech is breathtaking; his descriptions of the crocodile (Leviathan) and the hippopotamus (Behemoth) are fascinating. His descent into the conversation takes the form of a whirlwind, and that is what the poetry feels like.

Ecclesiastes

The book of Qoheleth, or Ecclesiastes, also does not shy away from critiquing canned answers to difficult questions. In this book, the “preacher” informs the readers that he has examined the world and “All things are vanity!” He proclaims in the first chapter: “What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!” (Eccl 1:9).

This sounds rather nihilistic. At times the author seems quite despondent, yet he also writes things like this: “Just as you do not know how the life breath enters the human frame in the mother’s womb, So you do not know the work of God, who is working in everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hand be idle: For you do not know which of the two will be successful, or whether both alike will turn out well” (Eccl 11:5-6). There is a certain humility requisite for the wise man. It is not in our power to know all things, but we do have to decide what to do with the time we have.

Prayer book of ancient Israel

The book of Psalms is sometimes called the prayer book of ancient Israel. It is also the prayer book of Jews and Christians today. The psalms are written in poetry, and, like other books, the poems often have a parallel structure. This means that the verses are written in two or three lines, and the second and third lines are in relation to the first by interacting with its meaning. This can be through synonym, antithesis, the completion of an idea, etc. The lines within the poem can play together in lots of different ways. It can be fun to try and find the parallel meanings as one reads the psalm.

The book of Wisdom, though not included in the Hebrew Bible, also belongs to the Wisdom literature and is an extended meditation on wisdom, law and the just man. At the center of the book is a prayer for wisdom, which expresses the deep longing of each human heart for God, a longing that never goes away.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, is director of Christian formation in the Diocese of Knoxville. Read more from the Bible 101 series here.

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5 min read

Scripture

Bible 101: A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament

Sister Anna Marie McGuan

March 10, 2020 7:00 am March 10, 2020

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One challenge when reading the Old Testament is dealing with the amount of material contained within it. As a person reads along, he encounters narrative or story-like books or portions…

One challenge when reading the Old Testament is dealing with the amount of material contained within it. As a person reads along, he encounters narrative or story-like books or portions of books. The reader also encounters non-narrative passages, like poetry in the Psalms, genealogies, laws and regulations, and prophetic discourses. How do all these fit together? How can one stay oriented while reading through the Old Testament?

One helpful approach is to keep in mind the divisions of the Old Testament. Of course, the Old Testament is already divided into books, but those books are grouped together into four major sections in the Christian tradition and three distinct sections in the Hebrew tradition.

The four sections of the Christian bible are the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, the Prophetic Books, and the Wisdom literature. The Hebrew Bible used in the Jewish religious tradition has a different breakdown: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Hebrew category of “Prophets” is then subdivided into the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets. The Former Prophets include what the Christian tradition refers to as the Historical Books. The use of the category of “Prophets” for both historical and prophetic writing is fitting, however, as explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“[W]hen the Church reads the Old Testament, she searches there for what the Spirit, ‘who has spoken through the prophets,’ wants to tell us about Christ. By ‘prophets’ the faith of the Church here understands all whom the Holy Spirit inspired in living proclamation and in the composition of the sacred books, both of the Old and the New Testaments. Jewish tradition distinguishes first the Law (the five first books or Pentateuch), then the Prophets (our historical and prophetic books) and finally the Writings (especially the wisdom literature, in particular the Psalms)” (CCC, No. 702).

In the Christian Bible, the Old Testament’s first section is usually called the Pentateuch, which means “five volumes” or “five scrolls.” Torah, the Hebrew word for these first five books, means “law,” an apt name for this section because these books include the law that God established to govern Israel, including their worship and rituals. This section begins with creation and includes the stories of Abraham, Jacob and his sons, the Exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt, and the Covenant made between God and His people at Mount Sinai. It concludes with the final speech of God’s servant Moses in the book of Deuteronomy.

The second section is the Historical books. These books trace the entry of the Hebrew people into the land of Canaan, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants by God. They tell the story of the conquest of the land, the establishment of the monarchy and the lives of Saul, David and Solomon. These books also recount the division of the Davidic Kingdom into Israel (North) and Judah (South) after the death of Solomon. From that point on, the two kingdoms were frequently entangled in wars and disputes with each other and foreign nations. Eventually, both kingdoms were conquered: Israel by the Assyrian empire in 722/721 B.C. and Judah by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

The Prophetic books run chronologically parallel to the Historical books during the time of the divided kingdom. For example, the book of the prophet Amos is considered the earliest book, and he is dated to the middle of the 8th century B.C., before the fall of the northern kingdom. The prophets give some historical references in their writings, but the focus of the prophetic message is theological. The prophets speak for God and give explanations, exhortations, and sometimes harsh invectives against God’s people because of their infidelity to Him.

The Wisdom literature, or the Writings, is a diverse collection of books. Perhaps the greatest of these books is the Psalms, which functioned like a prayer hymnal for the people of Israel and, now, also for the Church. Other types of Wisdom literature include proverbs and instructions on how to live righteously in the world according to God’s design for human persons. The book of Job, also in this category and written mostly in poetry, is a lengthy exploration of human suffering and its meaning. This group of books is not tied historically to any one person or period of time, but contains the long tradition of wisdom earned by the covenant people through their experiences of suffering, repentance and prayer.

The conclusion of the Old Testament looks toward the fulfillment of God’s promises to His people, especially in the form of the Messiah (Hebrew for “anointed one”) of God. His coming would mark a definitive step for God’s revelation to His people and the salvation of all humankind.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, R.S.M., is Director of Christian Formation in the Diocese of Knoxville. Read more from the Bible 101 series here.

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6 min read

Scripture

Blood and Old Testament Sacrifices

Father Ray Ryland

March 6, 2020 7:35 am March 6, 2020

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6 min read

Have you ever resolved to read the Bible from cover to cover? You take the Bible down from the shelf, blow the dust from it and start at the beginning….

Have you ever resolved to read the Bible from cover to cover?

You take the Bible down from the shelf, blow the dust from it and start at the beginning. Genesis and Exodus go rather well. But when you start reading Leviticus, you bog down.

Leviticus opens a strange world to us: all this talk about the ritual of sacrificing animals and about the shedding of their blood. “He shall then slaughter the bull before the Lord” (Lv 1:5).

Puzzled, you stop there and put the Bible back on the shelf until your next resolve to read it. Many people, I think, know the first two books very well from repeated reading. But they never get through Leviticus.

The fact is that the contents of Leviticus are important to us Christians.

All the key terms the New Testament uses to describe our Lord Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are drawn from the Old Testament sacrificial system. Obviously, then, to understand the sacrifice of Christ, we need some understanding of Old Testament animal sacrifice.

The Purpose of Sacrifice

First, here are some preliminary facts to keep in mind. Worship in the Jewish temple centered on the offering of sacrifice. The purpose of Old Testament sacrifice was to bring about “atonement”: the process of reconciling sinful man with God.

Leviticus assures us blood is holy, because life is holy and blood equals life: “Since the life of every living body is its blood. . . . You shall not partake of the blood of any meat” (17:14).

Since human blood could not be shed in sacrifice, the blood of sacrificial victims was substituted. There were several kinds of animal sacrifice for this purpose.

The most common was the “peace offering,” or better put (as in the Jerusalem Bible), the “communion sacrifice” (see Lv 3:1ff). The emphasis in communion sacrifice fell not on death, but on life.

The life of the sacrificial victim was surrendered (shed) in order to be transformed, in order to be shared. The offering of sacrifice necessarily presupposed that the offeror (the one who was offering) sincerely desired to be reconciled with God.

Here is a brief outline of communion sacrifice.

It began as the offeror approached the altar with the animal victim. He placed his hands on the head of the victim to identify himself with the victim. He said, in effect, “The life which is about to be surrendered is my life.”

Then he slew the victim by slitting its throat and drained the blood into altar receptacles.

Next, the work of the priest began. He took some of the blood, the surrendered life, into the nearer presence of God by sprinkling it on and around the altar.

Then he placed some of the flesh on the holy fire to be burned.

The purpose of the burning, symbolically, was not destruction but transformation. In the more ethereal form of smoke, the flesh of the victim could be taken up into the presence of God. God thereby received His portion of the surrendered life.

In the final stage of communion sacrifice, some of the flesh burning on the holy fire was removed while still edible. The offeror ate that portion. He thereby partook of a meal with God, and atonement between God and him was brought about.

Among the ancient Jewish people, common partaking of a meal had deep significance. They believed that sharing a meal with another person created a deep bond with that person.

So strong was this bond for them that if you happened to eat with your mortal enemy, you could never do that enemy any harm. Today we do not think of any dinner companions as mortal enemies, but we do believe sharing a meal deepens friendship.

The atonement accomplished through offering animal sacrifice was limited to what we would call venial sins. It did not apply to serious sins, what one old Bible translation aptly calls “sins done with a high hand.”

The Meaning for Christians

What does all this have to do with us as Christians?

God centered the worship of his Old Testament people on sacrifice because it was an essential part of His plan of salvation. He was preparing them for the ultimate and perfect sacrifice His Son would offer for the atonement of the human race.

As St. Paul declared, “Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God” (Eph 5:2; see also Hebrews chapters 9, 10).

See how our Lord Jesus displayed all the dimensions of Old Testament communion sacrifice. He fulfilled a threefold role: offeror, victim and priest.

In the first stage of animal sacrifice, the offeror approached with his victim, then identified himself with the victim. In Our Lord’s perfect sacrifice, He came among us in the Incarnation, thereby perfectly and literally (not symbolically) identifying himself with every human being.

In the second stage of animal sacrifice, the offeror released the life of the victim. Jesus Christ released His own life in “a death which he freely accepted,” as our second Eucharistic prayer says.

In the third stage of animal sacrifice, the priest took some of the blood, the surrendered life, into the nearer presence of God by sprinkling it on the altar. Jesus Christ the High Priest took the whole of His surrendered life into the fullness of God’s life.

In the fourth stage of animal sacrifice, some of the flesh of the victim was placed on the holy fire, not to be destroyed but to be transformed. By His death and in His ascension to heaven, Jesus Christ has become free of all limitations of space and time.

Now He is fully available to all persons of all time: past, present and future. The life of God’s Son has been surrendered, in order to be transformed, in order to be shared.

Finally came the communion meal. The holy Eucharist is our communion meal. We share in the meal with God, not merely symbolically, as in Old Testament sacrifice, but literally. God in Christ gives us His very self — Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity — as our spiritual food.

Approaching in Faith

Receiving Christ’s gift of himself in the Eucharist is not merely an option for us. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn 6:53).

We approach the Holy Sacrifice in faith. But no matter how deep our faith may be, we can receive Jesus Christ fully only in the way which He has prepared for us.

Are you ready now to try again to read the Bible from cover to cover? Go to it, and sail right through Leviticus on your way to the Book of Revelation.

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7 min read

Scripture

Changing Names

Eddie O'Neill

February 11, 2020 10:30 am February 11, 2020

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7 min read

For the average student of the Bible, who starts his or her study ‘“in the beginning” with the book of Genesis, it doesn’t take long to realize that names play…

For the average student of the Bible, who starts his or her study ‘“in the beginning” with the book of Genesis, it doesn’t take long to realize that names play a significant role throughout sacred Scripture.

They reveal a certain characteristic, or mark an event, in the lives of people and the history of places. Names are sometimes changed as well. In fact, it only takes 17 chapters into Genesis before the great patriarch of Israel, Abram, becomes Abraham.

Why is that? Why does God change people’s names?

The short answer to that question is that a name change signifies a new call in life. It is symbolic of a new identity.

From Abram to Abraham

In the case of Abram, whom God would make Abraham, the change in names reflected a new status. At age 75, Abram is called by the Lord to go forth from his native land and begin a new nation (see Gn 12). He is told that he will receive a plot of land as far as his eyes can see and given descendents as numerous as the dust of the earth (Gn 13:15-16).

He was attentive to the Lord’s directives throughout his journey in the land of Canaan. When Abram is the age of 99, the Lord calls him and says, “no longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations” (Gn 17:5).

In Hebrew, the name Abram means “exulted father,” while Abraham means “father of a multitude.” The name change became a benediction of sorts. God memorialized Abraham’s obedience and faithfulness and blessed him for the road ahead. As the saying goes, behind every great man is a strong woman. Abraham had Sarai. God changed her name to Sarah, or “mother of multitudes,” and thus a new calling. “God further said to Abraham: ‘As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Him also will I bless; he shall give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him’ ” (Gn 17:15-16).

God appointed a royal couple in Abraham and Sarah. The patriarch now has a matriarch, and she will give birth to a noble son, Isaac, who will continue to bear witness to the Old Covenant.

Also in the Old Testament is the story of Jacob, who becomes Israel. Jacob means “deceitful one” (literally, “leg-puller”), and the son of Rebekah lived up to his name sake. His older twin brother, Esau, points this out when he explains that Jacob took away his birthright and “now he has taken away my blessing” (Gn 27:36). However, God turned the deceitful Jacob into the “prince of God” as he is given the new name Israel just five chapters later. God says to him, “You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel” (Gn 32:28). Under his new name, he is called to be the leader of the 12 tribes of Israel and becomes a key Old Testament patriarch.

In with the New

In the New Testament, two notable name changes are those of Peter and Paul. Peter is the second-most mentioned name in the New Testament after Jesus. However, he wasn’t born Peter. His birth name was Simon son of Jonah (see Mt 16:17). He and his brother Andrew grew up together fishing on the Sea of Galilee. They were among the first disciples chosen by Our Lord.

“Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Kephas’ (which is translated Peter)” (Jn 1:42).

Why did the Lord call this man “Rock?” Because of the mission he was about to receive. The Lord said to him, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it’” (Mt 16:18). The fisherman from Bethsaida had become the rock, or the building stone, of the Church. God had chosen him with a new mission. He was now a fisher of men. His new name gave him his identity as the first pope and leader of the Church.

A name change took place as well to Saul, who became Paul. However, it wasn’t God who changed this Jewish man’s name. Not unlike his contemporaries of the time, it is believed that Saul, a Hebrew living under Roman rule, would have acquired more than one name. The story of Paul’s conversion is narrated three times in the Acts of the Apostles. However, in none of these stories is God mentioned as the one changing Saul’s name. On the contrary, it is Jesus who says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). His new name is mentioned briefly in Acts 13:9: “But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him.” While the name change from Saul to Paul doesn’t exactly fit the same mold of Abraham and the others, it can be reasoned that it signified his new identity as the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Devotion to the Holy Name

Reverence to the Holy Name of Jesus began in the early Church. The apostles and the first disciples were the first to cultivate devotion to the sacred name of Jesus.

St. Paul, in his Letter to the Colossians, writes, “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (3:17).

During the time of the Council of Lyons in 1274, Pope Gregory X issued a call to the universal Church to take up this devotion to the Holy Name. Soon after, the Dominicans took up the Church’s pleas and began preaching on the virtues of the Holy Name.

Why Do Religious Change Their Names?

In generations past, it was the norm that religious nuns and, at times, orders of priests or brothers ran Catholic grade schools. The presence of these dedicated women was regularly recognizable through their distinct religious habits, and quite often the nuns carried unique names.

For any third- or fourth-grader who had Sister Mary of the Cross as his or her teacher or Sister John the Baptist in the classroom across the hall, the question might have arisen of where did she get that name from? Didn’t her parents know she was a girl? Why did they name her John the Baptist?

The answer lies in the fact that the taking of a new name symbolizes the entering of a new state in life. Think of marriage. When a woman marries, she normally drops her maiden name and takes on the name of her husband. She is no longer a maiden, but rather is now a married woman.

While this tradition was most prevalent among female orders, it was not un-common for male religious, particularly monastic orders of men, to change their names when they professed vows or were ordained.

Customs varied on what a newly professed name could be. Sometimes the women were allowed to suggest a new name. In other instances, sisters were assigned a name. In either case the ultimate decision was in the hands of the mother superior

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5 min read

Scripture

Lectio Divina: Reading Scripture

Jim Manney

February 10, 2020 7:08 am February 10, 2020

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5 min read

How do we allow the Scripture, in all its awesome power, to draw us closer to God? One important spiritual discipline that can help us in this regard is called…

How do we allow the Scripture, in all its awesome power, to draw us closer to God?

One important spiritual discipline that can help us in this regard is called lectio divina, which is Latin for “sacred reading.” It’s one of the oldest forms of Christian prayer, and the bishops at the synod repeatedly recommended that Catholics discover its power to make the Bible come alive.

From the very beginning, the early Christians imitated the Jewish model of using Scripture (the Old Testament) as a gateway into prayer. Once the New Testament books were written, Christians approached these sacred texts in the same way.

They understood that God was the author of Scripture, and that He was personally present in the words of Scripture. They read the words in a way that connected them to God. They learned how to read the Word of God with their hearts as well as their minds.

The Fathers of the Church read Scripture this way. St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, was an early advocate of “sacred reading.” Sts. Augustine, Basil and Benedict all made ample use of it.

Eventually, the practice became a common form of prayer in monastic communities in Europe. Lectio divina is still closely associated with monasteries, but in recent decades many Christians who lead active lives in the world have learned to pray this way as well.

Four Stages

The essence of lectio divina is reading the words of Scripture with one’s “heart,” guided by the Holy Spirit. It’s a flexible method and cannot be reduced to a technique. But those who are most skilled in it agree that lectio divina usually involves four stages.

Nearly a thousand years ago, a monk named Guigo de Castro described them in a letter to a fellow monk. Guigo’s outline is still the standard description of this prayer practice.

The scriptural text for lectio divina is usually chosen in advance. Typically, it is a short text, often a single verse containing the words of Jesus or a brief description of his actions.

The first step is lectio — reading. We read for understanding. What is the context of the verse? What did the author mean to convey to the people he was addressing? The question to ask in lectio: “What does the text say?”

The second stage is meditatio — meditation. We ruminate on the verse. We memorize it. We say it over and over again slowly and carefully. What do the words mean to me? How do they interact with our thoughts and memories? The question to ask in meditation: “What does the text say to me?”

The third stage is oratio — prayer. Our hearts have been stirred by meditating on the verse. God has spoken to us through the words. Now, what response do we make? The question asked in oratio: “What do we say to God in response to this text?”

The final stage is contemplatio — contemplation. Our prayer moves beyond words and beyond thought. We simply rest in God. We let His love transform us. The question asked in contemplation:”What is God saying to us?”

Lectio divina does not always unfold in an ordered progression of stages. Often we will oscillate between times of acting and times of receiving. We are “busy” reading, thinking, speaking. Then we quietly listen and receive what God has for us.

Nevertheless, the natural movement of lectio divina is toward ever-greater simplicity. It begins with close scrutiny of the words of Scripture. It ends with wordless enjoyment of God.

Gradually the words of Scripture dissolve and the Word of God is revealed before the eyes of our heart. Reading the sacred words fosters a dialogue with God. It’s a dialogue that concludes with an act of consecration, whereby we offer ourselves to God.

New Habits Needed

If we are to pray lectio divina successfully, we need to learn some new habits. First of all, we must slow down. Sacred reading takes time. Those who consistently pray this way often recommend that we set aside at least an hour in a quiet place for it. It’s not exactly an ideal way to pray on the bus during your daily commute (though this is just a guideline, not a rule).

We also need to learn to read differently. We’re accustomed to reading texts in order to understand the information they convey. It’s a cognitive process, an act of the intellect.

The goal of “sacred reading,” however, is to seek God. It’s an exercise of the heart and a process that’s led by the Holy Spirit. As one writer on lectio divina put it, “The full process of ‘reading’ could take 15 minutes or be spread over 15 years.”

Interest in lectio divina has surged in recent years. Pope Benedict XVI recommended it as a way for us to hear God and to respond to Him “with openness of heart.” If we learn to pray this way, the Pope has said, “this practice will bring to the Church — I am convinced of it — a new spiritual springtime.”

Jim Manney writes from Michigan.

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