SPEAKER_00 0:01

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Now that the daylight fills the sky, we lift our hearts to God on high, that He in all we do or say, would keep us free from harm today, would guard our hearts and tongues from strife, from anger's den would hide our life, from all ill sights would turn our eyes, would close our ears from vanities, would keep our inmost conscience pure, our souls from folly would secure, would bid us check the pride of sense, would do and holy abstinence. So we, when this new day is gone, and night in turn is drawing on, with conscience by the world unstained, shall praise his name for victory gained. All praise to God the Father be, all praise, eternal Son to thee. All glory as is ever meet, to God the Holy Paraclete. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Good morning, welcome back to Come and See. Um for anyone who might be new, my name is Jamie Hickman, I'm the director of faith formation. Excited to teach you again. Uh I think for the most part, it's becoming a second Sunday periodicity for me to be up here, and so the other weeks, usually Father Thompson or Father O'Hare will be here, and uh they obviously really enjoy it, and I'm thankful that they allow me to sneak in and give some of these classes. Uh, just to review, if you're here as a potentially second grade or first grade parent from the school and you want to sign in, you only need to sign in one of the sheets uh on the edges of the table, and then there's four handouts that we'll be using today. Um, right now we're on the stapled copy, uh, which begins come and see Sunday, 8 February, 2026, pages 44 to 51. Uh got your outline up front. So our hermeneutic or our interpretive key, the theme we're following today is we could say candle mass to the exalted at Easter Vigil because Christ is our light. And that's actually uh we hear that in the hallelujah versicle today, or the acclamation before the gospel, I am the light of the world. And you even hear in the gospel uh that you are the light of the world, right? And that's the whole takeaway from this come and see. Uh, it's not so much intellectual formation as it is hopefully transformation that we're going deeper and deeper into discipleship, that we're becoming Christ. Uh first 1 Peter uh or is it 2 Peter chapter 1? Right now I forget one, four, I think it is, um, that we would take on the divine nature, right? That we become one with God. That's that's our whole goal in life is union with God. Uh as Father O'Hare likes to say, vertical and horizontal union. So that's what we're after, that VHU. Um we want to become Christ, become prayer, become set on fire with the love of God. And so what we're doing here is less an academic exercise and far more hopefully hearing the voice of God speak through us today, that we might become more like Him. So that's our theme is the sense of light from candle mass last Monday, the 2nd of February. You could think of the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 40 days after the birth of Christ, or the presentation of the Christ child in the temple. So that's the light of the world coming into the temple. Um, and then the Easter vigil with the exalted singing the great praise and even singing, oh happy fault. Right? So even though we're fallen humanity, Christ has come to redeem us, and so that's that's our way of seeing everything we do today is in the light of Christ. Um, number one, review Father Thompson's last two classes very briefly to catch up. Two, Christ is the second person of the Trinity, the Word. This will be kind of rapid fire. Uh three, Christ is the light of the world from again today's gospel and the hallelujah versicle. Uh four, sacred scripture is the word of God, and Christ is the word par excellence, the New Testament himself. Five, see Scripture as light for guiding our steps. And there's uh note here, see and erancy supplement at the end of the printout. Six, uh light time, uh last time I taught, that that's me, not Father Thompson, but the last time I taught was Sunday, the 11th of January, 2026, which is the feast of the Holy Family on the first Sunday after Epiphany in the old calendar. So I think we were on the baptism of the Lord that day, and the calendar most of us follow. Um and we accidentally skipped St. Paul's letter to the Colossians chapter 3, verses 12 to 17. So we're going to look at that today because I think it's helpful and I meant to bring it up that time. Um, sing luminad revelationum gensum, uh potentially this little light of mine, um ex mora docti mystico, uh, which in English would be by holy custom taught we raise, sixth century hymn from uh Pope St. Gregory the Great. And then nine, uh Pope St. Paul VI on prayers of the domestic church. Uh we might look at some of the bolded if we have time, but definitely that's a take-home, put into practice as much as you can. Um, the inerrancy supplement, pages 19 through 27 of a great book. Um and 10, finally, treasure chest challenge, which you have uh probably seen. The gold uh looks like either coins that are sparkling bright or even like a star bright uh shining brightly for us. So that's the take home, and hopefully you see that it's obviously ideal to do with kids, um, because that's what we want is for adult faith formation to lead to family formation in the house. Because no better teacher of the faith than mom and dad, right? Or grandmother, grandma, grandmother, and grandfather, whatever the situation might be, we want the domestic church to be on fire with the love of God. Okay. So, with that overview of what we're doing today, move into number one. So, review Father Thompson's last two classes briefly. Father Thompson taught classes 13 and 14 on the St. Louis Parish Podcast, uh, which covered the topics establishing the canon. That's page 38 from the Orange Book, the Magisterium, page 39, and the Canon of Scripture, page 40. Uh, those look at the word canon, and uh he mentioned how there's uh a lack of an Old Testament canon at the time of Christ. So it's not like Jesus has his own copy of the Old Testament, he's running around with, he says, this is the chapter and verse, it's on page whatever, there's disputes, and that's one of the reasons we hear Jesus sometimes saying, Well, how do you read, right? How do you interpret when the Pharisees ask him questions? He's like, All right, well, you're supposedly a scholar of the law, what do you say? Because there wasn't a clear sense of even what the um scriptures were, or um what uh what they meant, of course. And you can think in Hebrew, usually they omit the vowels, right, in order to save space and for a lot of other reasons too. So there's dispute about the canon. Um and then to uh continue here, Father uh Thompson spoke about the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes. John Bergson was a great resource for learning more about the Essenes, uh the Samaritans and the Septuagint, um, the Septuagint being the Greek Old Testament, written by the 70 authors in Alexandria, Egypt, because at that point Greek was the lingua franca, right? So they didn't, uh it's not like everybody in the known world was speaking Latin at the time, they were speaking Greek. So you had plenty of Jews from the diaspora that would have understood Greek far better than Hebrew or Aramaic. So they had the Bible and Greek, the Septuagint. Um and then uh that's the basis of our canon. So the books that got into the Septuagint, those are the ones we hold to for our Old Testament. Um and then the works of the law versus works of love, um, interpreting Scripture, page 42, and Private Revelation, page 44, and Father Thompson referenced Dr. John Bergsma and Brant Petrie's book, A Catholic Introduction of the Old Testament. I'll just say personally, it's an it's an excellent book. So if you don't have a copy, purchase one, put it on your shelf, and then maybe read with your spouse or with a friend, dive into it. It's full of great treasure, it's gold, it's good stuff. Um if you uh feel caught up to speed, we'll move forward. And if not, I invite you to listen to the podcasts that are recorded from Father Thompson's last two classes. The second part, like I said, this will be more rapid fire. Uh Christ is the second person of the Trinity, the Word. That's something we've been saying the last couple of classes I taught, so Galdeate Sunday and Baptism of the Lord, so December and January's classes. And the word was God, right? So John 1.1. That's our really important that we keep that in mind, that the Word of God is Jesus, right? He becomes flesh in the first century, we can say, uhD. Number three, Christ is the light of the world, and the life was the light of men, John 1.4. So continuing with the prologue of John's gospel, the life was the light of men. Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8.12. And we would have heard that earlier in the Mass if you've already been to Sunday Mass, or you might hear it later on at the next Mass. So that's uh again part of our theme is the light of Christ. He is the light that leads us out of darkness, because that's where we start in darkness, and we want to be enlightened by him, so we know where to walk, how to walk, and ultimately where to arrive, which is in heaven, in the life of God. Um I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8 12. Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night comes when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. John 9, 3 through 5. We can think I think there's about seven I am statements in the Gospel of John. Really an important theme for John is that Jesus is God, not that it's unimportant anywhere else, but he is doubling down, making sure it's clear Jesus is God. So this I am statements hearken back to Exodus 3.15 or so, right? Uh with the burning bush, I am is the name of God. Uh Yahweh is I am. And we can think on a high metaphysical level that um it's existence himself. That's one thing that Bishop Barron likes to hearken to like Thomas Aquinas' understanding I am as being. And so there's a there's a very philosophical element to it, but also just for for us normal people, right? That uh I am, I'm what? Well, he he is, right? He ultimately is. He's everything. He's our he's our everything, right? He's our life, he's our light, he's our way. And so these are these are really important that we just know these automatically, not necessarily memorizing the words, but understanding the concept that God is our light. He shows us how and where to go. At this point, any questions or comments? I'm just gonna pause for a bit. In a way, we scratch the surface. Okay. So we're moving down to number four. Scripture is the word of God, and Christ is the word par excellence. The New Testament himself. So we say, and the word became flesh, John 1.14. Really the center of that prologue. Uh that's everything, God coming to us, right? It continues, and likewise the cup after supper saying, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Luke 22 20. And in the same way also the cup after saying, This cup is the new test the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. First Corinthians 11 25. Of course, Paul's writing to the Corinthians, and Luke and Paul are travel companions. So we can say Luke was not there in the upper room. Uh Paul was not there in the upper room, right? They are following Jesus in a different sense than the way that the apostles were who were in that upper room, but it's clear that it's been passed on, and that's one of our key themes, right? Tradition, that the words and works of Jesus are passed on, handed on to us, um, so that we will have the right words and works in our life. And in this case, we're talking about the Eucharist. So we we earlier spoke about the canon, right? The Septuagint, the Old Testament, the New Testament, what are the books of the Bible? And now we're saying the New Testament, the New Covenant, it's not so much about a book, although we really want the book, it's about the Eucharist, Christ Himself. And that's um, I know we we heard from from some folks a couple a couple times back that uh the signs, right, of these covenants are really important for understanding the scriptures. And ultimately that covenant is fulfilled in Jesus. He is the new covenant, uh, he's the mediator of the new covenant, and the sign is the Eucharist, where he himself is present. Now we say uh continuing back in the middle of number four at the bottom of this first page, the Greek word uh diatheke or diatheke, as you see pronounced there. Diache means testament or covenant. Um, so that's where I'm really emphasizing here that the um the Bible is really important, but Jesus is the testament, he is the covenant. We turn over to the next page. Uh so this is important, but the Eucharist is even more important. So the Bible, we have to have it. But for people like you and me, um, when we go to adoration, we might hear God speak to us in our hearts, but it's more of a mystical experience, right? It's not the way that we're talking now in plain English. It's not easy to discern and to understand. Um, and if you're like me, a lot of times we get distracted because somebody walks in or you know, coughs, or uh is having a conversation during adoration, whatever it might be, that detracts from our prayer. And so, really important is having a copy of the Word our God, uh, the Bible, right? I'm I'm saying that the Bible is important, but the Eucharist is even more important. But for most of us as disciples, it's critical to have the Bible. So it's like a both and sorta, yes, absolutely, right? Um, and uh so really important that we're we're reading the Bible daily to um to know precisely what Jesus says to us, to what he's saying in our life. We pray about it, but to really get to know him well, read read the gospel, read the Psalms, and soak it in. One of your sheets uh that you you have before you, it's a Lenten um guide for reading through the whole Bible, through Lent. So today, if you're depending on which calendar you're looking at, it's Sex Agesima Sunday, or about 60 days from Easter. Last week being Septuagesima Sunday, about 70 days from Easter. Next week, Quinquagesime, about 50 days, and then all of a sudden it's the first Sunday of Lent, right? We have Ash Wednesday in between, and uh so February 18th being Ash Wednesday, we're almost there. So I'm encouraging as a potential practice is to read the Bible this length. Um, as a look around, there's it's potential that there's some people in the room that are not working nine to five, and you might have that time to read the whole Bible in Lent. And even for all of us, if we're maybe to dedicate, drill down and say, I'm gonna get up an extra hour early or an extra 15 minutes early, or carve out some of the other distractions, it would probably take about an hour a day to read through the Bible in about 70 days. So the dates on there are given from last Sunday, February 1st. Well, you've got an adjusted date timeline where if you didn't start last Sunday and you're not gonna have 70 days through Easter, maybe um you begin today or next week and you finish sometime in the Easter season, right? What better things to do prepare for Easter than to really have read the Bible again? Um, and not speed reading, but like hopefully it's an hour that's prayerful. Okay, so that's just uh another handout that's hopefully tying into number four. Number five, we're on it still on the top of page two. See scripture is light for guiding our steps. Um we're gonna cover this topic in three parts. So the response of faith will be A, that's from page 45. B, the conclusion from page 46, and C supplementary reading on 47. 5a, the response of faith. So the response of faith to divine revelation is lived with full submission of our intellect and will. So the intellect being the mind, right, and the will being our decisions, our ability to choose, hopefully to choose well, because we're forming our mind. Right? So the submission, the full submission of our intellect and will, um, and we can say that God's grace enables us to accept all that is revealed as true. So we've really emphasized where do we find that? Through Scripture. That's the all that is revealed. There's no more that needs to be revealed except through Scripture, but we also have tradition, of course. So we we interpret the Scriptures with and through the church. So God's grace enables us to accept it, to accept it with our mind and to accept it with our heart so that we're living it out in an integrated way, not with struggle. Of course, if you're like me, it's still gonna be a struggle, but we're gonna we're gonna do our best to cooperate with God's grace, to accept it as true, and to live it out. Um so some of this can be difficult to accept, not because it's unreasonable, but because it is supernatural. It is super reasonable, um, super meaning beyond. So it's beyond reason, something that requires illumination from God to understand or to know. So, really, that's our whole theme: the light of the world, um, the uh candle mass from last Monday, and looking ahead towards Easter, which is the center center um mystery of our faith, the resurrection, the night before, at the Easter vigil, we light that paschal candle, and that inflames our hearts and illumines our minds so that we can see where to go and how to get there. So, illumination from God to understand or to know. An example of this that goes beyond reason, it's not contrary to reason, uh, is the Trinity, right? So God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's something that we um we cannot know. It says we we can know um by human reason alone that there is a God of the universe, but we cannot know by reason alone that God is trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Um but we we can't know that he's a trinity of persons without divine revelation. And even though the word trinity is not in the Bible, we will come to know that if we're reading the Bible prayerfully, right? We will see that there is a trinity, and then we can behave in such a way. Also, we can know that murder is wrong without divine revelation, but we are aided by divine revelation to seek and offer forgiveness, right? So it might be reasonable to forgive with murder, but that takes a whole lot of grace, right? So to really, again, without the struggle, to believe that that's true, to forgive someone that murders, and to move forward, that takes revelation. That takes seeing God, who uh who is take his life is taken, right? And he says, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. So the Bible will help us to go beyond reason. And uh so it says here, Christ was an innocent lamb, led to the slaughter, and then on the cross he cried to his father in heaven, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And uh we'll skip that inerrancy supplement right now, but the question for you and for me to consider is what are the parts of the deposit of faith that we struggle with to accept uh intellectually with our mind, or to live out fully with our will? So that's a real choice. It's not a forced um act like go to your room, you know, where there's not a whole lot of choice, but it's something we actually want to do, to cooperate with God's grace. Um page 45, continuing there, page 45 of the book reminds us that St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that grace built on nature. So don't rely solely on your own smarts, or as I say in Boston, your own smots, right? So we wanna we want to rely on God's grace. Uh even if we're really smart, you know, maybe two or three PhDs, uh, we're we're getting the Nobel Prize for some new discovery, we gotta rely on God's grace. We're never quite there without God. Uh recommendation, so that's our question. A recommendation would be bring these, uh, the things you struggle with, maybe to accept intellectually or willfully, um, bring these to your daily prayers and trust that when you ask for God's assistance, that He will supply what is lacking in you. And by humility, we will know that we have an empty spot inside our mind or a heart that God can fill with his grace, with his life. And that way we'll be allowed to remain faithful sons and daughters of the church. And that's what it's all about, to be to really recognize our dignity as sons and daughters, so that we're living it out and we're seeing other people as sons and daughters, and we are encouraging witnesses that we're the light of the world too, so that they will follow Christ. So faithful sons and daughters of the church, consider also St. John Paul II's teaching that faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth. So the two wings, I'll just ask it, what are the two wings? Do you remember from the reading? Faith and reason, absolutely. So for early us to soar, and that's that's one of the things the Father heroily wants for us, is for us to be magnanimous, right? To be great souled, to be burning with the desire to do great things, not for our own glory, right? Because we need to be humble, but to build up the kingdom, to be that light of the world for others, to see this is the direction to go to happiness, to healing, to holiness. So faith and reason, we can study all we want, but we also really, in order to fly high, we've got to have the grace. So the faith is how we get that grace. Because if we believe God will give us the faith, will give us the grace because he's a good father, we have that trust, we can move forward without the struggle, or at least with less of a struggle. Okay, so that's John Paul. Now, study the faith, is uh the last couple sentences of this paragraph. Study the faith and work hard to live it out, but rely on God's grace ultimately and not solely on our intelligence and our strength. That would be a recipe for disaster. And if we struggle to believe in the Bible's inerrancy, then that's where I really recommend the supplement. It's the last several pages of the handout you've got now. We're not going to read through that now, but it's from a great book, uh, Letters from That City. And the title is a quotation from St. Augustine in his commentary on the Psalms. Okay, moving forward to 5B, unless there's uh questions or comments, we can pause. 5B, conclusion. So it's not my conclusion, it's the conclusion from this chapter, right? Chapter 2's conclusion. God has written on our hearts a desire to know him. We are like the three wise men who did not have a copy of the New Testament, but they sought Christ and found him by aid of the star of Bethlehem. God reveals himself to all of us by a similar star. What's that star? Divine revelation, which shines and points uh with the points of two uh two parts of that star, right? So we can say sacred scripture and sacred tradition. Just like John Paul's sum of the two wings of faith and reason, we're saying that the deposit of faith is uh divine revelation, right? And there are two sources for divine revelation: sacred scripture, the one we normally think of as revelation, and sacred tradition. So the words and deeds that are passed on to us through apostolic succession, through the church's hierarchy, through the church's saints. The deposit of faith, um, yeah, so so sacred scripture and sacred tradition, which is which ultimately is like gold, a precious treasure, which we call the deposit of faith. So if you've got your challenge sheet, uh one of the other handouts with a whole lot of color on it, the treasure chest. You see that? That's your treasure uh your treasure chest challenge, which could be a fun activity at home. Uh you can adapt it however you want, something I came up with, but uh there's a lot better ways to do it than what I've given you here today. But um so on the front, you've got the the chest, which is the deposit of faith, and inside that is our our treasure, our gold, divine revelation. And you can see it either like a star shining brightly or like coins that are very bright and shiny. So the two parts of that star or coin, the treasure is sacred scripture and sacred tradition. So we want to guard that treasure chest and accept everything in it as treasure. So if there's anything we're struggling with inside that chest, you know, we can take that to prayer, ask God to help us to heal our minds, to heal our hearts, so that we receive it and hold on to it like it's precious gold. On the back there's the questions, but we're not gonna do that now. It's more of a take home and do together or individually at home. 5C supplementary reading and uh any any questions real quick? Okay, yeah, please, Nicole. Um I'm gonna say it's part of our our uh our system of the deposit of faith. So we um we are understanding revelation because of the magisterium's ability to teach us. It might not be a textbook, but that's I think a helpful explanation. That magist the magisterium is the teaching body, the authoritative teaching body that helps us to receive revelation in the right way so that we can live it out, because that's the whole point to live it out. Does that work? Yes. Yeah, so it's there's two groups we might say. There's the office of Peter that's at the Council of Jerusalem, and all the bishops in communion with Peter at the time, the apostles. Um we see that not only at the Council of Jerusalem, but all the ecumenical councils through the Second Vatican Council from what 1963, four, five and um two, three, four, five, right? Uh 1962, 3, 4, and 5. We have the Second Vatican Council and all those ecumenical councils in between, but it's not just those councils, but that's absolutely one example, is when the Pope and the bishops in union with the Pope come together and teach in an authoritative way, that's the magisterium. Could be at a synod. You know, we've had a lot of synods the the last several years that Pope Francis gathered. Um we have uh we there's we can go in depth on the magisterium, but for right now, the teaching authority of the bishops uh in communion with the Pope. Just keep it simple. Supplementary reading. Uh Saint Jerome, at the request of Pope St. Damasus I, helped translate a complete official Latin text of the Old Testament and New Testament. Um, in general, those Christians who were literate, so those who could read and write, uh, they could write, and they intended to write their own copy of the Bible in Latin, so if if they spoke and read Latin. Uh but they that led to many different versions. So lots of scholars, people that could read and write, had a copy of at least the New Testament, and likely also a copy of the Old Testament that they themselves had written out, um, translating from the Greek, the Septuagint, and of course the New Testament is entirely written in Greek. So these were people, because at the time in the Roman Empire, Greek was still the official language. Uh, they they understood Greek. But eventually Latin um was spreading as the official language, just like English very slowly became the universal language today. So there was a desire for more and more of the Bible to be accessible to the people in their own language, the Latin. Just like earlier the Septuagint was brought into Greek, or the Bible was brought into Greek because more and more people that were Jewish did not know Hebrew. They were living far from Israel, so they needed their own language to access the scriptures. So Pope Damasus' desiring for unity, instead of each person having their own translation of the Bible, uh, personally made. Let's have one official text. So Jerome is not the first to translate the Bible into Latin, which we often read in books. Like that's but that's that's a myth. Uh we already had the Bible in Latin for more than a century before Jerome attempted it. What he did is give us a unified uh Old and New Testament for the liturgy. So the liturgy was already using Latin at the time, before Jerome, uh, but there were lots of different versions of that. So you go to Mass here, they're singing this version of the Bible, you go to Mass there, and that's causing some disunity in the church. So for the sake of unity, Pope Damascus I asked Saint Jerome to translate, to give us an official translation. Okay. Um and again, the uh unity in worship, because the Bible is sung, right? That's that's really important that the Bible is not a textbook. Uh primarily the way we we worship best is by singing. Questions, comments on that? Yes, sir. Oh, big time, yeah. There there were some updates since then. Uh Clementine Vulgate is one way of looking at an updated um as opposed to the Jerome biblical uh or the Jerome Bible.

unknown 31:31

Was there any uh theological word issues at the same time?

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Not theological, but sometimes one word that might be accurate could be better if you use this accurate word. So uh there were there were actually fights breaking out in the midst of mass at the time, um, because there's uh an example of uh what type of leaf was being used for shade. And so for people that maybe didn't live in the region where this leaf was available, um, you know, they're they're unaware of how much shade it does produce, which is a whole lot. Whereas Jerome, relying on the rabbis at the time in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, um, ended up translating as a different type of, like an ivy uh leaf, as opposed to a gourd leaf. And so people were scratching their head and laughing at this new translation, saying, that's ridiculous. You know, the uh the amount of shade that would have produced this wouldn't be a gift from God. You know, if you're out in the desert, you want a ton of shade. So there were things like that where when you're singing this, you look at the guy singing, you say, Why are you singing that? We know very well it's a different type of leaf. And people were like really being upset by that because it's the Bible, right? Because it matters. Um But if we trust with God's grace that even if the Bible's hard to believe sometimes that it is the Word of God, it's inerrant, right? There's nothing wrong with it, then then maybe one interpretation of this new translation from Jerome would be, wow, God provided shade through this little tiny leaf. You know, so um that's an extreme example of discrepancies within the translation over centuries that uh they don't train they don't affect our faith, but they can um maybe add some meat and potatoes to like, or you know, just it's a different way of looking at it. Does that any way answer your question? Okay, Lily?

unknown 33:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

So I just want to have a better sense from a timeline point of view. From Christ born to how many years do we I'll be talking about?

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Yeah, so there are different um calendar issues that scholars will get into debate. Was he was Christ born like 4 BC or 4 AD? And I I think it's healthy just to say, you know, the year zero, year one, there's not really year zero, year one, Christ is born. So for instance, we're coming up soon on 2033, right? We will be celebrating the 2000th birthday of Jesus Christ our Lord, right? On December 25th, 2023, uh, 2033. And that's um how many how many years is it? Uh about seven years?

SPEAKER_03 34:31

It's the anniversary of the 23rd.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Yeah, I'm sorry, yeah, thank you very much. Yeah. Um, whereas in the year 2000, John Paul II had a jubilee which celebrated the 2000th anniversary of his birth. Thank you for that. Yeah, absolutely. So Jesus is not born in 2033. Um He's he is uh enters into his passion, his death, his resurrection, he ascends to the Father in the year 33. So another time we could go into the Bible timeline in terms of when the prophets are, maybe when creation is, right? But for now, um I think it's it's healthy to say absolutely it's a it's an Eastern religion, right? We don't we a lot of times think of Christianity as Western, and a lot of people, especially people who call themselves smart, and they're using just the one wing, right? They're not using the second wing of faith, they dismiss Christianity as Western, but it's coming right out of the Middle East. So unless you're gonna say that people from um let's say uh Syria, yeah, Syria, Lebanon, like are they Westerners or are they Middle Easterners, right? We tend to say they're Middle Eastern. So we can say Christianity is an Eastern religion. Yes. So the Council of Trent uh says dogmatically, so we have to accept it with full assent of the mind and the will, that that translation is without error. Uh that's the only translation of the Bible the church has ever declared said this one is definitive. Um so for instance, you might see, yeah, Nicole. Yeah, the Vulgate. Um but uh what it doesn't say is that other Latin versions are wrong, right? So and it doesn't say this English is wrong or that Greek is wrong. It's saying this one is right. And that's where it's helpful to hear back on the on the leaves, right, that there might be different ways of translating that Latin that would also be right. All we can say for sure is Trent tells us the Latin Vulgate is correct, it's without any error. So all the books that are mentioned there, the books that are mentioned at Trent uh are also mentioned in several centuries before, uh more than a thousand years before we had the list of the Bible, and that was listed in synods, what we now call councils, the ecumenical councils. So the definitive list at Trent had already been declared by the church long before. Just a get on a related topic. Uh questions? These are good? Other comments?

SPEAKER_03 37:45

But wasn't that was that because of his influences since when he moved to the Holy Land and his influence with the rabbis there?

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Yeah, you're you're very much right, Nicole. So we have is into the canonical, deuterocanonical, and then what others will call the apocrypha. We have apocrypha too, things that are you know not part of the Bible, but what the uh generally speaking we'll say Protestants will call our deuterocanonical books apocryphal, and they're not. They're part of the Bible for sure. Um there are angry letters going back and forth between St. Augustine and St. Jerome and other saints, which is helpful for us that if you struggle with uh how we talk to one another, still go to confession, right? I went yesterday at the shrine, it's a good thing to go to confession, but but there's hope for us that you can be pretty heated in your debates and uh things that you care about and still go to heaven, maybe be a doctor of the church, right? Um but uh in all seriousness, the um the rabbis had a great influence on Jerome in a good way, insofar as they they did know the history of Jewish thought in a way that enhances us as Christians. But they also maybe led him down a rabbit hole uh that he could have taken for granted that certain books were were uh definitely the Bible. And by that time, because of what's called the Council of Jomnia, there's some disputes on when or if that happened, but definitely Pharisaic Judaism uh becomes rabbinical uh Judaism. So after the destruction of the temple in the year AD 70, right, the the Romans demolished Jerusalem, the temple's down. Uh there's no more, it's like 9-11 on a much bigger scale uh for the Jewish people. The um the rabbis that come to be the leaders, they're basically the Pharisees, and there's there's a dispute over what books of the Bible in Jesus' time, and that continues on for the next several centuries. So Jerome is taking advice from people that reject what Jesus would have accepted, whether it's the Bible books or the resurrection of Christ as our God, right? Big big important things. So ultimately, another way to look at what is the Bible, before the Protestant separation from the church in, let's say, the 16th century, you had the great schism between West and East. So the Orthodox they have the same Bible as we do. And they were not listening to the Council of Trent to figure out what the Bible was or what books were canonical. So the fact that Catholics and and Orthodox share the same books of the Bible is a really important lesson for politely saying to Protestants that would reject our canon and say our deutero-canonical books are apocryphal, say, why is it that you reject what the early Christians over in the East accept? We have the same Bible as as Orthodox. This is good. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Uh we're on the top of page three now. So, number six, last time I taught was uh Sunday, the 11th of January. Mentioned that that's the feast of the Holy Family, which is on the first Sunday after Epiphany in the old 1962 calendar. And we accidentally skipped St. Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapter 3, verses 12 to 17. So we're going to read that in full with careful attention to the word heart or hearts, which are in purple, but they're kind of hard to see in purple, depending on the light at your table. Um the word heart is in purple and the highlighted verse. So we really want to pay attention to the highlighted portion down below. So this lesson from Paul's epistle to the Colossians instructs us in the golden method of teaching: psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles. Because when a man sings, his heart and mind are open to God's grace. This is why I personally want families to take these hymns home. Uh, you know, the last times I've taught, we've had a copy of some singing for you that you can take home. So I want families to take these home to sing in their own domestic churches as joyful families. In November 2026, so this year ahead, uh, Word on Fire will publish a book entitled Musica Domestica, precisely with this goal in mind. And on January 29th, 2026, a couple Thursdays ago, the Catholic University of America's Institute for Human Ecology hosted the two authors, David Clayton from Pontifex University, he's the dean there, and Andrew Goldstein from the Vigil Project for a live virtual conference where the second author and his wife sang live uh psalms, which they sing in their house, showing what they do as a family of six or seven. So they've got uh four or five kids at home. And so you can imagine mom and dad trying to wheel them in and have some prayer time together, and some of them are able to read and they read along and sing along with mom and dad, and some of them don't talk yet, but they can hum and they're having a great time making a joyful noise under the Lord. So that uh link to YouTube, the the whole conference was recorded. It's only about an hour long. Just invite you to consider that as uh a goal this year for your own family. Uh, to pray uh in an icon corner or a home chapel. It's something Father Hare really wants all of us to have a home chapel. Uh praying the Psalms from the Divine Office or the Liturgy of the Hours. And you can see below uh five quotations from St. Paul VI on the domestic church and the necessity to pray in the domestic church, particularly the Psalms and the Rosary. Those are from Vatican II, and then the um the years after Vatican II, Paul VI's writing to the church on the importance of the liturgy of the hours for families and uh for praying the rosary as a family. Um what do you say? Read it in English? So let's read it in English, okay? So um you can read it aloud or to yourself, but I invite you to do as you wish. This is a lesson from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the Colossians. Brethren, put on as God God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another. If any one has a grievance against any other. Even as the Lord has forgiven you, so also do you forgive. But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts. Unto that peace indeed you were called in one body. Show yourselves thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly. In all wisdom teach and admonish one another by psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing in your hearts to God by his grace. Whatever you do in word or work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God. So, you know, it really emphasize let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, right? We want to be caught on fire with the love of God. That's going to happen the more we prayerfully read Scripture. And I know some of you pray the Liturgy of the Hours at home or the bravery, the divine office. There's a lot of words that describe basically the same thing, which is the prayerful reading of Scripture or the reading of the Psalms. And hopefully, you know, you sing as a family, whether it's in the car, on a road trip, or um at night, maybe you sing a song to Our Lady. Those are things that will build up a love for God and His church in ways that other studies won't. Singing just brings things to a new level. Mentioned before, everybody knows the happy birthday song, and they know when and how to sing it, but we have really lost as a culture when and how to sing church songs. And you don't have to come to St. Louis inside the brick and mortar building to do those things to sing those songs. So I really invite you, encourage you to make that a part of your daily life. Okay, now we're on page four. And I'm gonna use assistance partly because uh I was struggling with with the speech today, uh, but also there's a great recording uh uh which is mentioned here from the Schola Gregoriana Mediolanese uh from Candle Mass. This is the antiphon sung before Mass, so after the priest blesses the candles last Monday, you might have seen this at John the Beloved up in McLean. Um and then there's a procession. So it's between the period when the priest has blessed the candles and now uh just before you go and process around with the light of Christ, because we're hopefully becoming the light of Christ, right? The Eucharist has transformed us, we have uh we are what we eat and we become God uh in a very real way. We take on his nature, the divine nature, says St. Peter through the Eucharist. So I invite you to stand if you uh if you're willing, give it a shot. This one's only in Latin, but you see the reference there from the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 2. Um the vast majority of this is actually said or sung every night in night prayer. If you're familiar with Compline or Night Prayer, it's just sung differently, but it's the same words. Um if you uh if you notice it says luminod revelationum gentium um et gloriam plebis tue israel, and then it says ca-a-n-t or canticle. So we're gonna repeat that line several times. So you might as you uh see lumen in the third line of text at the back right, and then it's star. That that star there means go back to lumen. You see what I'm talking about? So lumen star adre velacionum gentsium, dot dot dot. And each time we'll once we finish Plebei's two way Israel, we go back to the part of the canticle we left off. Okay? Okay, thank you. This uh this next one we won't sing, um, but ex mora doctimistico, again written by Pope St. Gregory the Great back in the sixth century. I really want to emphasize the heritage we have as a church. Obviously, the Bible comes from that first century and before. Um, but a lot of the ways we teach through singing are hymns that have been passed on for centuries, more than a thousand years. So we could just read this uh real quickly on the right in Latin or in English. So page four, jumping over to five after that. The fast, as taught by holy lore, we keep in solemn course once more, the fast to all men known, and bound in forty days of yearly round. The law and sears that were of old in diverse ways this lent foretold, when Christ all seasons king and guide, and ages after ages sanctified. More sparing, therefore, let us make the words we speak, the food we take, our sleep in mirth and closer barred be every sense in holy guard. Avoid the evil thoughts that roll like waters o'er the heedless soul, nor let the foe occasion find our souls in slavery to bind. In prayer together let us fall, and cry for mercy one and all, and weep before the judge's feet, and his avenging wrath entreat. Thy grace have we offended sore by sins, O God, which we deplore, but pour upon us fro on high, a pardoning one thy clemency. Remember thou, though frail we be, that yet thine handiwork are we, nor let the honor of thy name be by another put to shame. Forgive the sin that we have wrought, increase the good that we have sought, that we at length our wanderings o'er, may please thee here and evermore. Blessed three and one and one and three, Almighty God, we pray to thee that this our fast of forty days may work our profit and thy praise. Amen. So uh you're thinking, but it's not Lent yet, right? But we the church, especially like if you were to go over to Maryland, right across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, just beyond that, uh, you've got St. Luke's, which is one of the Anglican ordinariate churches, so they're in full communion with the church. It's one of the projects of Pope Benedict to bring uh Anglicans, Episcopalians in full union with the church. So their Mass is kind of a combination of the Old Latin Mass, the Novusordo Mass, and even part of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, and then little bits from the Eastern rites from the Divine Liturgy. So it's it's a new rite of worship that's taken from old rites, and it's very beautiful. Um, but if you were to go there today, it would be Sex Aggesima Sunday. So they they follow the older calendar on things like this, where there's a full 70 days to get ready for Easter. Uh, because for a lot of us a month flies by, but close to two months, you know, that's that's really solid to get our habits. Um and some of us need a kickstart, and then we we drag feet a little bit. So if you're like me, the first week of Lent, maybe you've already lost your habit or your your uh the thing that you're planning to give up. But so if you do a little extra beforehand by the time Lent's really there with uh Ash Wednesday, you're in full gear. Yes, ma'am? So just see that you're uh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you don't need any dispensation. It's like going to mass here. So it's already yeah, yeah. So Pope Berned gave it to us, Pope Francis kept it, and Pope Leo has kept it as well. And so they are under the um the ordinary has a chair in Houston, Texas, where the Bishop Lopes is sits, and uh that's throughout the United States and Canada. And then there's another one for Australia, and there's another one for England and Wales, but um, the one for us is headquartered in um Houston, and then the archizes of Washington gave that church space. St. Luke's is old St. Ignatius, so it's combined parish. And they do the regular mass a couple days a week as well, on Sundays as well.

unknown 56:08

So Anglican churches.

SPEAKER_00 56:11

No, the other Anglican churches are not in communion, so they wouldn't have valid sacraments except baptism. Uh just this one, St. Luke's. Um we're we're almost done. I'll just maybe read the bolded parts from six, uh, seven, and eight, and then we'll uh we'll finish up with uh prayer. So these are great lines from Pope Paul VI. The family is the 8A. So we're in 8, Pope Paul VI on the prayers of the domestic church. 8A, the fa this is just the bold. The family is the domestic church. Uh parents are the first preachers of the faith to their children. Jump it down to 8B to fulfill the mission, the domestic uh sanctuary of the church by reason of mutual affection of its members and the prayer that they offer to God in common, if the whole family makes itself a part of the liturgical worship of the church. And then page seven, this will help to uh help engaged um couples in preparing themselves better for marriage. Catechetical work support of married couples and families involved in material and moral crises. So we're saying the Pope is saying if they pray together, especially liturgical prayer, this will help with their marriage and avoid material or moral crises. 8C The family rosary. Um the Second Vatican Council has pointed out how the family, the primary and vital cell of society, shows itself to be the domestic sanctuary of the church through the mutual affection of its members and the common prayer they offer to God. The Christian family is thus to be uh seen to be a domestic church. If its members, dot dot dot, play their part in its liturgical worship. Together they offer up prayers to God. If this element of common prayer were missing, the family would lack its very character as a domestic church. Thus, there must logically follow a concrete effort to reinstate communal prayer and family life if there is to be a restoration of the theological concept of the family as the domestic church. And then 8D. The family among the groups in which the divine office, that's what we think of as the liturgy of the hours, in which the divine office can suitably be celebrated in community, it is fitting that the family as a domestic sanctuary of the church should not only offer prayers to God in common, but also according to circumstances, should recite parts of the liturgy of the hours, in order to be more intimately linked with the church. No avenues should be left unexplored to ensure that this clear and practical recommendation finds within Christian families growing and joyful acceptance. And the last one here? Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_03 59:03

So it's a few for so if one of my teenagers tries to tell me that that's not something that we can do at home, because that's something that priests do, and everything I can tell them that he's wrong.

SPEAKER_00 59:18

You could say that he's wrong, but I might not say it that way.

SPEAKER_03 59:22

You want to invite him in?

SPEAKER_00 59:24

Yeah, it's definitely not just for, and that's Vatican II, saying that we want lay people to pray the Liturgy of the Hours.

SPEAKER_03 59:30

Are there any parts of it that we ought to say?

SPEAKER_00 59:33

Nope. Well, there there are parts insofar as like certain blessings. So there are parts that the priest would say out loud, but there's not an office within the Liturgy of the Hours that you shouldn't pray. Okay, last one here. The family that prays together stays together. Keep it that way. Uh but there is no doubt that after the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, the high point which family prayer can reach, so the Liturgy of the Hours would be the high point because it's liturgy, the rosary should be considered as one of the best and most efficacious prayers in common that the Christian family is invited to recite. Conditions of life today do not make family gatherings easy. And he's writing this back in 1974, you know, 50 years ago. It's uh circumstances um not so gatherings are not easy, and that even when such a gathering is possible, many circumstances make it difficult to turn it into an occasion of prayer. There is no doubt of the difficulty, but it is characteristic of the Christian in his manner of life, so for us, the lay people, not to give in to circumstances but to overcome them, not to succumb, but to make an effort. Families which want to live in full measure the vocation and spirituality proper to the Christian family must therefore devote all their energies to overcoming the pressures that hinder family gatherings and prayer in common. Um there's more in the handout, uh, but I know it's it's a little late, so I want to be respectful that. Thanks for being here. We'll conclude with the glory be, and I wish you safe travels and uh blessed rest of the Lord's day. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.