The Gospel and the Gospels

MODULE 1: THE CURRENT CONTEXT OF FAITH

SCHOOL OF THE WORD

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WELCOME

• The School of the Word

• Initiative of Dublin diocese

• Adult faith formation

• Return to the person and message of Jesus

• By means of a return to the sources, especially the Bible, both Old and New Testaments

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OVERALL PLAN

• Part 1: the Gospel and the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)

• Part 2: Jewish Bible in Christian worship (the “Old Testament)

• Part 3: The early church (Paul, John, Acts, Revelation)

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PART 1

Module 1: The current context of faith

Module 2: The readings at Mass

Module 3: What is a gospel?

Module 4: The Gospel of the current year

Module 5: Luke’s portrait of Jesus

Module 6: Discipleship according to Luke

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SEQUENCE

• The experience of believers today

• Renewal

• The Bible

• A renewed biblical faith

• Task for the next day

• Discussion

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BELIEVERS TODAY

• The experience of believers in the Irish church

• What has got us to this new and difficult context?

• Is it all “bad”? Also a moment of grace?

• Could it be worse than we think?

• Seeds of hope?

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BELIEVERS TODAY

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RENEWAL

1. Ignore the challenge (carry on “as if not”)

2. Restore (back to some mythical perfect past)

3. Reform (reconstruction after the earthquake)

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RENEWAL

• A bit of church history: not the first time the church looked “finished” (Cf. Phyllis Tickle)

• Essentials: the community of faith, the word of God, the sacraments, the various ministries

• Attachment to the local church

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RENEWAL

• Christ challenges his church

• People

• Prayer

• Word of God

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RENEWAL

….I am convinced that one of the principal ways in which the Church can reform itself and bring its message more incisively to society is through developing a renewed biblical apostolate. The Irish Church at times in its recent history got so focussed on the formulae of orthodoxy that it failed to introduce its people into a real relationship with Jesus and his life and teaching. All our pastoral structures are still poor in scriptural content and approach. Such a biblical basis for its action is also a sound basis for ecumenical collaboration….

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The Christian life is essentially marked by an encounter with Jesus Christ, who calls us to follow him. For this reason, the Synod of Bishops frequently spoke of the importance of pastoral care in the Christian communities as the proper setting where a personal and communal journey based on the word of God can occur and truly serve as the basis for our spiritual life

With the Synod Fathers I express my heartfelt hope for the flowering of “a new season of greater love for sacred Scripture on the part of every member of the People of God, so that their prayerful and faith-filled reading of the Bible will, with time, deepen their personal relationship with Jesus”

Benedict XVI

Verbum Domini 248

THE BIBLE

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THE BIBLE

The treasures of the bible are to be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God's word. In this way a more representative portion of the holy scriptures will be read to the people in the course of a prescribed number of years.

Vatican II

Constitution on the Liturgy 51

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St Jerome, in a letter

For if according to the apostle Paul, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God and who does not know scripture does not know the power or the wisdom of God, then ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.

THE BIBLE

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THE BIBLE

• What is the Bible?

• A book?

• A library?

• A family album?

• Totally irrelevant?

• Precisely what we need?

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HEBREWS 4:12

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THE BIBLE

• Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

• All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

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THE BIBLE

• Up to the Vatican II

• After Vatican II

• “The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church”

• “Verbum Domini”The Book is the very voice of the pilgrim People of God, and only within the faith of this People are we, so to speak, attuned to understand sacred Scripture.

• What’s happening now, in 2013, the Year of Faith?

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THE BIBLE

• The bible as the book of the pilgrim community

• Different kinds of writing

• For example: History, poetry, novel, prophecy, biography…

• Calling for different kinds of reading

• For example: Gen 1; Jonah; Romans; Mark

• The place of understanding: critical reading

• The place of prayer: letting the word “speak”

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THE BIBLE

• Critical scholarship – threatening to Jews and Christians (Protestant and Catholic)

• Faith and reason: the catholic “genius”

• For example: Genesis 1 – story of creation

• For example: Matthew 1-2 – birth of Jesus

• For example: John 2 – wedding feast at Cana

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RENEWED BIBLICAL FAITH

• Relationship with Jesus, the Christ

• Discipleship, guided by his teaching

• New life, on account of his death and resurrection

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TASK FOR THE NEXT DAY

• Take a look at the readings for the previous three Sundays

• Keep a note of what ever you noticed

• Write down a few questions that come to mind and bring them the next day

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14 April 2013

• Acts 5:27-32,40-41

• Apocalypse 5:11-14

• John 21:1-19

21 April 2013

• Acts 13:14,43-52

• Apocalypse 7:9,14-17

• John 10:27-30

28 April 2013

• Acts 14:21-27

• Apocalypse 21:1-5

• John 13:31-33,34-35

READINGS TO CHECK

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CONVERSATION