"Bible Basics" Now an E-book

Ave Maria Press informs me that my new book, Bible Basics for Catholics, is now available on Kindle, Nook, Kobo.

I asked if it was available on NoBo, Noogie-noogie, and Flash.  They said no, but they were working on it.


Seriously, it is an e-book now ...

St. Bernard on the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit

We noted that the second reading of the Mass for the Solemnity of Pentecost allows the homilist to address either the "gifts" of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:3-13) or the "fruit" of the Spirit (Gal 5).  The following is insight from St. Bernard of Clairvaux on this two-fold endowment from the Spirit.  St. Bernard is actually meditating on Song of Songs 1:2:

"Your name is oil poured out."  Of what truth of our interior life does the Holy Spirit wish to assure us by means of this text?  He refers to the experience of a twofold operation , one by which he inwardly strengthens the virtues that lead us to salvation, the other by which he outwardly endows us with serviceable gifts.  The former is of benefit to ourselves, the latter to our neighbors.  For example, faith, hope, and charity are given to us for our own sake, without them we cannot be saved.  But the gift of wise and learned speech, the power to heal, to prophesy, and endowments of this kind without which we can fully achieve our own salvation, are undoubtedly meant to be used for our neighbor's salvation.  And these operations of the Holy Spirit, that we take note of either in ourselves or in others, are named from their method of functioning: we call them infusion and effusion.  To which of them may we suitably apply the words: "Your name is oil poured out"?  Is it not to effusion? If he had meant infusion, he would have said "poured in." ... Any man who perceives that he is endowed with an exterior grace enabling him to influence others, can also say to the Lord: "Your name is oil poured out."

—St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 18 on the Song of Songs

The Pentecost Readings

Let's discuss the Readings for Pentecost Sunday Mass during the Day.

The First Reading is, finally, the account of Pentecost itself, from Acts 2:1-11.  We have already remarked on the intimate relationship between this event and Babel (Pentecost is the Un-Babel) and Sinai (Pentecost is the giving of the New Law of the New Covenant).  It is important to note that the congregation gathered around the apostles comes not only from a wide variety of nations of the earth, but also consists of “Jews and converts to Judaism.”  In other words, there are both ethnic Jews and ethnic Gentiles here: those who hear the apostles are truly a representative cross-section of humanity.

Let the Fire Fall! Reflections on the Readings for the Vigil of Pentecost

The Lectionary provides a wealth of Scriptural inspiration for this weekend’s celebration of the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.

As usual, there is too much beauty and richness for us to deal with it all in depth.  Nonetheless, here's a go:

The First Reading Options for the Vigil:

Inscription Found Mentioning "Bethlehem"

The Israeli Antiquities Authority has announced the discovery of a pre-exilic seal impression bearing the name of the town "Bethlehem."  Click for the full story. 

Get Through the Bible in an Hour

Click here for the link to my webinar, going through salvation history in an extremely compressed time frame.

Webinar Tuesday at 3PM

I'll be leading a webinar tomorrow on how to teach the Bible and salvation history, based on my book Bible Basics for Catholics: A New Picture of Salvation History.  The webinar is Tuesday, May 21, at 3pm EDT, and the sign-up is here.

Ascension Day, the Kingdom, and the Church

In most of the country, this Sunday is celebrated as Ascension Day.  I'll offer a few comments about the first reading, which is really the primary reading for this particular solemnity:

Reading 1: Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for "the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

The 7th Sunday of Easter, Apostolic Succession, Church Government

In the northeast and a few other places, Ascension Day was celebrated at it's proper time (on Thursday) and this Sunday is celebrated as the Seventh Sunday in Easter.

The first reading for this Sunday is Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26:

Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers
--there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons
in the one place --.
He said, "My brothers,
the Scripture had to be fulfilled
which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand
through the mouth of David, concerning Judas,
who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.
He was numbered among us
and was allotted a share in this ministry.

In Lansing This Saturday

I'll be in Lansing, MI area (specifically Williamston, MI) this Saturday for a morning seminar, talking about my journey to Catholicism, my new book, and how to teach Scripture effectively at St. Mary's Church.  Any TSP readers in the Lansing MI area are welcome to come! 

The link to sign up is here.

Webinar: How to Get Thru the Bible in an Hour!

I'll be doing a live Webinar through Ave Maria Press next Tuesday, May 22, at 3PM EDT.  The Webinar will be based on my book Bible Basics for Catholics, and I'll be discussing how to teach the main outlines of salvation history in as little as an hour (if you really need to), although the approach can be expanded into whatever time is available (a 7, 10, 14-hour course or biblestudy, for example).  My approach involves simple sketching, so it's particularly helpful for visual learners. The sign up is here.

Interesting News at Davidic-Era Archeological Site

Prof. Garfinkel with possible ancient Israelite "shrine"

Interesting finds keep coming to light at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the site of the remains of a Davidic-era city near what once was the Philistine-Israelite border.  Already this site has turned up a tenth-century BC ink-on-pottery inscription that none other than Emile Puech—a famous French scholar from the Ecole Biblique widely known for his early work on the Dead Sea Scrolls—has interpreted as a description of the rise of Saul to the kingship.

Now archeologist Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University is making known cultic finds from the site that shed light on religious practice at the ancient city.

Don't be surprised if the cultic materials that are discovered reveal syncretism or pagan religions being practiced in an Israelite city, and don't be surprised if news articles spin the finds as "disproving" the biblical account of Israelite "monotheism."  Actually, the biblical account asserts that monotheism (I'm not going to argue the technical definition of that term—I am aware of the debate) was introduced early in Israel's history but was mostly a "minority position" through most periods of Israel's history, especially during the "Judges" period immediately preceding the monarchy.  We should expect to find religious practice at Qeiyafa that is "deviant" by biblical standards.

Baby Number Eight On the Way

There he or she is, Bergsma Baby Number 8, due in November.

Eight is the biblical number of a new beginning.  David was the eighth son of Jesse.  His rise to the throne of Israel marked a new epoch in the history of salvation.

I did my dissertation on the Jubilee Year, which also occurred on the "eighth" year of a week-of-years.  It was the supreme renewal of Israel social and religious life, like pressing the "reset" button on society.

Dawn and I have a lot of joy over this eighth child.  The baby is like a divine gift of renewal as we get older. 

All You Need is Love: The 6th Sunday of Easter

In 1967 the Beatles wrote and performed a song for one of the first world-wide TV broadcasts called, “All You Need is Love.”  It became a classic and as late as the 1980’s I can remember working on the trombone line of an adaptation of it for high school band.  It’s one of a number of Beatles songs where they stumbled on something true out of their Christian heritage, without understanding the full implications, or in fact actively distorting the real implications.

Be that as it may, “All You Need is Love” could serve as the theme for this Sunday’s readings, but as we will see, “love” gets defined in a far more demanding way than we usually care to consider.

1.  The first reading is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Roman centurion, Cornelius:

Reading 1 Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him
and, falling at his feet, paid him homage.
Peter, however, raised him up, saying,
"Get up. I myself am also a human being."

The True Vine: The Readings for the 5th Sunday of Easter

When I was in elementary school it was still possible to watch "The Lone Ranger" re-runs on our black-and-white TV in the afternoons.  This "masked man" struck unexpectedly, riding into towns in the Wild West on his trusty steed Silver, righting wrongs and correcting injustices, and disappearing as quickly as he came.  "Who was that masked man?"  Of course, the Lone Ranger is an icon of American culture, but it occurs to me that probably none of my seven children have any idea who he is.  I'll have to see if they have reruns on Netflix.

The "Lone Ranger" represents the high value American culture places on personal independence.  We admire the rugged individualist who doesn't need anyone else, who appears self-sufficient.  [But the Lone Ranger had Tonto, so how "lone" was he really?  Is that an internal plot contradiction?]

The readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, however, do not encourage a maverick independence on the part of Christians.  We are not called to operate by ourselves, but in close connection with Christ "the vine," never being parted from him.  Because Christ identifies himself with his Church (Acts 9:4), the teaching about the vine also has implications for our relationship with Christ's body.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Continuing the series on the text of the Bible: 

*** 

The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaA), Copied c. 125 B.C.

Of great interest to textual scholars are the Dead Sea Scrolls, the remains of an Essene library found in caves at the north-west end of the Dead Sea in the late 1940s at a site called Qumran. 

The scrolls provide our oldest copies of any portion of Scripture, including a few manuscripts that date to the third century (200s) BC. The majority, however, were copied in the period 150 BC—AD 68. All of the protocanonical books of the Old Testament are represented at Qumran except for Esther and Nehemiah; however, apocryphal books like 1 Enoch and Jubilees are better represented than most biblical books, and just as many copies of the deuterocanonical Tobit (six) were discovered as of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or Job. For this reason, as mentioned above, most scholars believe the Essene canon was significantly different than that of the Pharisees and modern Rabbinic Judaism.