[Salvation]

JUNE 2008
General:
That Christians may cultivate a deep and personal friendship with Christ so they are able to communicate the strength of His love to those they encounter

Mission:
That the International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec, Canada, may lead to ever deeper understanding of the Eucharist, the heart of the Church and source of evangelization.

[Salvation]

From: Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28, 32

A further exhortation

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[18] “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your
soul; and you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as
frontlets between your eyes.

A blessing and a curse

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[26] “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: [27] the blessing,
if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this
day, [28] and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your
God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other
gods which you have not known. [32] [Y]ou shall be careful to do all the statutes
and the ordinances which I set before you this day.

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Commentary:

11:26-32. The ceremony of blessing and cursing will be explained fully in chap-
ters 27-28; and Joshua will in due course perform it (cf. Josh 8:30-35). It does not
consist so much in blessing or cursing as in proclaiming a summary of God’s com-
mandments and ordinances in terms like “Cursed be he who does not do them”,
“Blessed be he who obeys them.” Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal are situated the
south-west and north-east respectively of the Samaritan city of Shechem and are
separated by a narrow valley. In later times the Samaritans will come to regard
Gerizim as a holy mountain, building a temple there when the Jews came back
from Babylon (537 BC), to rival the temple of Jerusalem; although the temple was
destroyed towards the end of the 2nd century BC, the Samaritans continued to
see this mountain as a place of worship and sacrifice. The Samaritan woman
mentions it in her conversation with our Lord (cf. Jn 4:20).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.