Skip to comments.
Pope Urges Prayerful Reading of Bible
Zenit ^
| April 25, 2007
Posted on 04/25/2007 4:41:04 PM PDT by NYer
Cites Example of Origen
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 25, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Prayerful reading of Scripture, and the consequent reform of life, is the secret to the constant renewal of the Church, Benedict XVI says.
The Pope affirmed that today when speaking of Origen of Alexandria at the general audience in St. Peter's Square. He continued with his series of catechesis on early Church Fathers.
Origen, "true teacher … brilliant theologian … exemplary witness of the doctrine he taught … the most prolific author of the first three Christian centuries," brought about an "irreversible turn in Christian thought," the Holy Father said.
"He grounded theology in the explanations of the Scriptures; or we could also say that his theology is the perfect symbiosis between theology and exegesis," the Pontiff explained.
He added: "The characterizing mark of Origen's doctrine seems to reside in his incessant invitation to pass from the letter to the spirit of the Scriptures, to progress in the knowledge of God.
"We can say, therefore, that the central nucleus of Origen's immense literary works consists in his 'three-pronged reading' of the Bible."
Three prongs
Benedict XVI explained Origen's methodology in studying sacred Scripture.
"To know what is actually written and to know what this text wanted to say intentionally and initially," was Origen's first step, the Pope said.
He explained how Origen used a system of columns to evaluate all the possible meanings of the original biblical language. For example, in the first column, he would put the Hebrew original. And in five parallel columns, Origen would do a transliteration and four different translations into Greek. He thus tried "to know exactly what is written," the Holy Father explained.
The second prong was reading Scripture along with its most famous commentaries. "He proceeds almost verse by verse, probing amply and deeply, with philological and doctrinal notes," the Pope added.
Finally, Benedict XVI continued: "Origen dedicated himself a great deal to the preaching of the Bible, adapting himself to varied audiences. In any case, as we see in his Homilies, the teacher, dedicated to systematic interpretation of verses, breaks them down into smaller verses.
"Origen takes every opportunity to mention the various senses of sacred Scripture that help or express a way of growth in faith: There is the 'literal' sense, but this hides depths that are not apparent upon a first reading; the second dimension is the 'moral' sense: what we must do as we live the Word; and in the end we have the 'spiritual' sense, the unity of Scripture in its diversity."
Multidimensional
Benedict XVI said that he followed a similar process in his recently released book.
"I tried somewhat, in my book 'Jesus of Nazareth,' to show the multiple dimensions of the Word in today's world, of sacred Scripture, that must first of all be respected in the historical sense," he said. "But this sense brings us toward Christ, in the light of the Holy Spirit, and shows us the way, how to live."
The Pope invited the faithful to follow Origen's example: "I invite you to welcome the teachings of this great teacher of the faith into your hearts.
"He reminds us that in the prayerful reading of Scripture and in a coherent way of life, the Church is renewed and rejuvenated."
TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Prayer; Theology
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-60, 61-80, 81-100, 101-110 last
To: pjr12345
What did I attribute that you said falsely?
I ended that post with a question??
Go figure??
101
posted on
04/26/2007 5:55:51 PM PDT
by
Salvation
(" With God all things are possible. ")
To: freedomdefender
As I sit here and read all of this,and all I can think of are the churches out there now preaching abortion,homosexuality, is ok. There will always be people who will not have the desire to believe anything other than what they want to believe for many different reasons.But the one holy scripture which stands out every day for me is Isaiah 5:20,Woe unto them who call evil good,and good evil.who put darkness for light.and light for darkness,who put bitter for sweet,and sweet for bitter.And we can see our youth today falling away if we Christians do not unite. Our young people today,in elementary schools are being taught homosexuality is ok and look to yourself and if you are it’s ok. Young children. We see millions of children murdered every year through abortion but can’t understand the violence in school shootings. There will always be a difference in opinions of what scripture says because we all WANT to be right.But how many times has the world been coming to an end,the rapture,end time prophecy,over and over,using holy scripture to lay it all out.And yet we have been told not even the angels,or Christ himself knows the time. But we can see evil in front of us every day and telling us that it is not evil and it’s ok.I am not a college graduate or that smart,but I try to humble myself before God and tell him I don’t understand what you are saying in holy Scriptures.Am I the only one who needs help? lol So I look to the church to see what they have to say and then go back and read scriptures to see if it makes sense to me. lol I love reading books written by Scott Hahn and yes he is a convert to the Catholic faith and makes makes scripture come alive through his talks and books. I am reading the Lambs Supper now,along with the bible. Gods’ peace to all.
102
posted on
04/26/2007 6:53:01 PM PDT
by
red irish
(Gods Children in the womb are to be loved too!)
To: red irish; nanetteclaret; Campion
red irish, your point about churches that call evil good, is a compelling one. It’s one of the strongest arguments that Catholics can make on behalf of their church, I have to admit (as a non-Catholic). It’s the one church that can always be counted on (at least from the Vatican) to be consistent in opposition to abortion and other assaults on life. I suppose the Orthodox are consistent on these issues too, but you don’t hear from them - maybe because they’re a small group in the US, and they are split up among various patriarchates. Even the evangelicals were late in waking up on the abortion issue. So I can’t argue with Catholics who say, Our church is consistent and strong on the social issues that count.
To: freedomdefender
Well, I should be grateful for those kind comments. :-)
104
posted on
04/26/2007 7:07:53 PM PDT
by
Pyro7480
("Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi Jesus" -St. Ralph Sherwin's last words at Tyburn)
To: freedomdefender
Time was, the Catholic Church didn't want any lay people reading the bible. For most of history, the average lay person was illiterate. Kind of hard to read when you don't know how, eh?. It was the monks in monasteries that maintained the Bible in manuscripts. Each copy of the Bible took a long time to transcribe and was not very portable. After the printing press was invented, it was the heretical translations of the Bible that the Catholic Church didn't want the laity to read. The Douay-Rheims Bible is an English translation approved by the Catholic Church.
105
posted on
04/26/2007 8:18:55 PM PDT
by
ELS
(Vivat Benedictus XVI!)
To: freedomdefender
What Catholic radio do you listen to? All the Catholic programs I listen to are very much concerned with the salvation of those who do not know Christ.
You are deluded if you think the Catholic church has any direct political power anywhere in the world. Any laws or restrictions are put in place by those who are running the government.
106
posted on
04/27/2007 6:34:26 AM PDT
by
nanetteclaret
("Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, there's always laughter and good red wine." Hilaire Belloc)
To: pjr12345
If you will look again at Post 21 you will find the following Scripture references. I’m surprised that you missed them.
John 17:11,21-23
Matthew 16:17-19
John 6:51,53-54
Luke 22:19-20
2 Peter 3:15-16
2 Maccabees
107
posted on
04/27/2007 6:38:51 AM PDT
by
nanetteclaret
("Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, there's always laughter and good red wine." Hilaire Belloc)
To: nanetteclaret
All the Catholic programs I listen to are very much concerned with the salvation of those who do not know Christ.
I'm listening to the local "Immaculate Heart" station - and the emphasis seems to be on converting protestants.
To: nanetteclaret
109
posted on
05/04/2007 9:48:16 PM PDT
by
Jaded
("I have a mustard- seed; and I am not afraid to use it."- Joseph Ratzinger)
To: NYer
110
posted on
02/23/2011 8:14:55 PM PST
by
Salvation
("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-60, 61-80, 81-100, 101-110 last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson
