Biblical Reflection for the New School Year

Sr. Jewel Renna, CND

Every year, the first-year class of the Catholic Biblical School begins its Opening Day with a guided prayer reflection authored by Sr. Jewel Renna, CND. As many of us in all circumstances begin a new process of growth in faith, it is well to bring it to mind once again:

Sometimes, like Jacob, you will be wrestling with God, trying to understand what you are reading, seeking the meaning of God's word in your life, here and now.... Sometimes it may feel like the desert to you - with words that are empty and dry…. Perhaps you will feel as if you have lost your way at times.... Or you may struggle with fear or fatigue ... or with you know not what! In those moments, remember Jacob!  He never let go until he was blessed! You do the same! Hold firm and you, too, will be blessed!

"For as God's word continues to work within you, you will come to know better: Who God wants to be for you; Who God calls you to become.

(And, I would add: You will come to know better how you go about (with God's grace) this becoming!)

Or, as Dr. Phyllis Trible, biblical scholar, put it: "Blessings do not always come on our terms, but that is no reason to quit wrestling."

In this week's Biblical Archaeology Review, biblical scholar Phyllis Trible talks about wrestling with the Bible from her own personal standpoint, as a feminist biblical scholar in a non-Catholic tradition. To read her reflections, click here.


(The questions of feminism in the Bible are reckoned as important by the Pontifical Biblical Commission. See The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church, 1993.)