CBS Doctor Honored

On April 26, first-year Biblical School student Dr. Paula de Silva, and her husband, Dr. Hema de Silva, will be honored by the Spiritual Life Center in Bloomfield, at their 2010 Living Spirit Awards Dinner and Silent Auction. The de Silva's are an interfaith couple who continues to work in Sri Lanka since tsunamis devastated that country.

For more information, click here.

The Biblical School Recommends—Women in the Bible

Who are the women in the Bible? Why are many biblical women not named? How might our encounters with women of the Bible reveal for us how God is present and active in our lives?

St. Catherine of Siena Parish presents

Women in the Bible

• Thursday, April 22, 2010
• 7:30-9:00 p.m.
• Presenter: Barbara Jean Daly Horell
• Advance registration required
• Contact Kathi Bonner, DRE at St. Catherine of Siena Parish, West Simsbury, for more information and to register (860) 658-4737

(This event is not sponsored by the Catholic Biblical School, but is authorized as a "make-up" for certain requirements. Contact BJ Daly Horell to make arrangements.)

Save the Date! A CBS Gala

Archbishop Henry Mansell

and the Hartford Office of Religious Education

invite you to celebrate with us

Fifteen Years of the

Hartford Catholic Biblical School

Thursday, October 21, 2010

 

Here are a few details:

• Before dinner refreshments 6:00 p.m.
• Dinner at 6:30 p.m.
• After-dinner presentation at 8:00 p.m.
• Presentation by the first-ever Catholic dean of Yale Divinity School: Dean Harold Attridge

April News in Faith Formation

What's happening in the Biblical School, adult spirituality, catechist enrichment, youth ministry? It's all here in the April 2010 newsletter, ORE Connections. Click here to explore what's happening this month in faith formation in the Archdiocese of Hartford.

CBS Announces—"Bible Blog" Contest Winner for March

Ms. Constance Oligino, a first-year student in the Hartford Catholic Biblical School, is this month's winner in the CBS Fifteenth Anniversary "Bible Blog" Contest.

Honorable Mention: Ms. Kim Green, Mr. Richard Irwin, Ms. Michele Mikelskas. And thank you to everyone who submitted your thoughtful reflections this month.

And remember: You don't have to be a CBS student or graduate to enter our monthly contest! For contest details, click here or email BJ Daly Horell, Coordinator of the Hartford Catholic Biblical School.

March "Bible Blog" Winner—"Facing the Battle," by Constance Oligino

In 1 Sam 28:23, Saul is about to face the Philistines in battle at Mount Gilboa, where Saul will meet his death. You might say that Saul, at this point in his story, is having a mental breakdown. The Philistines are bearing down upon him, and he is afraid. He has asked God for the answer to his predicament, but hasn’t heard a reply. Saul looks for help. But instead of help, he is told that God has abandoned him. The prophet Samuel tells him that he and his sons will die in the coming battle, and that Israel’s army will be defeated. So he lies face down on the ground, refusing food. He wants to give up.

Then the text says, “So he got up.” But why?

What made him get up and go out onto the battlefield? It's true that the people who were with him encouraged him to eat, and in that way he regained his strength. But he could have fled, then, or gone over to the enemy to save his life. Saul did neither. Still afraid, Saul got up and tried his best to do the job at hand: to defeat the Philistines. “So he got up.”

It seems to me that Saul needed food for his soul more than his body. Other than the words of those around him, who else might Saul have heard at this crucial moment? I think that, as Saul was lying on his face, he may have finally heard God speaking to him. Perhaps at that moment when Saul’s pride was ripped away, he was finally able to hear the God who Saul felt had turned away from him. “So he got up.”

I once had such a moment.  I now refer to it as my “Saul moment.” I, like Saul, was searching for answers that just did not come. Things were closing in on me, and I had all I could do to hold myself together. Then I allowed God to intervene—something God had been trying to do all along! Only I hadn’t heard. There were no lightning bolts, no clear pronouncements—just a new willingness to accept whatever happened. So I got up and gave it all to God.

When Saul got up to fight the Philistines, he may have thought about another battle, when—because of his pride—he disobeyed the voice of God. On Mount Gilboa, then, I would like to think that Saul redeemed himself. Stripped of his pride, perhaps Saul accepted his fate, faced the enemy, fought valiantly, and accepted death. “He got up” and gave it all to God.