Pope Says: Be Shepherds not Hairdressers!

No offense to hairdressers (Ryan and Tammy, I love you guys!), but the gospel challenges us to be revolutionaries!

He writes, "In the Gospel there's the beautiful passage about the shepherd who realizes that one of his sheep is missing and he leaves the 99 to go out and find the one. But, brothers and sisters, we have only one. We're missing 99! We must go out and find them."

It is tempting to take the easy path, "staying home with that one little sheep, combing it, caressing it," he said.

However, the pope added, "the Lord wants us to be shepherds, not hairdressers to sheep."

For the full Catholic News Service story, click here: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1302636.htm.

See What Our Students Are Saying about The Catholic Biblical School!

"This class was beyond my wildest dreams."

"It inspires me to better myself."

"I feel like the Pentecost fire of Jesus is burning over my forehead."

"It has made me consider and look forward to becoming more active in the church."

"It has been something I can share with my family."

"Not long enough! This was an awesome class!" 

"I loved the opportunity for fellowship and faith sharing with group members/classmates."

"I have come to better appreciate Catholic teachings and worship as a covenant with Jewish roots. "

"Our teacher is kind, a great teacher and a witness of Christ."

JOIN IN THE FUN! ENROLLMENT IS OPEN THROUGH AUGUST 15. CLASSES BEGIN IN EARLY SEPTEMBER IN HAMDEN, SOUTHINGTON, TORRINGTON AND WEST HARTFORD.

For more information, click here: http://www.orehartford.org/joomla3/index.php/our-programs/catholic-biblical-school

Remember, Grades are Now Posted Online!

Catholic Biblical School and St. Thomas Seminary grades are posted online on the St. Thomas Seminary Registrar site. Here's the URL: http://www.stsregistrar.org/cgi-bin/CBS/cbsstudentlogin.pl

We will not be sending out paper grade reports this year or in future years.

Remember that you will need your password to log in to see your grade. To log in, enter your password into the field below the blue "Please Login" notice. Your password was automatically generated in the following format: upper case initials (two or three letters, depending on whether you gave us a middle initial) followed by your eight-digit date of birth. So if you’re John Stuart Brown, born January 1, 1913, your password would be JSB01011913, or (if you didn’t give a middle initial) JB01011913. Be sure to use zeroes and ones for those numbers and the letters "O" and "L" for those letters.

Because this is the site to use for all official notifications and messages from the Biblical School and St. Thomas Seminary, I recommend that you "bookmark" or "save as a favorite" the URL to this site. Or write it down somewhere you will always be able to find it. Program it into a note in your cell phone? Tell your computer to "remember me on this website"? Do something to make it easy for you to get back onto the site, once you've logged on for the first time.

And special thanks to Kim Petrillo, Year 4 in the St. Thomas Seminary Certificate of Biblical Studies program, for reminding me to make this announcement!

Weekly Bible Study - Luke 9:18-24

“Who do you say I am?”

Disciples were quick to respond to Jesus’ question: who do people say I am? When Jesus asks, "Who do you say I am," it gets trickier. But Simon Peter takes a leap of faith and boldly proclaims, "You are the Christ" or "Messiah." Peter's leap serves as an example of the discipleship to which we are all called. But how does that work?

At first glance it isn't hard to proclaim Jesus as Christ. When the cost of our discipleship is not so great or demanding, we easily embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior, friend and brother. In easy times we feel close to him. But we must listen to the rest of this Gospel to hear the greater challenge.

The next thing we learn is that the one who is called Messiah will suffer greatly, be rejected by his own and offer his very life on the cross. This would have made no sense to first-century Jews, for whom "Messiah" implied a victorious king.

This gospel passage requires disciples to come to terms with a very different messianic mission: a mission that included suffering and death.

And then we learn that to be a disciple of Christ means that we share in this messianic mission! There is a heavy cost to discipleship, if one is to accept its call in sincerity and truth. There can be no discipleship without denying oneself and embracing the cross. This is a hard message. What does that cost include for each of us who call ourselves Christ's disciples today?

And finally, might there be a useful and interesting "twist" to this gospel question? What happens when we begin to ask ourselves daily, as we take up our cross and embrace our discipleship: Who does Jesus say we are?

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, The Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.

New York Catholic Bible Summit 2013

The Catholic Bible Event of the Year is scheduled in New York City for June 22, 2013! Keynotes in English and Spanish, with top speakers and scholars including James Martin, SJ. Cardinal Timothy Dolan will celebrate liturgy.

Meet today’s leading Scripture scholars: 

• Celebrate the Good News of Jesus Christ.
• Learn how to make Sacred Scripture central in the Year of Faith.
• Discover your role in preaching the Gospel to the whole of creation 

For complete information, click here.

A Weekly Bible Study - Galatians 1:11-19

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Writing to the churches of Galatia, Paul is concerned that there are ambitious “missionaries” who, although well-meaning, are mistaking the message of the Gospel and misleading others in faith. Paul does not hesitate to set the Galatians straight when he tells them “the gospel preached to me is not of human origin…but came to me as a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Should we not also go right to the source? Until we come face to face with the Sacred Word, how can we truly know the Word Made Flesh, Christ?

Paul goes on to tell us that once he received the "revelation” he spent three years in the desert of Arabia. Very little is recorded about these years. However, it is easy to imagine that during that time Paul spent many hours pondering the Scriptures, making sense of the Old Testament from the perspective of the Christian revelation.

Paul provides an important model for growing in Christian faith. God invites each one of us to go directly to the Sacred Word to find God’s truth with open hearts and searching minds. The invitation bids us to enter our own "desert " where we can linger, ponder, listen quietly for a deepening of the Bible’s meaning and message. And, like Paul, as we encounter the Word of God at ever deepening levels we may proclaim with Paul (as we will hear next Sunday), “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”  (Gal 2:20)

Christians read the Bible. It's not a luxury. It's a necessity.

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, The Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.