A Weekly Bible Study - Acts 2:1-11

Pentecost Sunday
 From its first words, our reading from Acts brings us to a very festive celebration for first-century Jews like the disciples of Christ. Acts tells us they gathered together on that day to celebrate the harvest feast of Jewish Pentecost, a feast for giving up to God the first fruits of the spring harvest and for remembering the birth of Israel as a people at Mt. Sinai, when God revealed the Torah to Moses.

What an appropriate occasion for the birth of our Church!  Did the disciples ever imagine what would happen next? Would you yourself have believed it?

A driving wind and fire filled the room! A terrifying sight, don’t you think? The sound of a great rush of wind heralded a new birth for God’s people; a new creation descends upon Jerusalem.

The fire comes to rest on each of those gathered.  Earlier Luke tells us that the group, numbering about 120, included the apostles, Jesus’ mother, other women and his brothers.


The Spirit has filled this community of believers “enabling them to proclaim” the Good News in their own language and driving them (us!) to fulfill Jesus’ commission to be his “witnesses ,,, to the ends of the earth.”

Joining hearts and spirits, this gathering called “church” can now proclaim with one voice:  Come Holy Spirit!


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.

CBS Recommends—Fr. Frank Matera

St. Timothy Parish, West Hartford

Festival of Sacred Scripture

Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 7:00 P.M. 

St. Timothy Middle School Milligan Hall

West Hartford

Who is Jesus? What does he mean for our lives today? To answer this question, Fr. Frank Matera considers how Jesus identified himself in the “I Am” sayings in the Gospel of John. In these six sayings Jesus identifies himself as (1) the bread of life, (2) the light of the world, (3) the good shepherd, (4) the resurrection and the life, (5) the way, the truth, and the life, and (6) the vine. Each of these sayings provides us with a way to understand who Jesus was and who he is for our lives today. 

Please mark your calendar and take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity.


This event is not sponsored by the Catholic Biblical School but could be an authorized make-up for certain requirements towards archdiocesan and seminary certificates in biblical studies. Only contact BJ about this program if you wish to request it as a make-up for missed requirements. 

A Weekly Bible Study - Revelation 22: 12-20

7th Sunday of Easter

“Behold, I am coming soon.”

Do these words frighten you? Perhaps they should!

In the very next line of this passage from Revelation the author (John of Patmos) speaks of Christ bringing the “recompense he will give to each according to his deeds.” It was a message of reassurance to the first-century Christians whose persecutors would realize the Lord’s judgment against them.

Moreover, these martyrs had “washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb” and would soon obtain their eternal reward. While it is not likely that we will ever face martyrdom, we are all called to stand daily in readiness for judgment. The Lord may, in fact, be coming to us soon. As the gospels tell us repeatedly, we do not know the day or the hour.

But what of our redemption?

John goes on to tell us that we are the Bride of Christ. The Bride represents the redeemed community of God’s people, the church. What a beautiful image of intimacy with God are we, the church. But do we live up to the level of loving to which we are called? As individuals and as a redeemed community, we are continually called to conversion. Our repentance does not end at the Lenten confessional door. We will, in fact, be made to render an account of our Christian living. Ours is a lifelong journey, one joined in Christ’s death, embracing his cross as we live out our faith.

Drawing the “life-giving water” to which John refers, we renew daily our baptismal commitment to Christ and to his Church. When we walk the days and hours with the Lord in our every step, only then may we have the courage to cry out unflinchingly, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Are we ready?




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.

Beware Online Research!

At this stage of their studies, I ask my classes in the Biblical School to refrain from using the internet as a source of Bible study. There is so much misinformation out there online, that it is more likely to be harmful than helpful to their progress. And in addition, their textbooks provide more than enough material to supplement their Bible reading.

There are three important exceptions to this rule.

1) Online (approved) translations of the Bible. If the translation is approved for use in CBS classes, then it doesn't matter whether you read it online or in print. Best choices are NABRE, NRSV Catholic Edition, RSV Catholic Edition, and the New Jerusalem Bible).

2) Online concordances. Online concordances allow you to look up any word in a particular translation and find every verse in the Bible that has that word in its text. Both the NRSV and the RSV are available at www.biblegateway.com. The USCCB has the NABRE online, but its search feature is not easy to use (you need to use the search box for the entire site, so you may get results from anywhere on the site, not just from the Bible). But its feature called "Today's Reading" is very useful for finding the correct liturgical readings not only for today, but for any day of the year.

3) Sources relating to Judaism. Finally, it can be very useful for both Old and New Testament studies to have a good source for contemporary and ancient Jewish practices, which our printed texts sometimes skim over. So AFTER you've completed the required reading assignments, here are two reliable online websites for contemporary Judaism and the history of Judaism: www.jewishencylopedia.com and Judaism101.