Best of Barron

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR I
MARK 7:14-23

Bishop Robert Barron writes:

"Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus explains that sinful behavior flows from within our hearts. How often the Bible speaks of the “heart.” By that it means the core of the self, the deepest center of who we are, that place from which our thoughts and actions arise. God wants to penetrate that heart.... We are made in the image and likeness of God, but that image can be so distorted by sin as to be barely recognizable.... We are all capable of dark and evil acts. I’m not OK and neither are you. ... [Sin] grows like a fungus or like a cancer.

"Have our hearts become hardened, so that God cannot get in? Is there a deep resistance in us to grace?"

For Bishop Barron's reflection in its entirety, click here: http://dailycatholicgospel.com/get-reflections.

New Qumran Cave Found Looted

Archaeologists recently found and excavated a new cave in the cliffs near Qumran. While no new scrolls were found, Second Temple (dating 515 BCE to 70 CE) scroll pots were uncovered, and the site showed signs of looting.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem website (http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/33424) reports:

Piece of parchment found in clay jug in Qumran cliffs.
(Photo: Casey L. Olson and Oren Gutfeld)

"Excavation of the cave revealed that at one time it contained Dead Sea scrolls. Numerous storage jars and lids from the Second Temple period were found hidden in niches along the walls of the cave and deep inside a long tunnel at its rear. The jars were all broken and their contents removed, and the discovery ... of a pair of iron pickaxe heads from the 1950s ... proves the cave was looted.

"Until now, it was believed that only 11 caves had contained scrolls. With the discovery of this cave, scholars have now suggested that it would be numbered as Cave 12. Like Cave 8, in which scroll jars but no scrolls were found, this cave will receive the designation Q12."

CBS Classes Cancelled Today

Blizzards make for GREAT Bible-reading days! But don't come to class today. Nobody will be there. Stay safe and warm, and do your homework. 😼

Best of Barron

Saturday, February 4, 2017

4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR I

MARK 6:30-34

Friends, today’s Gospel shows Jesus’ compassion for the multitude in the desert.... [This story is meant to remind us of] the people Israel in the desert.... [In the Gospel as in the time of Moses,] we see people who are dying to be fed and a prophet who is under threat of death. This crowd around the threatened Jesus is a metaphor for the Church. We have come to him because we are hungry, and we stay even when things look bleak.

BJ's Challenge: Do "we stay, even when things look bleak"? Does your community foster an intimate relationship with Jesus? 

We can only grow as a community insofar as we bring folks to a gospel encounter with Jesus, Our Lord. This is the purpose and goal of every Catholic Biblical School activity.

So come to our free, open to the public, Celebration of Sacred Scripture, where Dr. Harry Attridge will lead us to encounter Jesus in the Gospel of John! St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, Saturday, March 25, 2017, 12:30-4:30 (food and fellowship at noon). Register online here: http://www.orehartford.org/

For Bishop Barron's reflection in its entirety, click here: http://dailycatholicgospel.com/get-reflections.

Celebration of Sacred Scripture 2015