Questions about Registration?

RETURNING STUDENTS please take note:

Everyone who has submitted registration forms for next year's classes should assume you are registered in your first choice of course location and time, unless you hear otherwise from BJ. We do not automatically send out confirmation letters upon receipt of registration. If there are questions or problems with your registration, or if your registration is missing altogether, we will contact you right away. Otherwise you will not hear from us about fall enrollment until late summer, when it is time to think about Opening Scripture Days and the completion of your summer reading assignments.

You should have received a copy of summer reading assignments when you received your registration form. If you have misplaced that information, please go online at www.orehartford.org, click on "Our Programs," then "Catholic Biblical School," then "Registration. There are links to all forms, textbook lists, and reading assignments on that page.

The due date for your summer reading assignment is the same as your Opening Scripture Day, listed at the top of the reading assignment page. Please make a note of the date so you will keep it free of other engagements. Bring your reading assignment with you on that date.

Note that your Opening Scripture Day (Years 2 and Advanced Year) will take place AFTER
your first class meeting, so do not turn in your summer reading assignment to instructors until the second week of class. You'll need that assignment for group discussion on Scripture Day.

Thank you for paying close attention to these directions, and do not hesitate to call or email with questions for clarification.

Returning Students: Registrations Due May 1

Registration forms for continuing in the Catholic Biblical School are due on Wednesday, May 1.

Tuition deposits ($150 for non-credit students and $230 for credit students) are not due until June 1, but we need an indication of your intent to continue right away so we can plan for next year's classes.

Please don't hesitate to call with any questions you may have before you send in the form.

Forms can be scanned and emailed; they can be faxed or sent via US post. Here's the information you'll need to send it in:

• Email: cbs@orehartford.org
• Fax: 860-243-9690
• US Post: Office of Religious Education and Evangelization, 467 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield, CT 06002

PS: If you aren't sure which class you'll be attending next year, please return the form with your best guess indicated. Changes can be made up until August 15 by emailing or calling BJ at cbs@orehartford.org or 860-243-9465.

A Weekly Bible Study - Revelation 21:1-5a

Fifth Sunday of Easter

“Behold, I make all things new.”

Throughout the Book of Revelation the language points, for the most part, toward a future time. As an apocalypse, Revelation portrays graphically God’s conquering of all evil and offers hope and consolation to Christians of all ages. But did you notice that here, when God says "I make all things new," the text has shifted from future tense to the present tense? God makes all things new--not just at some far-off distant time, but here, now, in our everyday when God is invited into our lives.

It makes sense that our author would envision God speaking in the present tense because Christian tradition asserts that God is not bound by space or time but exists at all times together (see St. Augustine's Confessions, for example).

Drawing on this traditional belief, Gregory Collins, OSB, explains one of the implications of this teaching for our own spirituality: “The inner essence of a saving act carried out by God in the past, its deepest meaning and power," Collins writes, "are capable of being rendered present.”* He goes on to describe how the moment of eucharistic consecration at mass is a present happening. We participate in mass not in a reenactment of Jesus' saving death but in the very essence of that event made present today, on this very day!

Notice too that this is the only time God is described as saying anything at all in the Book of Revelation. This is God's one dynamic utterance: “Behold, I make all things new.”  What greater assurance do we need?

*Collins, Meeting Christ in His Mysteries, © 2010, Liturgical Press, pages 79-80.


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.

Anna—A Biblical Model for Aging

A character study by Robin Gallaher Branch in Bible History Daily, online magazine of the Biblical Archaeology Society, describes the widow Anna as "one of the Bible’s most unusual women." Introduced in Luke's Infancy Narrative (Luke 1:1-2:40), Anna is the last of six "upright" men and women of Israel who are key figures in the birth stories of John the Baptist and Jesus. "Luke pairs and contrasts Anna with Simeon, who praises the Lord while Anna offers thanks; he prophesies, but she is called a prophetess."

For more of this interesting article, click here.