Truth of the Spirit with Patti Brunner presents How Do I Learn the Good News? #4 of the Stepping Stones Series. We are like goldminers of past and present who search for their fortune! “Historical, prophetic, praise and worship, Wisdom, and the personal witness of the Living God and His Body is laid out for all to see, for those who have ears to hear, for those to witness to preach, and for the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.” For video and audio links or to read the blog of the script please continue reading.
As we learn the Good News also known as the Gospel, we praise the Lord that we don’t have to rely on our own understanding but we have the wisdom of those inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Lord told me this week, “As a young child is taught by repetition so does the Word of God go forth to teach the children of God. The Bible of Holy Scripture has been arranged to facilitate the telling of Salvation History. Historical, prophetic, praise and worship, Wisdom, and the personal witness of the Living God and His Body is laid out for all to see, for those who have ears to hear, for those to witness to preach, and for the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.” Through them we can learn and know and study to find an inkling of the depth of God’s love! St. Paul in Romans Chapter 10 verse 17 tells us “Faith comes from hearing and that means hearing the Word of Christ.” NJB How wonderful that we all can hear His words, the words spoken through His prophets, his saints, and the history of salvation continuously for thousands of years!
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. I’m Patti Brunner. Today’s episode is “How Do I Learn the Good News? It’s #4 of the Stepping Stones to the Fullness of Christ. What is your experience in being currently evangelized or catechized? How are you learning? What are you doing on a daily basis? What about weekly? Are you learning the Good News with your family?
Did you know that if you faithfully attend mass every Sunday for three years and listen carefully you will hear 58% of the four gospels?[i] If you attend daily mass for two years or study the daily liturgical scripture readings you are exposed to 90% of the Gospels. 55% of the New Testament readings besides the four Gospels are heard on weekdays plus 25% on Sundays. Many scriptures are read both on Sunday and during the week. The Old Testament, which is about four times the size of the New Testament, is not covered so completely. Even if you add the daily and the Sunday verses from the Old Testament you still get only about 17% of the Old Testament heard at Mass. The Psalms are not included in these percentages because of their multiple uses during the Mass. This makes it clear that when it comes to using the Mass as your source for learning the Good News, there’s more. With the Holy Spirit there’s always more.
In the Stepping Stones to the Fullness of Christ series we have been looking at the Catechism of the great family known as the Catholic Church. We have seen how it is one of the resources we can use to learn about the Good News. Do you know how the Catechism was written? If you have a copy, turn to the back of the book. Look at the Index of Citations that are quoted. 39 out of 46 books of the Old Testament are used as references. All 26 books of the New Testament were used. The next resource listed for the Catechism is the Professions of Faith including the Apostles Creed. Our Christian family learns the Good News from these important documents. You can also look at the listing of all the famous Ecumenical Councils that are quoted starting with the Council of Nicaea. Vatican II is just one of many throughout the years where the pope called in the Bishops to discern voice of the Holy Spirit in how to lead the Church. Actually the very first council is not listed here but it is in the New Testament’s Acts of the Apostles. That was the Jerusalem Council, when it was decided to allow Gentiles to join the Church without circumcision and without first joining the Jewish faith.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church that I often quote was published after Vatican II in 1994 but the Church didn’t start fresh with this Catechism—nor with Vatican II for that matter—but traces most of its teachings back to the early Church of the apostles then uses catechesis shared within the Church over the millennium. In the list of citations we can find Particular Councils and Synods, Pontifical Documents – before and including Pope John Paul II, Ecclesial documents, Canon Law, Liturgy, and Ecclesiastical Writers. Some of these writers are various saints considered to be Doctors of the Church.
The Catechism is divided into four parts. Part One includes a line by line, phrase by phrase, teaching of our creed. Part Two discusses the Christian mystery and contains the liturgy and the sacraments. Part Three contains direction for our Christian Life in the Spirit and the Ten Commandments. Part Four concerns Christian Prayer with a whole section on the Lord’s Prayer. When this catechism was first introduced in the Diocese of Little Rock our Bishop Andrew McDonald recommended that we start with the part on prayer.
This week the Lord said to me, “Encourage a Lectio Divina study of a few verses, to mine the riches like the goldminers of past and present who search for their fortune. Some stumble upon it, some dig deeply with great effort. The thing they have in common is the search. Seek Me. [the Lord says] I am within the words of the delicate pages. Let the ‘gold’ you find become the stepping stones to the fullness of Christ.”
Catechism Paragraph #1177 explains that Lectio Divina, that the Lord recommended, is “where the Word of God is so read and meditated that it becomes prayer.”Isn’t that beautiful!
Catechism #2708 shares with us that “Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. … This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.”
Like goldminers we can dig deep into scripture or stumble upon it. Lectio Divina is a process of reading and re-reading scriptures. After you have chosen a few verses, read them to become acquainted with the Word by gathering the facts presented, then spend a couple of moments “listening”. Secondly, meditate on this passage allowing a friendliness or familiarity to take root. You can do this by reading the scripture again and allowing Jesus, the Word of God, to speak to you. Reflect on the message asking the Lord “What do you want me to learn from this passage today?” Then spend 3 or 4 minutes of quiet time listening. Third is prayer. Read the scripture a third time and this time let your heart speak to God. Trust God enough to become emotionally involved. Let your heart silently speak spontaneous prayer. Allow 4 to 7 minutes of quiet time for this. The final step 4 of this Lectio Divina is contemplation and the union of life. Read the scripture a final time and sit quietly and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart in and through the silence. Allow at least five minutes more. That’s a lot of quiet that is not common in today’s culture! But you can hit pay dirt and discover gold! Seek the Lord and He shall be found!
In Paragraph #2761, the Catechism tells us that the Our Father, the Lord’s Prayer, is the summary of the whole Gospel. Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew Chapter 6:9-13. If we take these few verses and repeat them and meditate upon them it is like searching for gold.
The various writers quoted in the Catechism have struck gold and they share it with us! For example, if we open our Catechism and look at Paragraphs #2761-2768 about the Lord’s Prayer we will get a taste of how the Church helps us learn the Good News as we look at the source references noted. Among the references are scriptures from the New Testament and the Old Testament and the Didache. The Didache was a church manual written by the early Church fathers towards the end of the 1st century; it contains teachings of the twelve apostles. References also included in these nine Catechism paragraphs are from: Tertullian, who was an ecclesiastical writer from the third century in the 200’s, St. John Chrysostom who lived between 344 and 407, St. Augustine, who lived between 354 and 430, and St. Thomas Aquinas who lived between 1225 and 1274. Just looking at these few paragraphs and references helps us to find the golden nuggets that others have brought to the surface for us!
“Catechesis” is another word for teaching the faith to help others to learn the Good News. Let’s look at some scripture quotes to see what Jesus has to say about “catechesis”.
In the Gospel of Luke Chapter 10: 38-41 Luke tells the story of when Jesus allowed a friend, Mary, to sit and listen to Him teach. Luke writes, “38 As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. 39 She had a sister named Mary (who) sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 40 Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” 41 The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 42 There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
Jesus also taught publicly. It says in the Gospel of John Chapter 18: 20 “Jesus answered him, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing.”
Jesus made an effort to go out, also, to teach the Good News. It says in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 10:1, “He set out from there and went into the district of Judea (and) across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them.”
In the Gospel of John Chapter 6:44-45 Jesus explained the importance of being taught by God. Jesus taught, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.”
Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit and his encounter with Jesus, reminds his readers and listeners that they were taught by preaching, witness and scripture. He wrote in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4:2 “You know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” Then in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2:14-15 Paul wrote, “To this end he has (also) called you through our gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.” In 1 Corinthians Chapter 2:12-13 Paul wrote, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.”
St. Luke explains in Acts of the Apostles Chapter 1:1-2,In the first book, Theophilus,” –he’s talking about the Gospel— “1 In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught 2 until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.”
In the Old Testament God has ordered that we be taught. Deuteronomy Chapter 7:1-9 says, “These then are the commandments, the statutes and decrees which the LORD, your God, has ordered that you be taught to observe in the land into which you are crossing for conquest, 2 so that you and your son and your grandson may fear the LORD, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. 3 Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! 5 Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. 7 Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. 8 Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. 9 Write them on the door posts of your houses and on your gates.”
Many years following the writings of Deuteronomy the Prophet Hosea wrote that God’s people perish for want of knowledge. In Hosea Chapter 4:6 we can read and learn,“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” NRSV
Take a few moments now to consider what you have heard. Ask yourself, “What can I do to learn the Good News? How do I plan catechesis in my daily routine?” What commitment will you make?
We live in a time where amazing resources are available at our fingertips. We no longer have to spend hours in a dusty library or spend a fortune to gather a personal library. You have proven this by listening to this podcast. There are so many great videos of teachers of the Good News! Over the years I have worn out multiple daily guides to liturgical readings; now I use my Laudate app and find not only the readings but reflections to read or for listening. For 25 years I have used the “One Bread, One Body” reflections that are included now in the Laudate app. For those of you that are not computer literate, homilies at Mass are teachings based on the scripture of the day. A lot of my friends use the publication “The Magnificat”. I have worn out multiple bibles, too. I have saved them all and sometimes it is fun to go back and see what I underlined and read the dated anecdotes. Over the years group bible studies have provided a synergy that welcomes the Holy Spirit to inspire us. You can also get a bible that is arranged in such a way so as to read the whole bible in one year. EWTN is a Catholic television network that has various teaching programs. Relevant Radio is available by app on computers and iPhones and on the radio in many locations. Even the public library has various books including several based on the lives of the saints. Many contemporary versions of the bible may be easier to read. There’s a few not recommended to be used for study or reference because they may include questionable interpretations or contain omissions, such as The Living Bible. But there are many editions of the bible that are great for daily meditation. And it is fun to look up a puzzling verse in various editions to gather understanding. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is not the only good catechism either. Here in America we used the Baltimore Catechism for years that came forth from the very first diocese in America and the Denzinger Catechism. Now we have United States Catholic Catechism for Adults and even Catechism for Dummies! We also have great catechetical teachings from so many men and women who share what they have learned about the Good News. We will discuss more about them in the next episode #5 of the Stepping Stone series, “How do I spread the Good News?”
Please join me now in a closing prayer.
Lord, we have been called to make a decision to make a time commitment to learn the Good News you have given to us. Help us to follow through with our plans. This week we reach out to You. We choose to accept your Grace. Create zeal in us to hunger for your Word. Show us this week that You are real. Show us how much You care about us so that we may be able to hand our lives over to You. Amen!
You have been listening to Truth of the Spirit and “How Do I Learn the Good News?” If you would like to read the transcript of this episode please check out PatriarchMinistries.com/182 . I hope you listened to our previous episodes of the Stepping Stones to the Fullness of Christ series. I’m Patti Brunner. We invite you to comment with your favorite source of catechesis on our YouTube channel video. We invite you to subscribe and come back next time, because there is more. With the Holy Spirit there’s always more! Amen.
[i] Source: http://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Statistics.htm captured 10/5/2016
