NEWSLETTER INSERTS - SOWING THE SEED OF GOD'S WORD

‘How are they to invoke Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear if no one preaches him?

St Paul, Romans 10:14

‘The first of all our concerns is the distribution of the word.’

St Gregory of Nazianzen, Oration, 2, 35.

‘Distribution of God’s word is akin to the distribution of the Eucharist. It is nourishment for body and soul: ‘The laity expect you to bring them food, which means the teaching of the Scriptures. They expect to be fed’.

St Athanasius, Letter to Draconitus, 2.

‘So then, how do things stand in our own lives? Are we truly pervaded by the word of God? Is that word truly the nourishment we live by, even more than bread and the things of this world? Do we really know that word? Do we love it? Are we deeply engaged with this word to the point that it really leaves a mark on our lives and shapes our thinking? Or is it rather the case that our thinking is constantly being shaped by all the things that others say and do? Aren’t prevailing opinions the criterion by which we all too often measure ourselves?...Do we allow ourselves truly to be deeply purified by the word of God?

Pope Benedict XVI, Chrism Mass of 2009.

‘The Church must hold on to its ideal ‘whilst leaning attentively over humankind, listening to the pulse of humanity’.

Jeremiah Newman, Conscience versus Law: Reflections on the Evolution of Natural Law, Talbot Press, Dublin, 1971, 279.

‘Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply’.

St Francis de Sales

‘On the road to Emmaus, the disciples described the effect of Jesus breaking the Word to them as their ‘hearts burning’ (Luke 24:32). There was power in his words, authority, truth and life. This same divine power will flow from the Word of God that we share when it emerges from the wellspring of the divine life within us. Here is the crucial connection between the word of God we speak and the Word of God that dwells within. Our words risk being hollow and empty if they are not animated by the indwelling of the Word. We speak not from the head but from the wellspring of the heart that has internalised the message we dare to speak about. This was and continues to be our task as a prophetic and missionary people – to internalise the message before we share it’.

Fr. Billy Swan