Bible Scholarship / Scriptual Commentary

Bible Scholarship/Scriptural Commentary:

The Catholic Church and the Bible

Fr. Peter Stravinskas

Are Catholics biblical illiterates? So goes the frequent question, proving that myths die hard. But Catholics ought to be able to answer the charge made by many non-Catholics in this regard. This book is a response to Fundamentalist critics and an explanation of the Catholic biblical tradition.

The Catholic Church and the Bible is a significant scriptural study guide, published from a Catholic perspective and particularly keyed to the new Catechism of the Catholic Church. The well-planned, straight-forward text is clearly outlined to make information easy to find and understand. Main topics include:

The Catholic understanding of the Bible God's Word and its purpose in the Church A biblical theology of the Mass, the place of the Bible in the Sacred Liturgy A question-and-answer section that deals with pertinent and popular inquiries made by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. This work should be heartily welcomed by both clergy and laity, for Father Stravinskas sheds new light on Catholic Bible study by writing with candor, clarity and scriptural backing. This is ideal for high schools and RCIA programs.

Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas is the well-known editor of The Catholic Answer magazine, a contributing editor to National Catholic Register, and has written over 500 articles for numerous Catholic publications.

``An excellent tool for the Catholic apologist. The reader has everything in one place: pithy answers plus biblical and magisterial citations. Fr. Stravinskas is the best priest-apologist in the country.''

-- Karl Keating, Author, Catholicism and Fundamentalism

Scripture/Apologetics, 135 pp, Sewn Softcover, $10.95, CCB-P (ISBN 0-89870-588-6)
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Elijah

Adrienne von Speyr

As she has done with other books of Scripture, the mystic von Speyr here provides incisive, profound and original verse by verse commentary on the Elijah cycle, reflecting on both the action and events of the narrative as well as on the meaning of each verse. Both the content and the style are stimulus to prayerful reflection and a help to meditation. Von Speyr focuses on the importance of understanding Elijah as a prototype of Christ and a key to the New Testament message.

Some of the chapters included here are "The Drought is Announced", "Elijah and Ahab", "The Sacrifice of Mt. Carmel", "The Encounter With God", "The Call of Elisha", "Ahaziah and Elijah", and "Elijah is Caught Up to Heaven".

123 pp, Sewn Softcover, $9.95, E-P (ISBN 0-89870-2704)
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Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word

Meditations on St. Matthew's Gospel - Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis

To the unstudied eye, Matthew's gospel can seem a terse narrative, almost a historical document and not the tremendously spiritual (and doctrinal) storehouse that it is. Leiva here acts as our guide, showing Matthew's prose to be not terse so much as economical--astoundingly so given its depth. The lay reader can derive great profit from reading this, especially as daily lectio divina. Each short meditation comments on a verse or two, pointing to some facet of the text not immediately apparent. Leiva's work is scholarly but eminently approachable by the non-technical reader. The tone is very much gustate et videte, quoniam suavis est Dominus [taste and see how good the Lord is]--as it is ``friend, come up higher!''. The telos [goal] of the book is to aid the reader to experience the heat of the divine heart/the light of the divine Word. Leiva points to Matthew's gospel as being deeply ecclesial because it is first christological. He comments on the greek text, demonstrating to the reader nuances in the text that defy translation into english without serious revision of the text. The author uses linguistic analysis to aid the non-greek reader (one need have no greek to read this book) with the literal meaning of the text; numerous quotes from the Fathers and the liturgy of the Church to demonstrate the way the Tradition has lived and read the Word of God; theological reflection to vivify doctrine by seeking its roots in the person, words and actions of Jesus.

Jesus clearly instructs us to go into our room and pray--this book gives to us much to take into our room with us: to help us pray with the Christ and his Church.

Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Ph.D., is a Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of San Francisco.

730 pp, Sewn Softcover, $31.95 ... FMHW-P (ISBN 0-89870-5584)
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The Letter to the Ephesians

Adrienne Von Speyr

The contemporary mystic Von Speyr gives a verse by verse commentary on St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians that is the fruit of her own contemplative meditation and prayerful reflection. As with her other volumes of New Testament meditations, this one bears two distinctive features. First, her method of expressing the theological meaning of an enunciation is not merely to state the universal Christian truth, but also to characterize the particular angle of vision from which the sacred writer (St. Paul) sees it. Thus Paul's way of conceiving the content and life of faith, and the self-conscious role of the apostle in the economy of salvation accordingly stands out in bold relief. Secondly, Von Speyr always retraces the content of the words back to the source of revelation, which is the Trinity.

268 pp, Sewn Softcover, $12.95, LEPH-P (ISBN 0-89870-5703)
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John - Volume I: The Word Becomes Flesh

Adrienne Von Speyr

The fourth and final volume in von Speyr's meditations on the Gospel of St. John, the mystic continues her reflections here on the first five chapters of John and the beginning of the public life of Our Lord. She shares moving meditations on such profound and dramatic scenes as the witness of John the Baptist, the call of the disciples, the wedding at Cana, the cleansing of the money-changers in the temple, the Samaritan woman, etc. The combination of the Scripture verses and her meditations provide rich nourishment for prayer and spiritual reading. This series is particularly important because the spirituality of St. John, the Apostle of Divine Love, was the central source of von Speyr's own inspiration and spiritual life.

375 pp, Sewn Hardcover, $24.95, J1-H (ISBN 0-89870-4111)
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John - Volume II: The Discourses of Controversy

The mystic von Speyr continues her reflections on the Gospel of John, concentrating here on the discourses of Jesus in chapters 6-12. The various other events included by Saint John in these chapters are seen primarily by him as the occasion for new confrontations between Jesus and his disputants. These reflections present the moment in which the limited, self-satisfied standpoint of Christ's hearers must let itself be burst open into the unlimited, loving standpoint of the Lord. Some of the controversial discourses in this section of John's Gospel which von Speyr comments on include: The Multiplication of the Loaves; The Bread of Life; The Adulteress; The Man Born Blind; The Raising of Lazarus; The Good Shepherd, and The Entry into Jerusalem. The combination of the Scripture verses and von Speyr's moving meditations provide rich nourishment for prayer and spiritual reading. This series is particularly important because the spirituality of Saint John, the Apostle of Divine Love, was the central source of von Speyr's own spiritual life.

445 pp, Sewn Hardcover, $24.95, J2-H (ISBN 0-89870-412X)
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John - Volume III: The Farewell Discourses

The first of von Speyr's scriptural commentaries, focusing on the Farewell Discourses of Jesus, which reveal both the heart of John's Gospel and the heart of Our Lord.

378 pp, Sewn Hardcover, $24.95, J3-H (ISBN 0-89870-1112)
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John - Volume IV: Birth of the Church

Von Speyr continues her wonderful reflections on the Gospel of John, concentrating here on Peter and John and their roles in the Church as office and love.

443 pp, Sewn Hardcover, $24.95, J4-H (ISBN 0-89870-3689)
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Light of the Word

Brief Reflections on the Sunday Readings - Hans Urs von Balthasar

It is not only the Catholics who attend Sunday Mass, but also the priests who preach at Mass who feel overwhelmed by the three scripture readings in which for the most part only the first from the Old Testament and the third from the Gospel have any interconnection, while the second from the apostolic letters stands by itself. This book seeks to present the common theses that connect all three of the readings for Sundays and feasts of the Lord in the three year cycle of readings. The reflections here are meant to be theological and spiritual suggestions that the one who is preaching can develop further and from which he can select individual perspectives. Rather than seeking immediately concrete applications, Fr. von Balthasar attempts to elucidate the content which is immediately present in the passages.

Organized by each Sunday and feast day of the liturgical year for years A, B, & C, these reflections are meant to be theological and spiritual suggestions that the one who is preaching can develop further and from which he can select individual perspectives.

385 pp, Sewn Softcover, $24.95, LOW-P (ISBN 0-89870-4588)
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The Mission of the Prophets

- Adrienne Von Speyr

Adrienne von Speyr, whom Hans Urs von Balthasar credits with having an incalculable influence on his own writing, examines the mission of thirty-four figures in salvation history, from Abraham, through Moses, David, Elijah, and Isaiah, to the New Testament era and Our Lady. Mission is central to Christian life, and if we are to do justice to what God chooses for us, we can profit from looking at the chosen ones in scripture and seeing how they accepted their callings and lived out a life of service. Adrienne's contemplation on these unique missions helps us to open ourselves and respond to the call of God in our own lives.

``Von Speyr's main concern with these great figures of the Old Testament is their inner decisions, their prayers, their tasks, their fulfillment of the roles God has assigned to them. Their missions were both personal and historical -- different and new in every case, always surprising and never to be calculated.'' -- Hans Urs von Balthasar

Scripture, 125 pp, Sewn Softcover, $9.95, MOP-P (ISBN 0-89870-5932)
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The Victory of Love

A Meditation on Romans 8 - Adrienne von Speyr

The mystic von Speyr provides profound and original meditations on each verse of St. Paul's rich summary of the meaning of the Christian faith. The eighth chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Romans, a radiant trumpet-call in the tremendous symphony of the Pauline writings, proclaims the ultimate victory of the love of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit in the faithful united as the Church. In our age, which has become focused on the darker side of man, von Speyr shows how the Christian needs nothing more urgently than the courage, inspiration and hope that God offers to us through these writings of St. Paul.

"For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord." -- Saint Paul

"The Word of God must be accepted by man in the nakedness of his heart without compromise or safety-measures.... Nothing can hold back the constant extension of this victory of Christ's love. Saint Paul's proclamation has here the character of absolute though progressive totality." -- Hans Urs von Balthasar, From the Foreword

"A gripping meditation on Romans 8, one of the pivotal texts of Pauline Christology. A powerful trumpet blast for the prayerful reader sounded by one of the most extraordinary writers of our century."

-- Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., Author, Spiritual Passages

107 pp, Sewn Softcover, $9.95, VL-P (ISBN 0-89870-3042)
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You Have Words of Eternal Life

Scripture Meditations - Hans Urs von Balthasar

The highly-respected Swiss theologian provides short, profound meditations on numerous scriptural passages throughout the New Testament. The simplicity and wisdom of these meditations demonstrates that, although he was a great theologian, von Balthasar was deeply interested in sustaining the spiritual lives of modern men and women in this difficult time of the Church.

"These beautiful meditations of Fr. von Balthasar are a wonderful testament to his spirit--a spirit of great love of the Lord and his Church, and a spirit of the deepest wisdom and discernment for our times. Turn wherever you like in these pages and I believe you will find the spiritual nourishment which our souls need so much today. People cry out for the authentic food which can only come from inspired and prayerful pondering on the living message of Jesus. In You Have Words of Eternal Life there is such good food in plenty."

-- Sister Briege McKenna, O.S.C., Author, Miracles Do Happen

"An outstanding example of Biblical theology that is both useful for the laity and faithful to the Church. It shows that something rich and true lies between scripture scholarship and systematic theology."

-- Professor Scott Hahn, University of Steubenville

"These New Testament meditations are vintage von Balthasar, but more readily, more easily grasped by non-theologians. He brings to his scriptural commentary a fresh depth of insight that most biblical technicians simply do not have."

-- Fr. Thomas Dubay, Author, Fire Within

275 pp, Sewn Softcover, $16.95, YHW-P (ISBN 0-89870-3085)
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Book:
The Apostolate of Holy Motherhood
By S.T.D. Mark I. Miraville
Published in 1991, Riehle Foundation (Milford, OH)
Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint — Apparitions and miracles — United States.
Jesus Christ — Apparitions and miracles — United States.
Motherhood — Religious aspects — Catholic Church.

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THE PROPHECIES OF ST. MALACHY
PROPHECY FOR TODAY By Edward Connor (compiler)
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John 5:10-12. " He that believeth in the Son of God hath the testimony of God in himself. He that believeth not the Son maketh him a liar: because he believeth not in the testimony which God hath testified of his Son. And this is the testimony that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath not life."

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