Verbum Domini part 2 section 2

VERBUM IN ECCLESIA
The liturgy, privileged setting for the word of God

• The liturgy is the priviliged setting in which God speaks to us in the midst of our lives

• Every liturgical action is by its nature steeped in sacred Scripture.

• See that all faithful learn to savour the deep meaning of the word of God which unfolds each year in the liturgy... This in turn is the basis for a correct approach to sacred Scripture.

• The liturgy of the word is a decisive element in the celebration of each one of the sacraments of the Church

• In salvation history there is no separation between what God says and does. His word appears alive and active. ... In the liturgical action too, we encounter his word which accomplishes what it says.

• The profound unity of word and Eucharist is grounded in the witness of Scripture (cf. Jn 6; Lk 24)

• Unless we acknowledge the Lord's real presence in the Eucharist , our understanding of Scripture remains imperfect

• The Church has honoured the word of God and the Eucharist with the same reverence, although not with the same worship

• St. Jerome speaks of the way to approach Scriptures and the Eucharist : "... For me the Gospel is the Body of Christ;... When we approach the [Eucharistic] Mystery, if a crum falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the word of God , and His Word and flesh and blood are being poured into our ears yet we pay no heed, "

• All those entrusted with the office of reading should be truly suitable and carefully trained. The training should be biblical and liturgical, as well as technical

• The homily is a means of bringing the scriptural message to life... It should lead to an understanding of the mystery being celebrated... Generic and abstract homilies should be avoided as well as useless disgressions which risk drawing greater attention to the preacher than to the heart of the Gospel message .

• The faithful should be able to perceive clearly that the preacher has a compeling desire to present Christ, who must stand at the center of every homily.

• He is undoubtedly barren who preaches outwardly the word of God without hearing it inwardly.

• The role of Scriptures in the sacraments of confession and anointing of the sick is often overlooked.

• Avoidi the the danger of the celebrations of the word being confused with celebrations of the Eucharist : "on the contrary, they should be privileged moments of prayer to God to send holy priests after his own heart".

• Popular piety can find in the word of God an inexhaustible source of inspiration, insuperable models of prayer and fruitful points of reflection.

• Our is not an age that fosters recolection; at times one has the impression that people are afraid of detaching themselves, even for a moment, from the mass media.

• Only in silence can the word of God find a home in us... Our liturgies must facilitate this attitude of authentic listening.

• "The reading of the Gospel is the high point of the liturgy of the word".

• Concern should be shown for Church acoustics, with due respect for liturgical and architectural norms

• Churches should give a place of honor to the Sacred Scriptures, even outside of liturgical celebrations.

• No text of spirituaty or literature can equal the value and riches contained in Scriptures

• Responsorial Psalm is also the word of God... Should not be replaced... Most appropriate that it be sung

• Prefernce should be given to songs which are of clear biblical inspiration ... I think in particular of the importance of Gregorian chant


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Verbum Domini part 2 section 1

VERBUM IN ECCLESIA
The Word of God and the Church

• To receive the Word means to let oneself be shaped by him, and thus to be conformed by the power of the Holy Spirit to Christ.

• The Church draws life not from herself but from the Gospel.


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Verbum Domini part 1 section 3

The Interpretation of Sacred Scripture in the Church

• Without faith there is no key to throw open the Sacred text... It is impossible for anyone to attain knowledge of that truth unless he fist has infuse faith in Christ, which is the lamp, the gate and the foundation of all Scripture.

• We can never read Scripture on our own. We come up against too many closed doors and we slip too easily into error. It was written by the People of God for the People of God ... Only in this communion can we truly enter as a 'we' into the heart of the truth God wants to convey to us.

• Access to a proper understanding of bibcal texts is only granted to the person who has an affinity with what the text is saying on the basis of life experience

• "the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of theology"

• The history of salvation is not mythology, but a yrue history, and it should thus be studied with the methods of seious historical research.

• An attitude of respect, esteem, and love for the Jewish people is the onlyn truly Christian attitude in the present situation, which is a mysterious part of God's wholly positive plan.


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Verbum Domini part 1 section 2

Our response to the God who speaks

• We were created in the word and we live in the word; we cannot understand ourselves unless we are open to this dialogue.

• In this dialogue with God we come to understand ourselves and we discover an answer to our heart's deepest questions

• The Book of Psalms, where God gives us words to speak to him

• Man's sin is essentially disobedience and refusal to hear

• Our apostolic and pastoral work can never be effective unless we learn from Mary how to be shaped by the working of God within us.

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Verbum Domini part 1 section 1

The God Who Speaks

• There is no greater priority than this: to enable the people of our time once more to encounter God, the God who speaks to us and shares his love so that we might have life in abundance.

• The Word of God makes us change our concept of realism: the realist is the one who recognizes in the word of God the foundation of all things.

• This realism is particularly needed in our own time when many things in which we are tempted to put our hopes, prove ephemeral. Possesions, pleasures and power show themselves sooner or later to be incapable of fulfilling the deepest yearnings of the human heart.

• This 'condescension' of God is accomplished surpassingly in the incarnation of the Word. The eternal Word, expressed in creation and communicated in salvation history, in Christ became a man.

• The Son himself is the Word became small - small enough to fit in a manger. He became a child, so that the word could be grasped by us.

• From the beginning, Christians realized that in Christ the word of God is present as a person. The word of God is the true light that men and women need. In the resurrection the Son of God truly emerged as the light of the world. Now, by living with him and in him, we can live in the light.

• We can compare the cosmos to a 'book' -Galileo himself used this example- and consider it as "the work of an author who expresses himself through the 'symphony' of creation.

• Since he has given us his Son, his only word (for he posseses no other), he spoke everything at once in y¡this sole word - and he has no more to say...

• Private revelations... Whose mission is... to help live more fully bt it in a certain period of history.

• Private revelation is an aid to this faith, and it demonstrates its credibility precisely because it refers back to the one public revelation.

• We cannot come to understand the meaning of the word unless we are open to the working of the Paraclete

• Ultimately, it is the living Tradition of the Church which makes adequately understand Sacred Scripture as the word of God

• Althouth the word of God precedes and exceeds sacred Scripture... It contains the divine word "in an altogether singular way".

• Whenever our awareness of its inspiration grows weak, we risk reading Scripture as an object of historical curiosity and not as the work of the Holy Spirit in which we can hear the Lord himself speak

• Christ experienced the silence of the Father when He was on the Cross (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?)... God also speaks by his silence... Is the situation of all those who, having heard His word, must also comfront his silence. God's silence prolongs his earlier words.

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Verbum Domini conclusion

CONCLUSION (121 onwards)

• I wish once more to encourage all the People of God, to become increasingly familiar with the sacred Scriptures.

• The greater our openness to God's word, the more we will be able to recognize that today too the mystery of Pentecost is taking place in God's Church.

• The proclamation of the word creates communion and brings about joy. ... This joy is an ineffable gift the world cannot give. Celebrations can be organized but not joy. According to the Scripture, joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.


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What they don't teach you at Harvard Business School

By: Mark H. McCormack

This is a very recommendable book for all those who are doing something else more than just a 9 to 5 job. It could be helpful for people who like business, or who help running a club, association or institution, or who are into the sales or marketing of their company, or those who aspire to go up the ladder within their company... and of course, for entrepreneurs!

I think that most of the things he says in the first part of the book (about people) boils down to live human virtues, and how those don't will find it harder to be successful.

His approach towards self-organisation in the third part of the book (Running a business) it's really quite good! Most probably I won't use his system but it helps me to improve my own system.

Below go some few points he made which I was able to take note at that moment... most probably there were more points I would have liked to write down, but couldn't do it at that moment.

► The people who get ahead have a need, are driven to perform a task well, no matter what the task is or how mundane it may actually be... Carpenters who became contractors at one time had a need to drive a nail straighter and truer than anyone else... Some executives, had they started in the mail room, would still be sorting mail - and misrouting most of it!

► Playing dumb is a valid negotiating technique, and 'I don't understand' is a legitimate negotiating response. But to ignore the other party's position or to pretend you didn't even hear it because you don't want to hear it only will build up frustrations.

► Companies are often shy about doing this (charging for their expertise). It always reminds me of the story about the woman who approached Picasso in a restaurant, asked him to scribble something on a napkin, and said she would be happy to pay whatever he felt it was worth. Picasso complied and then said, 'That will be $10,000'. 'But you did that in thirty seconds', she replied. 'No', Picasso said. 'It has taken me forty years to do that.'

► Getting things done is a matter of controlling your business day rather than having it control you, of forcing activities into the time available, rather than trying to expand the time to accommodate the activities. But many people fear that if they don't seem out of control they aren't going to seem busy enough or important enough. They really don't want to manage their time well. Once you really believe that controlling your time is not only more productive, but more pleasant, then the rest is fairly easy.

► Business is a competition, and any high-level, sophisticated competition is almost exclusively a head game. The Inner Game of Business, as this could be called, is understanding the Business Paradox: the better you think you are doing, the greater should be your cause for concern; the more self-satisifed you are with your accomplishments, your past achievements, your 'right moves', the less you should be.

► So if this book has left you feeling satisfied with your own business acumen, you may have a lot of catching up to do.

Book No.: r017

Asunto: highlights

Fecha: 18/03/11