Last Friday, the auxiliary bishop of Denver, James Conley, addressed the National Catholic Bible Conference. Bishop Conley is the one bishop to whom I have a personal connection: in the early 90s he was the chaplain for a prolife group I worked for. I remember him as a great priest (and strongly prolife), and I’m sure he is a wonderful bishop.

Bishop Conley had some great words for us to contemplate:

“Too few of us think of God’s Word as exciting or newsworthy enough to be sought out every day. And therefore too many of us miss the most newsworthy event in life – the experience of God, the creator of the universe, speaking to us through His Word.”

“This means that we can’t approach Scripture as if it were something that needs to be interpreted by us, but rather quite the opposite — we need to let Scripture interpret us, our lives, and our world. To read the world in light of Scripture, as opposed to Scripture in light of the world, is the hallmark of a Christian reading of the Word of God.”

“The best way to evangelize is to burn, like St. Francis did, for the love of God. To sustain that kind of zeal you need constant contact with the fire of God’s Word.”

We need to pray that Catholics will burn for the love of God, and that our zeal will lead us to evangelization. Reading the Scriptures is one of primary ways in which to inflame that burning love.

St. Francis, pray for us!