November 16, 2010

Favorite quotes from Verbum Domini

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Verbum Domini:

We can deepen our relationship with the word of God only within the “we” of the Church (VD 4).

The realist is the one who recognizes in the word of God the foundation of all things (VD 10).

Just as the word of God comes to us in the body of Christ, in his Eucharistic body and in the body of the Scriptures, through the working of the Holy Spirit, so too it can only be truly received and understood through the same Spirit (VD 16).

As the word of God became flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, so sacred Scripture is born from the womb of the Church by the power of the same Spirit (VD 19).

In the dynamic of Christian revelation, silence appears as an important expression of the word of God (VD 21).

The Bible is the Church’s book, and its essential place in the Church’s life gives rise to its genuine interpretation (VD 29).

Approaches to the sacred text that prescind from faith might suggest interesting elements on the level of textual structure and form, but would inevitably prove merely preliminary and structurally incomplete efforts (VD 30).

The person of Christ gives unity to all the “Scriptures” in relation to the one “Word” (VD 39).

The “literalism” championed by the fundamentalist approach actually represents a betrayal of both the literal and the spiritual sense, and opens the way to various forms of manipulation, as, for example, by disseminating anti-ecclesial interpretations of the Scriptures (VD 44).

The most profound interpretation of Scripture comes precisely from those who let themselves be shaped by the word of God through listening, reading and assiduous meditation (VD 48).

Holiness in the Church constitutes an interpretation of Scripture which cannot be overlooked. The Holy Spirit who inspired the sacred authors is the same Spirit who impels the saints to offer their lives for the Gospel (VD 49).

A faith-filled understanding of sacred Scripture must always refer back to the liturgy (VD 52).

Word and Eucharist are so deeply bound together that we cannot understand one without the other: the word of God sacramentally takes flesh in the event of the Eucharist (VD 55).

Ours is not an age which fosters recollection; at times one has the impression that people are afraid of detaching themselves, even for a moment, from the mass media. For this reason, it is necessary nowadays that the People of God be educated in the value of silence…Only in silence can the word of God find a home in us, as it did in Mary, woman of the word and, inseparably, woman of silence (VD 66).

Jesus of Nazareth is, so to speak, the “exegete” of the God whom “no one has ever seen” (VD 90).

[The proclamation of the word of God] is not a matter of preaching a word of consolation, but rather a word which disrupts, which calls to conversion and which opens the way to an encounter with the one through whom a new humanity flowers (VD 93).

We need to help young people to gain confidence and familiarity with sacred Scripture so it can become a compass pointing out the path to follow (VD 104).

The proclamation of the word creates communion and brings about joy (VD 123).