Bible Study Redux

Alleluia! 

After 16 months of, well, nothing much, our parish's Bible Study sessions will recommence on Monday, July 26. Back in March of last year, as COVID began to infect the world, we had to stop meeting together. At that time we had approximately 100 parishioners coming together weekly to strengthen and enliven their faith by studying and coming to a greater understanding of Sacred Scripture. Because the numbers of participating faithful had grown so much since I started our little study group 15 years earlier, we had to schedule three weekly sessions. We will follow this same plan as we restart the program: three sessions, on Monday morning, Monday afternoon, and Wednesday Morning.

Before the pesky virus tore people apart from one another, these sessions had become my three favorite hours of the week. Those who participate are wonderful, enthusiastic, faithful people who willingly share their faith and their experiences to help the rest of us understand the depth and breadth of God's Word. I've studied Sacred Scripture, formally and informally, for many years and thought I was pretty knowledgeable, but believe me, I came away from these weekly sessions with new insights and, more importantly, a deeper awareness of how God's Word enters directly into the lives and loves of His people. It was similar to what I experienced when, almost 54 years ago, I met this strikingly beautiful young woman named Diane, who over time deepened my love for Sacred Scripture. She was a former Baptist and Pentecostal who loved the Lord and knew her Bible. She kept me grounded in the Truth and has been an effective footbrake to keep from doing stupid things. 

If you managed to survive the COVID experience, you'll understand how a person needed to stay busy. As Diane once remarked, "You can watch only so many Hallmark movies," and watching the news...well, that was anything but cheerful. I did, however, listen to a lot of music -- mostly Baroque, thanks to Alexa and my SiriiusXM account. 

But that wasn't enough. Throughout the COVID weirdness, in an effort to keep my aging brain active and encourage our participants and other parishioners to turn daily to Sacred Scripture, I decided to write a series of weekly (more or less) Scripture-based reflections. The topics I chose were of an eclectic sort -- everything from Trees to Mercy to Prophecy -- but all tended to turn to the Bible for support. You can access all 30 of these reflections on the documents page of my parish Bible Study site. Here's the link; just look for the section entitled, COVID-19 Reflections:

    www.catholic-scripture.com/documents 

The parish then asked me to make video recordings of these reflections and these, too, are available online. Although not all of the reflections were actually recorded, those that were may be found on Rumble.com here: 

    Deacon Dana Bible Study Reflections (rumble.com)

From the start of our Bible Study years ago, I would write what I called "Study Guides," really rather lame overviews of specific books of Sacred Scripture. I didn't plan to refer to these guides during our sessions; rather they were intended to provide our participants with a little background on each book so it would make a bit more sense when they read it for the first time. As it turns out, during our year off, I revised several of these guides and wrote almost ten new ones. As I said earlier, I was more than a little bored. All the new and revised guides can also be found on the documents page of my Bible Study website (see the above link).

And so, with COVID behind us -- we hope! -- and a bright, God-in-charge future ahead of us, we can come together in faith and hope as we turn once again to His holy Word. How wonderful it will be to come to a deeper understanding of God's gift of the Way, the Truth, and the Life.