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.

Sessionless Bible Study

For 15 or 16 years I've facilitated our parish Bible Study and must admit, it's been a joyful experience. But because of this pesky, and too often deadly, virus, we've been unable to come together in our weekly sessions. I'm not certain when we last met, but it must have been sometime in February or March of 2020 -- far too long ago.

Our Bible Study program, which began with fewer than a dozen active participants, grew steadily over the years and eventually included approximately 100 people. As you might imagine, because of the numbers, we had to offer more than one weekly session. When our initial Wednesday morning session had grown to about 30, I added a second session, on Wednesday evening, so participants could take their pick. This just attracted more participants and within several years, we added a third session, offering it on Monday afternoons. We were truly blessed with so many parishioners thirsting for God's Word...and then COVID came along and our meetings stopped completely. This was not a difficult decision due to the demographics of our parish. Most of us live in The Villages, a very large retirement community here in central Florida and our ages place us in a category most vulnerable to the virus and its worst effects. 

At first, not realizing how long this "new normal" would be with us, I thought we could just take a hiatus for a few months and then restart everything, perhaps in the fall of 2020. It didn't take long to realize that wouldn't happen. So I considered options. There were too many participants to offer Zoom meetings -- anyhow, just the thought of running a half-dozen or more Zoom meetings each week made me physically ill. I therefore considered other options, ways to keep the participants reading and thinking about Sacred Scripture. I finally decided on a distinctly low-tech approach and simply wrote a weekly reflection, really a kind of homily (a bit longish, perhaps) that I could email to our Bible Study regulars. I usually chose a Bible passage and attempted to apply it our current situation. These reflections seemed to be fairly well-received, so the parish suggested that I make videos of these reflections, which would be made available to all parishioners (and others) by uploading them to YouTube. I've now written 30 reflections and recorded videos of 24. I'll probably record a few more this week.

But as time went on, and I began to have hope that things might return to a state where we can again meet, I thought I'd better refocus my efforts and alter what I send to my Bible Study regulars. For years I have written what I call "Bible Study Guides," which address particular books of Scripture. Each offers only a basic introduction to a book, or portion of a book, and is designed to give participants a little background before we begin our in-depth coverage in our weekly sessions. About three weeks ago, I decided to try to write a new study guide (or revise and enlarge an existing one) and email them to all participants. When we get together once again, we can use these books as a good starting point. 

I decided, for reasons I cannot articulate, to focus on the 12 minor prophets...or at least a few of them. The first three study guides look at Amos, Micah, and Habakkuk. Amos was a rewrite of my Study Guide #7, originally written probably a dozen years ago. Micah (#39) and Habakkuk (#40) are both new.

If you're interested in reading them, here are links to PDF files of each:

Amos -- Micah -- Habakkuk

All other study guides, as well as those COVID reflections are available on the documents page of my Bible Study site: 

Bible Study Documents

I got a wee bit upset with YouTube because of its acquiescence to the rampant cancel culture, so I retaliated by canceling my personal YouTube pages and put my own videos on Rumble.com. You can access them there should you feel a need for penance.  Links to all my stuff are on the home page of my Bible Study website: 

Bible Study Home Page

The parish still maintains its YouTube site since it would be very hard for them to change given the number of folks who access parish videos.

Anyway, I hope those of you who read this blog will take time this Lent to increase your reading of the Bible to deepen your relationship with God and His Word.

 

Bible Study Reflections - Videos

For my Bible Study Regulars: 

The other day I overdid it and recorded four of the COVID-19 Bible Study reflections I’ve been writing over the past few months. I had gotten a little behind on the video recording and needed to catch up. Fortunately, Todd, our parish maintenance supervisor made himself available to handle all the video and audio details, so he and I spent a couple of hours while I droned on from the ambo before an empty church. Speaking with enthusiasm to absolutely no one is always a bit of a challenge. I prefer a living, breathing congregation. At least then I can tell if they’re awake or asleep, and know when to stop.

Krysten, our parish IT guru, will upload one video on each of the next four Mondays, so if you prefer to watch and listen, rather than read, you can go to the parish YouTube site every Monday and catch the video. If I sound a little less than enthusiastic on some of them, my apologies, but making four of these, one after another, was a bit of a challenge to my sanity.

Here’s the link to the Bible Study Reflection page of the parish YouTube site: Bible Study Videos

VIDEO - COVID-19 Bible Study Reflection #5: To Be a Disciple

Our pastor has asked me to record videos of several more of my COVID-19 Bible Study reflections, so the other day I took an hour or so to record three reflections:

#5 -- To Be a Disciple
#6 -- Abandonment
#7 -  Love One Another

I have embedded the video of #5 below. Krysten, our parish's wonderful IT guru, has also posted the video on the parish's YouTube site. It can be accessed there, along with the parish's recorded Masses and musical reflections: Bible Study Reflection #5: To Be a Disciple

The others -- #6 and #7 -- will be posted on the next two Mondays.

Just an FYI: This video is almost 19 minutes long, so if you'd rather just read it than listen to and watch it, the text is available here: Bible Study Reflection #5 Text.

God's peace...

Videos of Bible Study Reflections

The videos embedded below are the first four of the COVID-19 reflections I prepared and sent out to our parish's Bible Study participants. Written between April 2 and April 23, they were recorded as videos in late April. 

The purpose of these weekly reflections was to help our Bible Study regulars keep Sacred Scripture in mind until we can once again come together to study the God's Word in community.  As I prepared each reflection I tried to show how Scripture can help us as we face the challenges of this viral pandemic. I hope I have been at least partically successful.

I believe the parish intends to post one of these videos each Monday (beginning May 4) on its YouTube site which you can access via www.sumtercatholic.org, the parish's main website. The idea is to make them available to all parishioners. I decided, however, to include all four here since my Bible Study regulars have already received the texts of each reflection. I saw no reason to make them wait for the video versions.

I haven't yet watched the videos (and probably won't). They were recorded, one after another, during a couple of hours on one morning last month. I expect the quality of my presentation probably deteriorated as the recordings progressed. I wasn't feeling particularly well that morning anyway. It was just a few days before I was diagnosed with shingles. I trust you will understand, and forgive any goofs, etc.

Of course, if you decide to watch all four of these videos during a single sitting, you'd have to spend well over an hour doing so. That's something I wouldn't recommend to anyone. To save you from that, I've also included links to the text versions of each, posted earlier on this blog.

I've written and sent out a fifth reflection -- To Be a Disciple -- but am not sure whether it will be recorded. 

Here is the video of reflection #1, written and published as text on April 2: God's Purpose

Here is the video of reflection #2, written and published as text on April 11: The Book of Job.

Here is the video of reflection #3, written and published as text on April 17: The Divine Gift of Trees.

And, finally, here is the video of reflection #4, written and published as text on April 23: Divine Mercy.