Sunday of the Word of God (24.1.21)

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4)

On the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Church now devotes her attention to the ‘inexhaustible riches contained in the treasury of the word of God’. This year, the Sunday ‘given over entirely to the word of God’ comes on 24 January 2021.

The Holy Father, Pope Francis, at the end of the Jubilee Year of Mercy declared (in his letter Aperuit Illis, linked at the foot of this article) that this Sunday be devoted to the celebration, study and proclamation of the word of God:

‘The various communities will find their own ways to mark this Sunday with a certain solemnity… it would be particularly appropriate to highlight the proclamation of the word of the Lord… and to show the importance of learning how to read, appreciate and pray daily with sacred Scripture.’

To mark this occasion we’d like to offer a small selection of resources that will help parishes and individuals enter into this special Sunday.

If you haven’t done so already, make sure you visit the God Who Speaks website which is a wonderful repository for all kinds of resources that will help you explore the Bible. Of particular help is this link which looks at the ‘senses of Scripture’.

Choosing the right Bible

There are hundreds of articles online and across journals that discuss the relative merits of Scripture translations and Bibles that suit different audiences. For a simple guide, Catholic Online offers some pointers, here and Eden, a Christian publisher have the following guide (bear in mind that the Catholic Bible contains 73 books rather than the Protestant 66-book or the Orthodox 79-book Bibles).

As an Agency, our printed and downloadable resources are moving towards featuring the English Standard Version - Catholic Edition, the translation selected to feature in the future Lectionary in England, Wales and Scotland.

For students on our courses, we heartily recommend the Didache Bible which features the Revised Standard Version of the Bible with extensive commentaries and expanded footnotes which reference the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Mark Hart, from Life Teen, who is known as the Bible Geek, provides a similar guide, to the ones listed above, for teenagers. Younger children would really benefit from the Catholic Bible for Children (published by Ignatius/Magnificat), as well as The Picture Bible and The Action Bible: God’s Redemptive Story (both published by David C Cook).

Sunday of the Word of God

The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation have released their Liturgical-Pastoral Resources for the Sunday of the Word of God. You can download this here:

Other suggestions

Members of the Agency Team are enjoying the podcast produced by Fr Mike Schmitz and Ascension Press which aims to go through the Bible in a Year. You can sign up via this link. For those who prefer a paper guide, you can download a ‘chronological’ plan to the reading of Scripture via the button below.

You may prefer a different way of entering into Scripture than a ‘start to end’ reading. Many of the participants on the Bible Timeline course, before Christmas, came from Southwark. This approach, based on the work of Jeff Cavins and delivered by Mauro Iannicelli, provided a narrative pathway through the Bible and the feedback was really positive. Mauro has offered to repeat this in the summer, so please keep your eyes peeled for that.

At the start of Advent in 2020, Fr Michael Winstanley, at the invitation of Bishop Pat Lynch, recorded a trio of videos to explore themes in the Gospel according to St Mark (the book of the Gospels we focus on in this year of the Church’s three-year cycle). Each lasts around 30 minutes and will help you enter into the Scripture this year.

Please remain assured of our prayers as, together, we enter into the unfathomable riches of Scripture.