Dear Parishioners and Friends,
It has been said that anything which happens two years in a row becomes a tradition. If that is the case, then three or four years in a row is like being cast in stone! The annual observance of the Sunday of the Word of God, which is celebrated this weekend, is something which I have come to eagerly anticipate because it is an opportunity for me to display various types of Bibles in front of the ambo. In the past few years I have displayed a medieval Bible moralisée, the modern St. John’s Bible, and the Renaissance era Bible of Borso d’Este. They are magnificent examples of the beauty of God’s Word.
For this year’s observance I have chosen a Bible which is significant for its unusual images – the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible designed and illustrated by Barry Moser, an American visual artist and educator, known as a printmaker specializing in wood engravings, and an illustrator of numerous works of literature.
“The Annunciation” by Barry Moser
Born in 1940, Moser published this edition of the Bible in 1999. It is a reading version of the King James Bible, with no verse numbers. Moser produced over 200 illustrations for the Bible, two of which are pictured here. The cover of today’s bulletin is his illustration of Jonah (the subject of today’s first reading) who was sent by God as a prophet to the ancient city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, in what is today northern Iraq. The illustration humorously shows Jonah submerged in water after being spewed out of the belly of a large fish, usually depicted as a whale.
At St. Patrick-St. Anthony there is a wealth of opportunities to study and reflect on the Word of God through the programs and classes offered by our Adult Faith Formation ministry. As the foundation of our Christian faith, the Bible is God’s divine revelation to us told in words. We hear those words proclaimed to us throughout the course of the liturgical year. Even though we hear those words again and again, if we are open in mind and heart, they offer us something new each time we hear them.
“This is my Blood of the New Testament” by Barry Moser
As I mentioned back in 2021, the yearly observance of the Sunday of the Word of God is meant to help us “reawaken an awareness of the importance of Sacred Scripture for our lives as believers, beginning with its resonance in the liturgy which places us in living and permanent dialogue with God,” according to a note from the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The note also said that “through the proclaimed biblical readings in the liturgy, God speaks to his people and Christ himself proclaims his Gospel.”
In today’s Gospel, from the first chapter of Mark, we hear Jesus utter a simple sentence to the two fishermen, Peter and Andrew: “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.” A few moments later, he called two additional brothers, James and John, and they too dropped their fishing nets and followed after Jesus. How compelling he must have been, not just in his words, but by his very presence. We can only imagine what their father Zebedee and the other hired men must have been thinking as they watched the sets of brothers fall in line behind this mysterious stranger.
As we follow along behind Jesus, we know that he continues to walk alongside of us. We may not always know where he is leading us, but we trust that he will never leave us, so long as we have faith in him and continue to listen to him as he speaks to us.
Blessings on your week ahead!
Fr. Tim Shreenan, O.F.M., Pastor