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I love learning about our Church. I got this book—The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. It’s awesome. It takes certain words or phrases within Scripture, and explains them in more detail, and anything that references the Old Testament is noted. There’s so much depth to Scripture. For example, the first line of the First Reading today: “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled…”
Now, so many other times I have just glossed over that first sentence, looking for the action and what’s the main point of the passage is. But this struck me, because how did Luke (credited author of the Acts of the Apostles) know that this event was going to be called Pentecost?
I grabbed my Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, and sure enough there was a note on it. Pentecost was already a part of the Jewish tradition, where men made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But what happens this day in Pentecost is the Holy Spirit coming down and making some awesome stuff happen, and so that is now what we celebrate today because “the new law of the Spirit” has been “written on the hearts of believers, which surpasses the Law of Moses” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Hahn & Mitch).
All that from just part of the first sentence. And last week, I talked about the awesomeness of the Holy Spirit—here’s something from the same book that describes the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit is the founding gift of the New Covenant and the soul that animates the body of the Christian community. He directs the missionary efforts of the Church, guides her leadership into truth, and sanctifies her life through the sacraments.” How beautiful is that?
I might’ve mentioned this before, but the more I learn about our Church, the more passionate I become about being Catholic. And I’m talking about learning the truth about the Church—not the misconceptions. Here are some great resources to help you out:
Catholic Answers – they have articles, podcasts, radio stations—tons of seriously knowledgeable people who do a great job explaining the faith.
The book mentioned above—Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.
If you do lots of driving or prefer to listen than read, then here are a few podcasts along with Catholic Answers:
The Lanky Guys—they break open the Sunday’s readings in a cheesy jokes kind of way
Catholic Stuff You Should Know—these guys get a little more heady and sometimes talk about obscure facts of the Church
Word on Fire—Bishop Robert Barron talks about different aspects of the faith in a very digestible way.
Renovo – Doug Tooke (dougtooke.com) has a refreshing way of sharing about the faith – a kind of slap-you-in-the-face type of refreshing
