Author name: Molly Hostetler

“I went to pray but nothing happened. I just sat there. After a little while, I started to feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure what to say. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if anyone was listening anyway. I tried to talk to God, but I just heard the echo of my own thoughts.

Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, personifies true reform in the image of “the wonderer.” He notes that this sense of wonder, when it comes to ecclesial renewal, lies in the realization that the Church is not something made by men, but is “given to us all.” The “wonderer” is not preoccupied with an overemphasis on the Church or idealistic visions of what the Church could be; rather, he consistently looks to God, unites himself to God, and desires that God be known today. Wonder says “no” to empirical confinement and “prepares man for the act of faith, which opens him to the horizon of the eternal and infinite. And only the unlimited is large enough for our nature and in accord with the call of our essential being.”  

Who can discover that this pathway of truth, beauty, and goodness—even though it passes through the valley of the shadow of death—leads ultimately to that end? The baptized liturgist. What does the resurrected soul discover when the world is done the way it was meant to be done? That what is inward, below, and given for present enjoyment is only a pathway to this seat on high.

You may already know that it was reading the Bible that led me to the Catholic Church. But there was another key part of my journey to the Catholic faith. You see, the Bible also led me to the Church Fathers.

Baptism drops the Spirit of the Holy One into our veins, but there is no fire where there is not matter to burn; asceticism is the cost of making us combustible, and that fire is a mystical one. Liturgy is ecstasy: going out of one’s self to abide in God. But killing our selflove requires ascetical fortitude. Mysticism is not a character trait that only some people have, like blue eyes or a quick temper. Neither is mysticism a feat accomplished by our own abilities, like writing a novel or playing the trombone. Mysticism is caused by grace, and grace abides in the Church, which is communion in the Holy Spirit, by whose dominion one can develop a life that is spiritual, begun when baptism infuses the supernatural graces of faith, hope, and love. 

Catholics are often criticized for the way we approach the Bible. These criticisms normally come from two directions. From one direction some Protestant Christians, who disagree with Catholic doctrine concerning tradition and with the Catholic approach to Scripture, charge the Church with neglecting Scripture.

The Bible is unique. No other work of writing has ever been so studied, so commented on, so debated. It has been a part of the Church from the beginning, and each generation continues to grapple with it.

In his recent Apostolic letter Aperuit Illis, Pope Francis established the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time as the Sunday of the Word of God. As we celebrate the inaugural feast on January 26, here are a few ways to follow Pope Francis’ call to make Scripture a part of everyday life throughout the new year. 

See highlights from the 2020 Priest Conference West.