June 17, 2009

Involve Your Entire Parish

In the Worldwide Year For Priests!

 

Stephen J. Binz

Pope Benedict has declared an extraordinary Year For Priests, beginning with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 19, 2009, and ending a year later on this same universal feast of the Sacred Heart. The patron of priests St. John Vianney said, “The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.”

As Catholic communities make plans to honor and support their priests ordained for Christ's service, these parishes are searching for a way to enflame the entire community with the priestly Heart of Jesus. During this blessed year, consider renewing your whole parish with a rich, biblical spirituality of the divine Heart. 

Twenty-Third Publications offers The Sacred Heart of Jesus as a resource for spiritual renewal during this Year For Priests. This work incorporates the ancient tradition of lectio divina to focus on the biblical image of the heart, the central core of human will and passion. Though the human heart can become hardened and cold, God has promised to change our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. The heart of Jesus, pierced and flowing with living streams of blood and water, is a threshold inviting us into the experience of divine love.  

Written by Catholic Bible scholar Stephen J. Binz, The Sacred Heart of Jesus shows how this ancient devotion can be revitalized in our day through a spirituality that is biblical, ecumenical, and contemporary. Through biblical reading, prayerful meditation, and contemplative action, your community will experience new unity, holiness, and purpose—all rooted in the priestly Heart of Jesus.

St. John Vianney said that a good priest, a priest after Christ’s own heart, is the greatest treasure that God can give a parish. Honor the good priests that serve your parish by sanctifying your parish in the love of Christ—the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

(The icon of the Sacred Heart is used with permission from the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin.)

 

By steeping your whole parish in biblical reading, prayerful meditation, and contemplative action centered on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, you can renew God’s people and develop a priestly spirituality within your community of faith. People renewed in the Heart of Christ live their faith more personally, become for fully the Body of Christ, and mediate Christ’s presence to others in the world. 

Consider these ways of bringing The Sacred Heart of Jesus to your whole parish community during the worldwide Year For Priests:

v Spouses and Families. Offer this work to all the households of your parish for regular Bible reading, discussion, and family prayer.

v Parish Staff and Ministry Volunteers. Begin your parish meetings and activities with a focus on the Heart of Jesus throughout this year.

v Adult Faith Formation and Bible Study. Choose the Sacred Heart as your theme of biblical learning for your study groups and education sessions.

v Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament and Prayer Groups. Encourage focused prayer to the Sacred Heart leading to spiritual fervor and renewal.

v Young Adults and Youth. Busy young Catholics can reflect on these biblical texts while on the run, then send a text message to friends offering thoughts and a digital prayer for the day.

v Sick, Elderly, and Shut-Ins. Offer this work to all the infirmed so that the whole parish can be renewed in the love of Christ’s divine Heart.                       

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is an inexpensive way to involve your whole parish in this worldwide Year For Priests. For the price of a pizza or movie, the people of your parish can have a wonderful resource that will enrich their lives and enhance the life of your parish. When you place your order as a parish, you may receive a discount of ten to twenty-five percent.

Turn to this web site to see what Catholic bishops, scholars, and pastoral leaders are saying about this new way of bringing biblical renewal to your whole parish:

http://www.pastoralplanning.com/TBS/TBSReviews.html

Visit www.ThresholdBibleStudy.com or call 1-800-321-0411 to order now! 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus uses an ancient method of biblical reflection and prayer called lectio divina, encouraged by the bishops of the world at the recent Synod of Bishops in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI said this about lectio divina: “If the practice of Lectio Divina is effectively promoted, I am convinced that it will produce a new spiritual springtime in the Church.”

Each lesson of The Sacred Heart of Jesus contains a Scripture text, biblical commentary rooted in the heart of the Church, questions for reflection and discussion, and a prayer. By adopting The Sacred Heart of Jesus for your parish, you can introduce your whole community to the ancient art of lectio divina and focus your entire parish on the divine love of Christ. The Sacred Heart of Jesus will show your parish how to read the Bible in a way that brings ongoing conversion and personal transformation in Christ.

Contents:

            1.         God Set His Heart on You  (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 7:6-11)

            2.         Circumcise Your Heart  (Deuteronomy 10:12-22)

            3.         Turn to the Lord with Your Whole Heart  (Deuteronomy 30:1-20)

            4.         Promise of the New Covenant  (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

            5.         From Heart of Stone to Heart of Flesh  (Ezekiel 11:14-21; 36:22-32)

            6.         God’s Compassionate Love for Israel  (Hosea 11:1-11)

            7.         Abundant Water from the Rock  (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:7-11)

            8.         Drawing Water from Salvation’s Font  (Isaiah 12:1-6)

            9.         Water Flowing from God’s Temple  (Ezekiel 47:1-12)

            10.       Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God  (Psalm 51:1-19)

            11.       Treasuring God’s Word in the Heart  (Psalm 119:1-16)

            12.       Bride of My Heart  (Song of Songs 4:9-10; 8:6-7)

            13.       Close to the Father’s Heart  (John 1:1-5, 14, 16-18)

            14.       Source of Living Water  (John 4:7-15; 7:37-39)

            15.       Close to the Heart of Jesus  (John 13:1-5, 20-30)

            16.       No Greater Love  (John 13:33-35; 15:9-13)

            17.       The Pierced Side of Jesus  (John 19:31-37)

            18.       The Glorious Wounds of Christ  (John 20:19-30)

            19.       The Humble Heart of Jesus  (Matthew 11:25-30)

            20.       Love of God and Neighbor  (Mark 12:28-34)

            21.       The Heart of Mercy  (Luke 6:27-36)

            22.       The Heart’s Treasure  (Luke 6:43-45; 12:22-34)

            23.       Hearts Enflamed  (Luke 24:25-35)

            24.       The Holy Heart of Mary  (Luke 2:13-19, 33-35, 51-52)

            25.       God’s Love Poured Into Our Hearts  (Romans 5:1-11)

            26.       Knowing God’s Love in Christ Jesus  (Romans 8:31-39) 

            27.       Believing in Your Heart  (Romans 10:1-13)

            28.       That Christ May Dwell in Your Hearts  (Ephesians 3:7-21)      

            29.       Love in Truth and Action  (1 John 3:16-24; 4:7-16)

            30.       The Spirit, the Water, and the Blood  (1 John 5:6-15)