Sunday of the Word of God

1. THE POPE TELLS US:
The role of the Holy
Spirit in the Scriptures
is primordial. Without
the work of the Spirit,
there would always be a
risk of remaining
limited to the written
text alone. This would
open the way to a
fundamentalist reading,
which needs to be
avoided, lest we betray
the inspired, dynamic
and spiritual character
of the sacred text.
(Pope Francis, Aperuit
Illis, No. 9)
Adore our Lord in His Holy Word:
I adore you, Jesus, as the Eternal Word of the Father and as the
source of all the holy words contained in this book. I adore you in the
designs you have throughout the whole Church, and of me in
particular, when you spoke or inspired them.
I adore you, Jesus, as the Eternal Word of the Father and as the source of all the
holy words contained in this book. I adore you in the designs you have
throughout the whole Church, and of me in particular, when you spoke or
inspired them.
Give thanks to our Lord for such a precious treasure and such a holy relic of
Himself, and for the enlightenment and graces, which through his Holy Word he
has communicated to his Church.
Humble yourself because you are immensely unworthy to read and even to
touch and look at the sacred books.
Ask for forgiveness for your negligence in reading them, for the misuse you have
made of them, and for your little respect towards them. For, they must be for us
like the Heart of God, which contains all its secrets and which is the beginning of
the life of His children, as St. Augustine explains in Ps 22: 15: My heart has
become like wax, it melts away within me.
Recall the Scripture passage referred to in the Gospel, when our Lord took the
book of the Holy Scriptures, opened it publicly and read in it Himself (Lk 4:16).
With this remembrance, give yourself to Him to join the holy dispositions with
which He read the Holy Scriptures.
Give yourself to the Divine Spirit who inspired the Holy Scriptures and ask him to
imprint them in your heart: to make of us a living Gospel and a living book,
written inside and out, in which is imprinted the inner and outer life of Jesus,
which is presented to us in the sacred words.
Sunday of the Word
of God
T H I R D S U N D A Y I N O R D I N A R Y T I M E
I N D I C A T I O N S O F S T . J O H N E U D E S T O T A K E I N T O A C C O U N T
B E F O R E A N D A F T E R R E A D I N G T H E S A C R E D S C R I P T U R E S
Before reading the Scriptures
To this end, it would be a very good thing to read each day
on your knees a chapter of the life of Jesus Christ in the New
Testament, so as to learn the life your Father led, and,
through the consideration of His acts, His virtues, and His
words, to become familiar with the rules and maxims upon
which He based His conduct, and upon which He wishes
you to base yours. Christian prudence consists in renouncing
the maxims of the world, in calling upon the spirit of Christ
to enlighten you, to guide you by His maxims, and to lead
you in accordance with His truths, His actions and His
virtues. This is what is meant by basing one's conduct upon
the spirit of faith.

2. When sacred Scripture is
read in the light of the
same Spirit by whom it
was written, it remains
ever new. The Old
Testament is never old
once it is part of the
New, since all has been
transformed thanks to
the one Spirit who
inspired it. The sacred
text as a whole serves a
prophetic function
regarding not the future
but the present of
whoever is nourished by
this word. Jesus himself
clearly stated this at the
beginning of his
ministry: “Today this
Scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing”
(Lk 4:21). Those who
draw daily nourishment
from God’s word
become, like Jesus, a
contemporary of all
those whom they
encounter: they are not
tempted to fall into
sterile nostalgia for the
past, or to dream of
ethereal utopias yet to
come.
(Pope Francis, Aperuit
Illis, No. 12)
After reading the Sacred Scriptures
Give thanks, give yourself and imprint
Give thanks to our
Lord for the lights
and graces he
communicated to
you through his
Word.
Give yourself to Him
and beg Him to deeply
imprint in your spirit
and heart the truths
you have just read, and
to grant you the grace
to express them with
your life.
Try to memorize some
of the heavenly words,
which you have read.
Review and ruminate
them during the day
and to feed your soul
with that divine bread,
true nourishment of
the children of God.
O.C. III, 52-54
Department of Eudist Spirituality