Thanks to Michael for pointing this out to me. Go check it out!
Confraternity Bible: New Testament and Supplemental Commentary
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Monday, September 7, 2015
Guest Post: Catholic Bible Taxonomy
A taxonomy of Catholic Bibles in English
The variety of Bible translations in English is staggering, yet only a few may be used by the Catholic faithful for private prayer and study - namely those approved “by the Apostolic See or a local ordinary prior to 1983, or by the Apostolic See or an episcopal conference following 1983.” Ironically, our limited selection can make it harder to find the right Bible for the right occasion. If you’ve tried to find a list of approved full-Bible translations, you know what I mean. Unlike the Episcopal or United Methodist Churches, the Catholic Church finds it challenging to look beyond descriptions of its canonical process to deliver what the average inquirer is actually looking for: a simple list of which translations “are Catholic” and which are not. At best we get unofficial chronological lists that can actually muddy the origins, purpose, audience, or relationship of one translation to another. This can be a problem for all Catholics, but especially for inquirers and the newly confirmed who may already be well-versed in Scripture but want guidance when picking a translation to share, deepen, shift - or even defend - their Catholic faith.
That’s why I’ve started thinking in terms of species: rather than looking at approved Catholic Bibles in English as standalone texts, I’ve started organizing them “genealogically,” along lines of descent that contain discrete textual traditions in successive generations. Though hardly surprising, the results shift my own perspective a bit, revealing some interesting relationships and adjusting some of my preferences and priorities when choosing a translation. This post looks specifically at the approved, full Bible translations in English, not the many fine “partial” translations of Psalms, Gospels, and New Testaments that are available for Catholic use.
An Episcopal mandate
The first differentiator that emerged was the subset of translations that came about because of an Episcopal mandate. That is, while all the translations above received ecclesial approval in the form of an imprimatur, there is a distinct subset which came into being because a Bishop or Bishops’ conference produced them. I am surprised how often this factor goes unremarked in discussions of Catholic Biblical translation since it’s actually a rather important differentiator in light of apostolic tradition and the teaching role of bishops.
Though the venerable Douay-Rheims itself was the academic and pastoral product of exiled Churchmen at the English college at Douai, the revisions made by Bishop Challoner and approved later by Cardinal Gibbons constitute the first English-language full Bible translation produced by a Bishop for Church use. Produced from the Latin Vulgate, Challoner-Rheims was essentially the Bible in English produced by the Church for the Church for more than 200 years.
Despite the popular attention to Vatican II, today’s explosion of modern translations is really the result of Pope Pius XII’s Divino afflante spiritu in 1943, calling Catholic Biblical scholars for the first time to employ textual criticism of the original Biblical languages. Within thirty years, the playing field was full of new contestants: a Catholic edition of the RSV, the Jerusalem Bible, the New American Bible, and many more. Here’s where it gets interesting to look with a genealogical eye, rather than a chronological one.
Arranging the modern translations into family lineages, a slightly revised picture emerges especially when looking for that Episcopal mandate. In other words: if the Rheims-Challoner was the English Bible provided by the Church, which of the subsequent translations are the direct inheritor of its lineage? Yes, we have a variety of new translations, all received into and approved by the Church for Catholic use. Of those, however, only two were specifically sponsored by Church hierarchy as a revision or continuation of the Rheims-Challoner tradition.
In the U.K., that mandate belongs to the Knox Bible:
It had been the desire of a succession of bishops for almost a 100 years to create a new Bible translation to replace the Douay Rheims edition….In 1936 the bishops of England and Wales asked [Msgr. Ronald Knox] to translate the Latin Vulgate of the Holy Bible into modern English.
While the official Protestant efforts to revise the Authorized “King James” Version had begun the century before, resulting in the British “Revised” and American “Standard” versions at the turn of the century, it was the Knox project that represented the Church’s first official steps toward modernizing the language of its own Scripture tradition for liturgy. Though literary and acclaimed in its day, Knox’s translation remains a standalone experiment in greatness. Begun before the 1943 publication of Divino afflante spiritu, its reliance on the Vulgate caused it to fall out of favor among the following generation of scholars who placed a premium upon translations from the best sources of the original texts. As such, Knox is a bit of an evolutionary dead-end, a beautiful one-time experiment that stands on its own but does not continue the Challoner lineage through subsequent living revisions.
Not so across the pond. At precisely the same time, the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) in the U.S. sponsored its own effort to modernize the Challoner-Rheims text for use in worship and study:
The result was a nearly century-long American experiment, officially sponsored by the Church, to revise the Challoner-Rheims texts for use in liturgy and study. Like Knox, the project started with the Vulgate. Unlike Knox, after Divino afflante spiritu they started over from the original languages even though they had completed a large chunk of the Old Testament. The iterative series of “Confraternity” editions appeared from 1941 to 1969, mashing up the new texts with remnants of Challoner. The first completely refreshed new translation from American Catholic Biblical scholars appeared in 1970, twenty years after Knox, and was called the “New American Bible” (NAB).
Because of its switch away from the Vulgate and toward original languages, the NAB did not become a standalone closed text. The translators revised the New Testament in 1986, refreshed the Psalms in 1991, and a completely overhauled the Old Testament (and its Psalms!) in 2010. The current corpus is now the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), and the project continues today with an NAB NT revision project now under way. The final iteration of Bishop O’Hara’s 1936 initiative is likely to bear fruit in 2025 with a single text finally “suitable for individual study and devotion, catechesis, and proclamation within the Sacred Liturgy.” Hopefully, at that point, the committee will be open to rebranding the final product, in much the same way they did when replacing Challoner with “Confraternity” and later “New American” Bibles. A more universal name might clarify the status of this text as the Church’s own officially sponsored continuation of the original Challoner-Rheims and encourage its use throughout English-speaking liturgy (I propose the “Bible for Catholics in English” or BCE).
Academic cousins
But we already have that, you say. Both the Jerusalem Bible and the Revised Standard Version (RSV-CE) before it have had their day in the liturgy. True, but looking at the texts as a taxonomy, they represent slightly different species in parallel evolution. Both are respected and scholarly English translations, ranging from literal to literary. Yet neither came from the same kind of “Episcopal mandate” as either Knox or the NAB textual families. Both essentially began as the independent work of scholars and were “received into” the Church upon completion and approval.
The Jerusalem Bible began as a collaboration between English translators and a French translation team affiliated with the Dominicans of the École Biblique in Jerusalem. The RSV Catholic Edition was “confirmed” from even farther afield, as the Catholic Biblical Association of Great Britain reached out to the American Protestant translation team behind the RSV, asking permission to make authorized changes to their existing text that would render it suitable to Church authorities for Catholic readers. I am not saying these translations are any “less Catholic” than Knox or the NAB lineage, just that the Church didn’t directly “produce” them in quite the same way. They are examples of what His Holiness Pope Pius XII meant when he wrote:
It is the honorable, though not always easy, task of students of the Bible to procure by every means that as soon as possible may be duly published by Catholics editions of the Sacred Books and of ancient versions, brought out in accordance with these standards, which, that is to say, unite the greatest reverence for the sacred text with an exact observance of all the rules of criticism. (Divino afflante spiritu 19, emphasis mine)
Especially the RSV Catholic Edition which, in 1966, predated either the Jerusalem Bible or the NAB: a rigorously translated Protestant Bible confirmed Catholic so the Church would have a suitable translation from original languages “as soon as possible” after the Pope’s 1943 encyclical.
In a sense, the RSV-CE and Jerusalem Bible are a pair of academic cousins: the fruit of two branches of British scholarship, one turning West and the other East to fill a gap in the Church’s own Biblical resources of the day. Rather like the original Douay-Rheims in 1582, in fact, both stem first from the work of academic bodies, and are only “brought into the fold” by bishops later. More significantly, both also spawned textual families of their own. Where Knox represents an evolutionary branch that “died out” after one generation because of its reliance on the Vulgate, both the RSV and the Jerusalem Bible continued to “be fruitful and multiply,” each creating its own genus through descent with modification (to borrow a phrase from Darwin). The translation team behind the RSV later produced the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) in a Catholic edition in 1989, receiving an imprimatur though famously denied a place in North American liturgy outside of Canada. After the École Biblique revised the French Bible de Jérusalem, the Jerusalem Bible similarly passed on its mantle to the 1985 New Jerusalem Bible, and didn’t stop there. Now with a third edition in French, it has begun a new working edition in English currently known as “The Bible in its Traditions.” [PDF] (It is interesting, however, that despite its prominence in the English Catholic Biblical tradition, the French Bible de Jérusalem remains an academic project, and does not carry the episcopal mandate for use in the liturgy. Like Knox, and later the NABRE in English, that honor belongs to the French bishops’ own official translation, LA BIBLE: Traduction officielle liturgique, now the official text of French-speaking Catholics around the world. Approved for use in liturgy as well as personal study and devotion, this new French Bible gives us a sense of what the NAB translators are aiming for in English.)
Another interesting parallel, though a subject of a post all its own, is that both translations also spawned publishers’ proprietary house revisions. Ignatius Press issued its own “second” Catholic edition of the RSV when it aligned its lectionary revisions to the specific requirements of Liturgiam authenticam. Similarly, when the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments” (CDWDS) published its “Letter to the Bishops’ Conferences on ‘the name of God,” the Catholic Truth Society issues its own “New Catholic Bible” stripping the 1966 Jerusalem Bible of the word “Yahweh,” and replacing the Psalms with the Grail version used liturgically in England and Wales. That makes this volume unique, as one of the only printed Bibles directly mirroring a working lectionary used in current worship. However, it remains to be seen whether such publisher-led initiatives can maintain ecclesial approval for the changes they make to the text of Scripture and be deemed official “Catholic Bibles” in the fullest sense.
Pastoral stepchildren
Perhaps most intriguing are various scriptural subspecies, each a single member of its own genus. Some like the Catholic Living Bible and the Good News Translation came into the Church from the Protestant and evangelical spheres. Others like the Catholic Community Bible (and perhaps some day a full Bible in the New Catholic Version) were produced within the Church itself. The common denominator among them all is that they were all adopted by the Church for pastoral or missionary purposes, to introduce editions tailored to audiences at different levels of ability reading in English.
The Catholic Living Bible, also published as “The Way,” represents an interesting offshoot. Published first in 1972 by Kenneth Taylor, it is often dismissed today as one of those early 1970s experiments in street language paraphrases. In other words, not a proper translation, but a Bible for the “Jesus Freaks.” However, most don’t realize that it was the American Standard Version Taylor was paraphrasing, the immediate precursor to the RSV. That makes the Catholic Living Bible an interesting critter: not only a child adopted from the Evangelical Protestant arena, but like the more literal RSV-CE, a direct descendant of the Authorized “King James” Version. Together, the Catholic Living Bible and the RSV-CE family carry the King James tradition across the divide to Catholic readership at different levels of reading ability and formal equivalence. Unfortunately, after the 1988 publication, Tyndale House Publishers began a revision process that ultimately replaced the original Living Bible with its New Living Translation, which has not yet secured an imprimatur. Though a bit dated, and hard to find in print now, the original Catholic Living Bible is still readily available used online. It makes a decent - and officially sanctioned - alternative for those who like the sound and reading level of “The Message” but realize that its so-called “Catholic / Ecumenical” edition lacks proper episcopal approval for Catholic use.
The Good News Translation Catholic Edition is another good alternative, somewhere between the Catholic Living Bible and the RSV-CE. As a United Methodist growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, the original “Good News Bible” (technically “Today’s English Version”) was my Bible all the way until college. When my own son had his first communion, this was the Catholic Bible I bought for him. Written at about a fourth grade reading level, this Bible is best known for its brilliant and cross-cultural line drawings by Annie Valloton, and is sadly overlooked as a first Bible. This is because the original Good News Bible of the 1970s, like the Living Bible, was a freer thought-for-thought paraphrase edition and didn’t receive an imprimatur. Since then, however, a second edition of the Today’s English Version was published in 1992, based more directly on the original Hebrew and Greek texts and rebranded the “Good News Translation” to reflect its improved textual basis. Today, it is significantly improved over the original, while still retaining both the look, feel, and voice of the original. Published by the American Bible Society, the Catholic Edition makes a good “Bible to grow on.” A full Bible, not a “children’s Bible,” it can be read to - and by - young readers but held onto into adulthood. I recommend it as a solid Catholic alternative to more colloquial “all ages” translations like the Contemporary English Version (CEV).
The Christian Community Bible is perhaps the most interesting to me, because it is the hardest to track down. Like the Jerusalem Bible family, it stems from a successful non-English precursor, in this case the Spanish la Biblia Latinoamericana of 1971. The product of Rev. Bernardo Hurault’s translation work in 1960s Chile, the missionary father translated Hebrew and Greek texts himself and combined them with his own homiletics as commentary materials. The Christian Community Bible is the 1986 English translation produced by a Claretian missionary in the Philippines who saw the need for an English version, like Huaralt’s, that could be read and understood by “ordinary poor people.” Approved by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, this translation has been in print constantly for nearly 30 years, yet seemingly impossible to find in U.S. bookstores! It is published by the Pastoral Biblical Foundation and Claretian Publications in the Philippines, which issued a new revised edition in 2013, and is available in a number of different formats. It is also the basis of numerous co-branded vernacular editions in non-English languages, that share the same trade dress, illustrations, and commentaries. It has a somewhat unfair reputation of being the “Liberation Theology” Bible, yet when I came across a copy during my own LT phase in the 1990s, I was surprised to find it so dogmatic and pastoral. Similar to what we’ve seen of the New Catholic Version New Testament (also approved by the Bishops of the Philippines), it is a full translation written in English that is non-technical but also non-conversational. It isn’t folksy like The Catholic Living Bible or The Message. It’s more formally equivalent than the Good News Translation, but easier to read than the NABRE or NRSV. In short, it’s a pretty solid Catholic reading Bible, tailored to the language abilities of most English speakers. In that sense, I hold it up as an approved Catholic alternative to the Common English Bible (CEB), a translation focus-tested to make sense to the widest range of English-speakers.
So where do you fall? Rather than looking just at your “favorite translation,” describe where you and your Bible reading fall on this taxonomy of approved Catholic translations?
Christopher Buckley holds an M.A. in Religion from the Claremont School of Theology. He began as a United Methodist and passed through the Episcopal Church before being confirmed into the Catholic Church as an adult. He lives and works in Seattle with his wife and two children, and blogs occasionally at StoryWiseGuy.com. Connect with him on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Flickr, and LinkedIn.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Sunday's Message: 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)
I would like to also propose a question or offer an encouragement each week to reflect upon, particularly in light of the rendering found here in The Message: Can you think of a time in your life when Jesus helped to open your eyes to any injustice or suffering around you?
Isaiah 35:4-7
Energize the limp hands,
strengthen the rubbery knees.
Tell fearful souls,
“Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here,
on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
He’s on his way! He’ll save you!”
Blind eyes will be opened,
deaf ears unstopped,
Lame men and women will leap like deer,
the voiceless break into song.
Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,
streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
thirsty ground a splashing fountain.
Psalm 146
God always does what he says—
he defends the wronged,
he feeds the hungry.
God frees prisoners—
he gives sight to the blind,
he lifts up the fallen.
God loves good people, protects strangers,
takes the side of orphans and widows,
but makes short work of the wicked.
God’s in charge—always.
James 2:1-5
Zion’s God is God for good!
Hallelujah!
My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?
Listen, dear friends. Isn’t it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world’s down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God.
Mark 7:31-37
Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man’s ears and some spit on the man’s tongue. Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, “Ephphatha!—Open up!” And it happened. The man’s hearing was clear and his speech plain—just like that.
Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, beside themselves with excitement. “He’s done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless.”
Friday, September 4, 2015
Weekly Knox: Divine Revelation
Thursday, September 3, 2015
ICSB: 1 and 2 Samuel
I wonder what this means in regards to the completed Bible? The last I heard, the date being thrown around was late 2015 or 2016.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
7 Questions: Michael Stark of the Truth & Life Bible
Michael Stark is the Executive Producer of the Truth & Life Bible. The Truth and Life app. is a free download that has taken the award winning Truth & Life Dramatized New Testament audio and synchronized it at verse level to the RSV-CE Bible text. This amazing audio brings the word of God to life in this 22-hour audio production, complete with movie-quality sound effects and an original music score. This award-winning audio New Testament is endorsed with an Imprimatur from the Vatican and including a foreword by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Voiced by internationally-renowned actors including: Neal McDonough, Stacy Keach, Kristen Bell, Sean Astin, Michael York, Blair Underwood, Malcolm McDowell, Brian Cox, Julia Ormond, John Rhys-Davies and many more.
1) I
wanted to start off with a question about your personal involvement with Sacred
Scripture. How has Scripture played an important role in your prayer life?
Has it always been that way?
Over the last 5 years I have grown in the sacred scripture
immensely. I have always loved the Lord and been faithful to the Catholic
Church. Growing up, it just seemed to be something that was there, but I wasn't
really dialed into it. I glossed over CCD and the Mass as a kid. I took it more
seriously after getting married and having my daughter. Now I go to daily Mass
and pray the Rosary 4 times a day.
2) Why do you think
the daily reading of Scripture is such an important part in the life of a
Catholic?
I post the daily Gospel on my Facebook page everyday. People
can't wait for me to post it. Some people in Europe have asked me to post it
before I go to bed the night before, because when I wake up in Chicago, their
day is half over. It's VERY important to have daily contact with GOD! We need
to know what he is saying to us. If we are out of touch, we are lost, in every
way! To me it seems as if Protestants are much more focused on the Bible than
us Catholics. That is a shame, because Catholics wrote the book.
3) Could you talk
about the Truth and Life Bible? How did it come about?
The Truth & Life Audio Bible came about when my best
friend and business partner Carl Amari went over to Rome to visit his friend
Jim Caviezel during the filming of The Passion. They discussed the idea of
creating an audio Bible. Carl has been in the audio production business since
he fell in love with the old radio shows from the 30's and 40's in high school.
He actually bought the rights to the old shows and re-mastered them for radio
shows and CDs for a new audience today. Nobody would fund a Catholic Audio
Bible, so he asked me. I thought we Catholics could use some "New
Evangelization", so I said yes. I am adopted out of a Catholic orphanage,
so I thought I should give back. I am so glad we made T&L because it is
truly changing lives and bringing people to the Bible in a whole new way.
Remember, scripture was originally spoken. It took several hundred years before
printing was invented.
4) What are some of
the features of the Truth & Life Bible and App?
Key Features in the app:
. Complete text of RSV-CE synchronized with audio for the
New Testament.
. FREE audio of St. Mark's Gospel (The remaining 20 hours is
available for just $19.99)
. An amazing search tool, which gives you a concordance for
any word or phrase you select.
. Direct, instant access to any Bible verse, so you can hear
and see the text instantly.
. Footnotes for the underlined words and people in the
context.
. A built-in playlist to listen to the whole New Testament
in just for 40 days or in Chronological order.
. Create your own playlist of verses.
. Remembers where you left off.
. Sleep timer
. Airplay support
. Support for headphone pause and play buttons
. Room to fit an entire 22 hours of audio on your
iPhone/iPad
.The Daily Mass Readings
Click for an audio sample: https://www.facebook.com/100004116644832/videos/483600431787174/?l=1143025227640027552
5) For someone who
might be content with their standard printed Bible, how would you encourage
them to try out something like the Truth & Life Bible?
It was said by My good friend Archbishop Listecki
(Milwaukee) "The Truth & Life Audio Bible puts you among Jesus and the
apostles. It is as if you were following them around with a boom microphone.
The music and sound effects take you right into the scene." Many have
told me they feel like they know Jesus because they are used to hearing his
voice, instead of reading. Everyone who listens has a completely different
picture in their minds. But everyone is definitely in a very good place. With
the app. you can do both. The text is highlighted as the audio progresses.
Romans 10:17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the
preaching of Christ. Saint John Paul II said "The question
confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street
can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as
to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message." I think T&L
follows his suggestion quite well.
6) How can one get
started with the Truth & Life Bible App? What do you need and what
are the costs?
You can download the content for FREE, including the audio
and Ignatius Study Bible contents in Mark's Gospel. The additional 20 hours of
audio and Ignatius Study Bible content is $19.99 each, or combined for
$29.99 on up to 5 devices. The main goal is to share the Bible with everyone.
In the future we hope to make a Spanish version. Please share this. The sooner
we recover our costs, the sooner we can start making the Spanish version.
7) Could you share
with my audience your favorite verse or passage from Scripture?
Luke 4:24 And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet
is acceptable in his own country." I have met so much apathy &
ignorance when it comes to sharing the Truth & Life Bible with Catholics. I
thought it would be loved by everyone. You can listen instead of reading. A
FREE app., still many could care less. I believe the trend is changing, hopefully
sooner than later.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Review: The Choice of the Family by Bishop Jean Laffitte
To give you a little background about what you will find in this book, Image has provided a helpful description:
"In this series of interviews and reflections, the Head of the Pontifical Council on the Family at the Vatican focuses on the intricacies of family. Bishop Laffitte provides theological and practical insight to deepen our relationships with our parents, children, brothers and sisters, and, ultimately, God. The Choice of the Family stresses the importance of the family in the twenty-first century. and issues a call to action for everyone to reinvigorate the teachings of Jesus in his or her day-to-day life."
So, as you can see, this book is not a continuous, developed theological treatise on the family. I think this is for the good, since it makes it more accessible to more people. There are six chapters to this book, the first focusing on Bishop Laffitte's own experiences growing up in a large family in France in the 50's and 60's. I appreciated reading about his life growing up in a large Catholic family, including how the "crisis that affected the Church during the 60's" moved him away from the Church for a time (20). When asked whether or not he viewed those years as having any spiritual continuity, Bishop Laffitte remarks, quite charmingly, that it was a life "lived as a succession of broken lines (20)." I think many of us have felt that same way about our adolescent and early young adult years. I felt that I was pretty well prepared for life after high school, yet when I look back on it now, with all the mistakes and "broken lines" regarding my faith and the relationships I had with others, I thank the Lord for directing me and providing me the grace to actually follow His lead. However, it took a number of years for me to get to that point.
The following chapters deal with a whole host of issues centered on the family, most notably love, fidelity, the modern crisis of the family, as well as authority and freedom. Yet, it was chapter two that struck me the most in The Choice of the Family. Chapter two is entitled: "Engagement: Giving One's Faith". It is focused on marriage preparation which can often be quite difficult and filled with lots of difficult decisions and pressures that may be laid upon the engaged couple. Bishop Laffitte reminds us that "the moment the bride and groom marry and receive the sacrament of marriage, this sacrament, far from being limited to the moment of celebration, is given for the whole of their common life (37)." It is a true covenant, that unites the couple both horizontally (to the community of believers) but also vertically (with God). Ultimately, this covenant is truly a gift, and not simply some sort of "loan" that can be given back or simply tried on for size.
This valuable insight then leads to a long and important discussion on the issue of cohabitation. Cohabitation is, of course, taken for granted by many in today's society. It seems both reasonable and practical to most people. When I taught "Marriage and Parenting" to high school students, the vast majority of them felt that cohabitation was a responsible thing to do. What Bishop Laffitte points out is that cohabitation prohibits the engaged couples from experience "a certain solitude" that is necessary for the spiritual development of the engaged (42). I know that for a fact most of my students cannot handle more than 5-10 minutes of silence at any given time. It is as if there is an unacknowledged fear to confront the many issues of life, both positive and negative, that help to bring about maturity and selflessness. For those who are surrounded by noise for majority of their day, silence can be scary. Yet, it is in the silence of our hearts that God speaks to us most often.
Bishop Laffitte then points out a connection made by JPII concerning the original solitude of Adam: "He recognized within man's heart the desire to come out of solitude. Yet man may only come out of solitude on the condition that it has first been confronted and not avoided. Therefore, there are a great number of young people who start living together with having the least project for the future. It is a kind of arrangement, an act without reflection.......When young people live together in this way, they are not able to build themselves in truth. Why? Because the fact of their being together does not correspond to a gift (42)." In this situation, it becomes very hard to see the other as a gift. Often this means that if the relationship meets some bumps in the road, which happens to almost all marriages, there becomes no need to endure the difficulties of this relationship. Many will be convinced that ending the marriage is the most just and best action that the two can make.
This then leads right back to the importance of solitude or an experience of the desert. While many would recognize this as being important for those going into religious life or the priesthood, those who are to be married can lay a firm foundation by allowing themselves this experience of God within the solitude of their hearts. Bishop Laffitte says that "a time in the desert is necessary-one of reflection, of introspection, of getting right with God, of walking with Him, of growing stronger in purpose (51)." When the engaged person can rest in God's silence, the offer that God gives of His love "passes through the meditation of the beloved person, of the future bride or groom (51)." It can be a powerfully transformative experience. So, this time of engagement should not be seen as simply a "countdown to the big day" or one that is focused only on the perfect cake, dress, or reception. Rather, it should be seen as a "privileged time" that gives the engaged an opportunity to grow in love of God and each other (57).
After reading The Choice of the Family, I look forward to reading more from Bishop Laffitte. I hope more of his works are translated into English. Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus Carl A. Anderson concludes his introduction to this book by stating that Bishop Laffitte "provides an appreciation for the Catholic vision of the family that is at once a practical and a sublime guide for every Catholic family seeking to become who they are (6)." I agree completely with this and urge you to consider purchasing The Choice of the Family this month as we celebrate the World Meeting of Families.
Thank you to Image Catholic for providing me a review copy.
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