The Saint John's Bible at McDonalds

My friend Jason, who is an ambassador for the Saint John's Bible, has committed a great deal of his time sharing this masterpiece with people.  Last October, he traveled up to the high school where I teach and presented the Saint John's Bible Heritage Edition: Gospel and Acts to all my classes.  It was an amazing day, one which I will never forget.  One of the stories he shared with us is recounted below.  I am glad that Jason has allowed me to share this with you.  It is an excellent example of not only the power of the Word of God, but also the committment of one man to share it in any place and circumstance.  May I have the same love and patience to share the scriptures with others, in season and out.   

In July of 2013, I had scheduled a presentation about the Saint John's Bible at a major university in downtown Chicago. At the time my wife was just a couple months into her fight with cancer, and I couldn't schedule anything in my life a week in advance much less months out. Thankfully, Jim Triggs, the director of the SJB Heritage Edition program agreed to come to Chicago from Minneapolis to give the presentation for me. As luck would have it, on the day of the presentation my wife was feeling OK (or feeling irritated by my constant pampering of her, I'm still not sure which), so I was able to join the presentation after all. As always, Jim's presentation was smooth, experienced, and professional, and after that we split duties and each took a different Heritage Edition volume to different parts of the room to give our audience plenty of opportunity to explore the pages and ask questions. It was an exciting night, all the more so because it was held in a large cathedral and attended by many theology degree, graduate, and even doctoral students who all had great questions and insights.

The event ended. We all went our separate ways.

As was my custom after a presentation, on my way home I stopped at a McDonald's restaurant to have a burger and to read in my little blue pocket Bible that I take with me everywhere. That's when Michael saw me. He walked up to me while I was waiting to order and asked, "Are you a Christian?"  "Well, yes, I am." I was holding a Bible in McDonald's, not easy to dodge that question.

"Me, too," said Michael. There was something slightly ... different ... about him. "I'm homeless." Well, that explained a few things. "And I used to be a drug addict." And that explained a lot more. "But Jesus saved me a couple months ago. My name's Michael. Do you want to have dinner with me?" "Yeah, sure." Suddenly, all those Benedictine values I learned about as an undergrad at Saint John's University came flooding back, and there was just something really intriguing about Michael. So we took our food and found a table and sat down to eat. Michael had just spent his last $3 on a cheeseburger and a soda. I gave him my fries.

Over the next half hour, Michael told me about how he used to be a really bad drug addict and he wasn't proud of several "bad things" he had done. I could tell as I listened to him that his addiction had cost him a lot, mentally and physically, but still he exuded this peace and calm. He told me how Jesus saved him just a few months ago and he had been sober since then and found a bed at a shelter, but he missed the last bus home that night so he was back to being homeless until tomorrow. I gave him half my burger after he finished his, and got him a refill on his soda.

"Now I write poetry for Jesus. Would you like to hear some?" It was getting very late, but there was just something so ... different ... about Michael, something that made it so hard to consider saying No to him. He started searching his coat pockets, then his pants pockets, but gave up with a sad look on his face. "I think I lost my poetry book. Can I just say some to you?"

After seeing such unhappiness suddenly cross his face, there was no way I could decline. "Lay it on me, Michael. Bless me with your poetry."

Oh. My. God. Bless me he did. Michael proceeded to recite poetry from memory for almost an hour. Grand poetry. Beautiful poetry. His words expressed such pain and misery yet soared to the heavens with gratitude and a love for God so profound I lost track of time listening to him. He may have lost most of his intellect and everything else to his addiction, and here he was moving my soul with his joyful spiritual fervor. It was as if he was singing new psalms inspired by God.

When finally he stopped I could think of only one thing I could do in return. "Wait right here, Michael. I need to go to my car and get something. I want to share something with you now."

I walked back in a moment later with a volume of the Heritage Edition of the Saint John's Bible in hand. Now, for those of you who don't know what I mean about "Heritage Edition", allow me to explain in brief. The original hand-written hand-illuminated Saint John's Bible resides in Collegeville, MN, in the abbey and university's rare arts vault. In order to better share it, the university spent years creating fine-art replicas of the original pages, 299 sets in all. These Heritage Editions are the same size as the original - more than 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide when open. These are HUGE books, much larger than the coffee table versions you can buy at a book store. They are bound in Italian leather, printed on special cotton paper, and all of the artwork illuminated with gold and silver in the original is also illuminated with gold and silver foil in these replicas.

Yes, I had just set down a $25,000 book on a table at McDonald's and opened it to the beginning of Genesis, to share it with a homeless drug addict. And I began to give my presentation.

Every single time I have ever had the pleasure of sharing the Saint John's Bible with people, they have this reaction. This awe. This child-like wonder. And then come all the questions. Like the graduate theology students just hours before, Michael started asking me all kinds of questions about the meaning of each illumination we explored together.

No long passed before an elderly woman joined us at the table where I was giving my impromptu presentation. While Michael turned pages, I asked her about herself. She hesitated, "I'm... I'm a widow. And I don't like to leave home much. Sometimes I come here to watch TV at night when all the kids are gone and it's quiet. But tonight I heard the most wonderful poetry, and now I get to see this amazing Bible." So as I looked on and occasionally answered questions, Michael and this elderly widow turned pages of the Saint John's Bible together, and read scripture to each other.

Clearly, this was not a normal Sunday night at McDonald's, and the staff could tell something strange was going on in the booths. First one teen walked over and peeked shyly. Then another. Then all of them, about a half-dozen at least. They listened to Michael and the widow read from the Bible. Their manager came over a moment later, angry that all her staff had left their posts and were standing around a table. That is, until she saw what we were all looking at, an enormous hand-written Bible. Apparently not all of the teens could read or speak English, so as this strange blend of people touched pages, asked questions, pointed at illuminations, and read scripture aloud to each other, one girl would translate into Spanish.

So yeah, that's how the Saint John's Bible shut down a McDonald's restaurant one night and converted it into a church whose members included a homeless drug addict, a lonely widow, a bunch of immigrant children, a harried restaurant manager, and me. Our communion table had a McDonald's logo on it. We broke cheeseburgers together and drank diet soda. I know Jesus was present because I saw him in every person around that table.

Around midnight, I watched Michael walk down the road and into darkness, on a search for a place to sleep. He had asked me if I could give him enough money to buy breakfast, I gave him enough for lunch and dinner, too.

Today, my photo of my print edition of the Saint John's Bible was taken at that same McDonald's restaurant.

Dei Verbum at 50 (Paragraph 20)

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, I will be posting twice a month, on Mondays, a paragraph from this important document.  There are a total of 26 paragraphs, so this will take us through to the Fall when we reach the anniversary of its promulgation by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965.  I look forward to our discussion.  May I suggest a helpful book by Fr. Ronald D. Witherup called The Word of God at Vatican II: Exploring Dei Verbum published by Liturgical Press.

20. Besides the four Gospels, the canon of the New Testament also contains the epistles of St. Paul and other apostolic writings, composed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by which, according to the wise plan of God, those matters which concern Christ the Lord are confirmed, His true teaching is more and more fully stated, the saving power of the divine work of Christ is preached, the story is told of the beginnings of the Church and its marvelous growth, and its glorious fulfillment is foretold.

For the Lord Jesus was with His apostles as He had promised (see Matt. 28:20) and sent them the advocate Spirit who would lead them into the fullness of truth (see John 16:13).

Knox vs. The Message: Numbers 11:25-29

It has been a few months, but I have decided to resurrect the old "Knox vs. The Message" Sunday post.  If you like it, I may continue with it into the future.  Each week I will pick one of the Sunday readings to compare between the two translations.  While done in different ways, I think both Knox and Peterson desired to make the Bible more accessible to the average reader.  Let's see if they were successful.

Knox:
And when the Lord came down, hidden in the cloud, to converse with him, he took some of the spirit which rested upon Moses and gave it to the seventy elders instead; whereupon they received a gift of prophecy which never left them. This same spirit rested even upon two men, Eldad and Medad, who were still in the camp; their names were enrolled among the rest; but they had never gone out to the tabernacle. There in the camp they fell a-prophesying, and a messenger ran to bring Moses tidings of it. At this, Josue the son of Nun, that was Moses’ favourite servant, cried out, My lord Moses, bid them keep silence. What, said he, so jealous for my honour? For myself, I would have the whole people prophesy, with the spirit of the Lord resting on them too.

The Message:

God came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders. When the Spirit rested on them they prophesied. But they didn’t continue; it was a onetime event. Meanwhile two men, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp. They were listed as leaders but they didn’t leave camp to go to the Tent. Still, the Spirit also rested on them and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!” Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ right-hand man since his youth, said, “Moses, master! Stop them!” But Moses said, “Are you jealous for me? Would that all God’s people were prophets. Would that God would put his Spirit on all of them.”

Weekly Knox: Original Sin

"Original Sin is the only key which fits the whole puzzle of existence."
-Enthusiasm

Guest Post: A Resource for Praying Sacred Scripture

Thanks again to Chris for this wonderful guest post.

If you pray the Liturgy of the Hours, you may be interested in a new resource for use with the expanded two-year cycle of the Office of Readings.

Coming out of Vatican II, Sacrosanctum concilium took the first steps toward restoring the Divine Office to its historic place as “the public prayer of the Church,” “the very prayer which Christ Himself, together with His body, addresses to the Father.”

For he continues His priestly work through the agency of His Church, which is ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the whole world. She does this, not only by celebrating the eucharist, but also in other ways, especially by praying the divine office. (Emphasis mine)

Theologically, the Church teaches that all who participate in the prayers of the Divine Office anywhere around the world are exercising an essential aspect of their “common priesthood” they share as members of Christ’s body on Earth. It has become my primary means of reading Scripture.

The Divine Office makes this easy for laity who, unlike clergy and religious, are not obliged to pray the Office in its entirety. In addition to the Morning, Daytime, Evening, and Night offices that sanctify specific hours of the day, there is also an Office of Readings. Each day, it pairs one scriptural reading paired with a second patristic or other non-Biblical reading. The full official translation in the US is the four-volume Liturgy of the Hours published by Catholic Book Publishing, or excellent Divine Office apps like iBreviary (US texts) or Universalis (UK texts).

However, having prayed the Office for many years, I recently switched to the one-volume abridged Christian Prayer and discovered something that I’d missed all along. Without much explanation, the single-volume edition contains a table of an alternative two-year expanded scriptural lectionary for the Office of Readings. This allows the reader a much deeper dive into scripture each day which, when combined with the readings at Mass, are a thorough daily tour of almost the entirety of the Bible. If you’ve only prayed from the four-volume set or one of the apps, you will be as surprised as I was to learn we’ve been missing out!

Originally the two-year cycle alone was produced, it was only when the practicality of printing the whole of the Office and the lectionary together was faced that the idea of a single year lectionary was suggested. (From the Company of Voices blog)

Though the four-volume edition includes the texts for both readings every day of the year, the shorter one-volume “Christian Prayer” does not, including only a few selections and the full two-year lectionary references. That’s given me the freedom not only to spend time with the longer passages, but also to rotate through many different Catholic translations, and not just the old NAB lectionary printed in the full set. Ironically, as a praying Bible reader, I get to spend time with more Scripture each day using the abridged volume! (I also get musical settings to the hymns.)

But, as always, there’s a catch.

The table only lists the scripture readings for each day, not the paired readings from the Church Fathers. Try as I might, I couldn’t find an official list anywhere of the specific texts approved for the second readings in the longer two-year cycle. As it turns out, it was never formally approved and promulgated, only the texts for the one-year lectionary. So, over the years, various publishers and religious orders have produced their own proposed patristic lectionaries for the expanded two-year Office of Readings. And of course, most are out of print.

However, I stumbled across this newer resource I wanted to share: a two-year patristic lectionary for the Divine Office the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity prepared for Scotland’s Pluscarden Abbey. This collection contains not only the scripture readings specified for each day in the two-year cycle (from the RSV) but also a paired patristic reading specific to each Biblical passage.

As a commentary by the Fathers of the Church on almost the whole of Scripture this should be a great resource for homilies and catechetics, as well as a text for the liturgy.

The lectionary is in use in monasteries in Scotland, England, the USA, Ghana and South Africa. We hope that its inclusion as a free resource on the website of the Durham University Centre for Catholic Studies will enable it to be of use to the wider Church beyond the monasteries of the Benedictine Confederation. (Stephen Mark Holmes, New College - School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh)

Confirmed from the Episcopal Church, I often say that it was praying the Divine Office in the Book of Common Prayer that taught me how to be Catholic. So it continues to amaze me that the Church as a whole seems to downplay what is essentially the second half of our public liturgy (remember, the Apostles met for the breaking of bread and the prayers). According to Sacrosanctum concilium:

Pastors of souls should see to it that the chief hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts. And the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually.

Really? What happened?! If we were following our own mandate, after 50 years, I would have expected every parish in the world to be celebrating Morning and Evening Prayer, at least on Sundays and major feast days. Having recently moved to Seattle, I’m thrilled to find that both my parish and cathedral celebrate portions of the Liturgy of the Hours as principal services for the congregation. In the San Francisco Bay Area, to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, I’d have to visit the Episcopal Grace Cathedral.

Projects like this, even if not yet fully adopted by the universal Church, at least show that the wheels are turning. Perhaps the revised Liturgy of the Hours, underway since 2012, to go along with the revised Roman Missal will adopt some of this flavor.

Do you pray any part of the Divine Office? And if so, what scriptural resources do you use for the Office of Readings?

Download the entire Patristic Lectionary here. (.zip file)

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, and Bible.com.

OSV Pocket Gospels and Psalms (NRSV)

OSV will be publishing a paperback The Pocket Gospels and Psalms in the NRSV translation sometime in late October.  If you go to the Amazon listing, you can take a look inside.  It looks quite readable.  I may have to pick one up myself.  It is great to see more editions of the NRSV come out, particularly from different publishers.

Description:
Pope Francis encourages us to read the Gospels and even to carry a small version with us, so we can take moments during the day to grow closer to Christ. This new pocket-sized collection of all four Gospels is an easy way to answer that call, and as a special bonus it includes the Psalms to aid in daily prayer and meditation. The Pocket Gospels and Psalms, just 3.5" x 4" is just a little larger than a deck of cards, so it will fit easily into pocket or purse, and the flexible cover is especially durable. The New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition is easy to read and pray with. Makes a great gift or evangelization tool.

"Take it, carry it with you and read it every day. It's Jesus Himself who speaks to you in the Gospel. It's the Word of Jesus, this is the Word of Jesus." Pope Francis

Another Rebound Knox

I am always delighted to share with you pictures and stories of people who have had their Bibles rebound.  Today, I am happy to introduce you to Tom, who had a vintage 1950's Knox Bible rebound by Leonard's.  Enjoy!

I've long wanted to do a Leonard's rebind since seeing one via Tim's blog.   I narrowed the choice of translation down to the Knox due to the clarity and freshness of the language, and briefly considered the Baronius Press edition but don't like the page layout. Instead, I settled on an 1950s Knox hardback from Sheed and Ward found on eBay.   Leonard's did a great job smoothing and repairing a few flawed pages in Jeremiah.  I chose the pebble grain cowhide, a semi-glossy black - love the traditional look and the raised edges along the spine.  Great feel as well, and I think of how this creature of God's (cow) gives praise to Him by covering the Holy Word.