tornados? psshhhh

Who would have thought that Sacred Scripture would have so much to say to us? True, I have heard it said before that the great thing about Scripture is that the same passage can give you so many different meanings. But now that I am actually seeing this. I can’t seem to quit! Before my silent retreat retreat, I would occasionally pray with Scripture, but not often enough. Now, I find myself getting excited over it! I mean, you should have seen the excitement on my face when my retreat director said he was going to give me more scripture to pray with. You would have thought I was a 5 year old getting a new toy!

But how do you do it? Do you just read it? Suggestions:

1. Set an alarm for however long you want to pray with the passage. Don’t pray any longer. If something else is to come about, it will later on.
2. Read the passage two and three times over. Get to know it.
3. If a phrase sticks out, work with it right away. Repeat it a few times.
4. Put yourself in the passage. How would you react as a bystander?
5. Put yourself in each character’s shoes. What would you do?

I highly recommend praying with Scripture. After all, it is the word of God. Just remember, it’s not always completely literal. God’s not really going to slay sinners with a sword. At least, he hasn’t yet. Get a commentary to go along with you, such as the New Jerome Biblical Commentary. But the highest recommendation is to take the scripture on its own.

So what are you waiting for! Get that Bible out from balancing your desk, dust it off, and open it up!

“And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; …their nets were breaking…” (Luke 5:4, 6)

“Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)


Cast off into the deep, he said to Peter so that he would catch a load of fish so big that both of the boats there could not carry it all. But what is Jesus trying to tell us in this passage? Remembering the second one listed, the story of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well, maybe he is trying to tell us not to put too much stock into the things of this world. As a diocesan priest, one of the promises I will make (God willing I get to that point) is simplicity of life. The idea is to not be attached to any material possessions so that I can go where I am needed when I am needed. If we put too much stock in something of this world, eventually we will begin to protect it at any cost. It will become a part of who we are. And are we children of this world? NO! As Saint Paul tells us, we are children of the light, of God. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, as he came for all of us.

What God has to offer us is so great that it will become “a spring of water welling up” inside of us. But to get this spring of water, we have to “put out into the deep”. The shallow things of this world will only get us so far. But the deep and immense love of God will get us as far as we can imagine, and more!