“Above all, I would like us to revive the art of catechesis and spiritual formation, and to develop a more familiar relationship with the Word of God.”
H.B. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
(Homily for New Year’s Mass 2022)
Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Ruth, Matthew, Corinthians… Many of these names, names of the books of the Bible, are familiar to most. Yet, while some Christians have a close relationship with the Word of God, others are only slightly familiar with it. "It's complicated", "it takes a long time to read", "it’s confusing", "I don't understand everything", "I don't have time"...
Some will also point out that reading the Bible without any explanation is not easy. From Exodus 11-29 to 1 Peter 3, passing through Judges 19-21 and the Song of Songs, many passages require a spiritual accompaniment that is sometimes difficult to find. In short, there are many reasons to let your Bible gather dust on a shelf. However, the Holy Scriptures are full of treasures that allow the faith of each one to grow and mature. How can we nourish our faith if not through the teaching that God has given us?
Thus, to help Christians in the Holy Land and elsewhere to (re)immerse themselves in their Bible, Fr. Issa Hijazin and David Neuhaus, of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, explain the Scriptures in a series of videos, divided according to the books of the Old and New Testaments, and now available in Arabic, English, French, Italian and Spanish. Without going into extensive theological explanations, they present in a simple and clear way the message of each book of the Bible, in order to familiarize people with the Scriptures, and to encourage them to dive into the Word of God in turn, in order to better apprehend the message that God offers us and the tools that help us to apprehend it and to apply it every day of our lives.
Click here to watch the first season of the series (about the Old Testament)
Click here to watch the second season of the series (about the New Testament)