Verbum Domini - An Outline

Holy Scripture is God's gift to us through the Church. One of the things I remember best from my early days as a Catholic was a Lenten banner made from burlap with the words on it "Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus".  How better to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus than through the reading of scripture, especially the Gospels.

This being Lent I thought one of the things that would be good to look at is the post-synodal  apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini.  As is true in most publications from the Vatican it starts with what could be considered an outline or table of contents.  

What will follow will be a series of posts which will lead us through this document.  To do this and make it easy to find this series in future is that they will all have the label "Verbum Domini".  To keep them in sequence I will probably put a letter after them such as "Verbum Domini A".

This document is addressed to all of us, the bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful.

The subject matter is the word of God in the life and mission of the Church.

In the early days of the foundation of the contemplative branches of the Missionaries of Charity they were to be known as the Brothers and Sisters of the Word.  They were to "Know the Word, Love the Word, Live the Word, and Give the Word."  Sometimes these were said in a different order but this is the way I best remember it.  May all of us, all Christians, become true bothers and sisters of the Word.

The outline can be found here.  I have tried to break the posts into "bite size" portions however each of the links will take you to a place within the document where the portion begins.

These are the things we will be looking at as we progress through this Lenten Season or at any time in the future when you come across this post.

First LMC Musing

In May I will have been professed in the Missionary of Charity charism for 25 years.  I began my formation in the MC charism with the Missionary of Charity Contemplatives in Washington, DC back in 1983 as a Carrier of God's Love.  My first vows were in May of 1987, probably on May 23rd.  A few years later we were asked to transfer to the Lay Missionaries of Charity.  This was sort of painful to some of us as we were just about to make final vows.  So most of us transferred.  Then we continued on and just before we were eligible to make final vows as LMCs it changed to annual renewals.  More pain ... but obedience.

Currently I am the only LMC (Lay Missionary of Charity) in the Yakima Diocese.  This means that to a large extent I have to take care of my own ongoing formation with guidance from the Statutes and Way of Life of the Lay Missionaries of Charity and other materials.

So one of the things I will be blogging about is ongoing formation.

I was also a Link for many of those years and was ready to answer questions when asked.  If I didn't know the answer I looked it up.  I created some Tools and when I figure how to upload them I will. 

Blessings, Val