Today and through the weekend save on Catholic resources in Verbum’s annual Black Friday sale.
Highlights include:
How Do Human Beings Today Receive Divine Revelation?
November 19, 2020 By Leave a Comment
How do human beings today receive divine revelation? Matthew Levering explores this question in his monograph Engaging the Doctrine of Revelation, which is available for only $7.99 through the end of November.
Here Levering explains what Aquinas, Balthasar, and Wright say about the role of the Church in revelation:
Aquinas, Balthasar, and Wright help us to see why divine revelation and the Church are intrinsically bound together; the Church is no mere receptacle. As Aquinas makes clear, the revelation of God takes place through the visible and invisible missions of the Son and Spirit. Absent the vibrant theology of the trinitarian missions that we find in Aquinas (and in Scripture), the theocentric character of revelation would seem to exclude the active role of the Church, lest mere humans be situated in the place of God or lest revelation be imagined as the Church’s work over the centuries rather than as God’s work in Christ and the Spirit. The way to understand the active place of the Church in divine revelation is to reflect upon the missions of the Son and Spirit.
Matthew Levering – Engaging the Doctrine of Revelation: The Mediation of the Gospel through Church and Scripture
Balthasar identifies Christ’s kenotic love and obedience as the center of revelation, so that revelation is in a certain sense coextensive with Christ’s “person,” Christ’s supreme mission-consciousness. The Church is the community of human subjects who become persons by embracing their missions in Christ. As a community of persons in Christ, built up by the Eucharist, the Church mediates and participates in his salvific mission by the power of the Holy Spirit.
10 Reasons to Use the ESV Catholic Edition in Verbum
November 10, 2020 By 7 Comments
by Mark Giszczak, S.S.L., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sacred Scripture
1. Text Comparison Tool
The Verbum Text Comparison Tool lets you quickly and easily compare the ESV Catholic Edition against any other translation. Since it is a daughter translation of the RSV, you can see every decision that the ESV translators made. If you add the ESV-CE to your library of Catholic Bibles, it gives you yet another translation to look at when evaluating any given verse. The Text Comparison Tool is also a great way to view the original language and the ESV-CE side by side.
2. Hover-over pop-up
If you set the ESV Catholic Edition as your Preferred Bible, then every time you hover over a Scripture reference in any tagged book in Verbum, it will display the ESV-CE translation of the passage. This very convenient feature makes reading texts heavy with references much more pleasant.
3. Translation philosophy
Since the ESV-CE is a word-for-word, “essentially literal” translation, it is well-suited to detailed study. You can dive deep in any passage and trust that you are looking at a translation that is trying to deliver as much meaning as possible from the original languages into English. The ESV-CE helps you get closer to the original meaning.
4. Hover-over textual notes
The ESV-CE includes textual notes. When you hover over the superscript letter that indicates a note, it pops up immediately for quick and easy reference. This tool is extra helpful in complex texts with multiple textual traditions like the book of Sirach. Note, for example, how the ESV-CE includes the heading “Discipline of the Tongue” at Sir 23:6 since it is included in the Greek. You can see the same heading in the Greek critical editions and in the NETS but not in most other translations.
5. Deuterocanon
While the deuterocanon of the ESV was released in print in 2009, this is the first time an electronic edition is available in the Verbum ecosystem. These important books, which are part of the Catholic canon, are now available.
6. Liturgy
The ESV-CE was approved in 2018 by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India and is now in use in the liturgy in that nation. Using the Catholic Daily Readings Tool in Verbum, you can easily follow along and read the Lectionary readings for each day in the ESV-CE translation.
7. Ecumenism
While the ESV has been available for evangelical Protestants since 2001, this is the first time Catholics have an edition of this translation. Reading the ESV Bible together is a great way for Catholics and Protestants to celebrate what we have in common.
8. Interlinear features
Like the other Bible translations available in Verbum, the ESV-CE soon will be tagged with interlinear features so you can look behind the curtain and see exactly how each word is translated from the original languages. Using the Inline Reverse Interlinear view, you can see the sentences as they flow, but the Reverse Interlinear Pane at the bottom of the window helps you zero in on specific definitions.
9. Clicking and copying
Verbum makes it so easy to study any word you find by right-clicking on the word. Then you can select Bible Word Study to go deeper into definitions, word frequency, and other topics. Copying text from Verbum for your Bible studies, notes, and presentations is made so simple by the speedy Copy Bible Verses Tool, which gives you plenty of options and a streamlined interface.
10. Highlight and take notes
Any good old paper Bible used for serious study has a bunch of notes, markings, highlights, and so forth. Verbum provides plenty of ways to mark up your digital ESV-CE Bible with colors, highlights, emphasis markups, and inductive style notations. You can also add a note to any word, passage, or paragraph by selecting, right-clicking, and choosing “Take a note.” That way, you’ll always be able to find your notes when you come back to that passage.
The ESV Catholic Edition offers Verbum users another great Catholic translation, approved by Church authorities and ready for detailed study. The fact that the word-for-word translation adheres to the translation principles of Liturgiam authenticam means that readers of the ESV-CE can trust the text they are reading. This new translation option, combined with all the great features of Verbum, will allow users to do exactly what the program is meant for: focus on the Bible, study it deeply, and offer well-researched, nuanced interpretations to their various audiences, classes, congregations, and Bible study groups.
The ESV Catholic Edition is available in Verbum 9 Gold and above.
On the Anniversary of Anglicanorum Coetibus
November 4, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI established the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter 11 years ago with the promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus. To help fulfill the Pope Emeritus’ call for “formation in Anglican patrimony” of the faithful, we put together special Ordinariate collections.
Why did Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI promulgate Anglicanorum Coetibus? He responded to the petitions of Anglicans moved by the Holy Spirit to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and his response to those petitions sought to heal the wounds in the Body of Christ:
Every division among the baptized in Jesus Christ wounds that which the Church is and that for which the Church exists; in fact, “such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages that most holy cause, the preaching the Gospel to every creature.”
Anglicanorum Coetibus
On this anniversary Anglicanorum Coetibus we join our brothers and sisters of the Ordinariate in celebration and prayer.
Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us!
What Do the Church Fathers Say About the Beatitudes?
October 31, 2020 By Leave a Comment
The Gospel reading for All Saints is Matthew 5:1-12a, the Beatitudes. Here’s how a host of Church Fathers reflect on the first few verses:
By not choosing His seat in the city, and the market place, but on a mountain in a desert, He has taught us to do nothing with ostentation, and to depart from crowds, above all when we are to be employed in philosophy, or in speaking of serious things.
St. John Chysostom, quoted in St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea, as translated by St. John Henry Newman
When I have learned contentment in poverty, the next lesson is to govern my heart and temper. For what good is it to me to be without worldly things, unless I have besides a meek spirit? It suitably follows therefore, Blessed are the meek… Soften therefore your temper that you be not angry, at least that you be angry, and sin not. It is a noble thing to govern passion by reason; nor is it a less virtue to check anger, than to be entirely without anger, since one is esteemed the sign of a weak, the other of a strong, mind.
St. Ambrose, quoted in the same.
It is not enough that we desire righteousness, unless we also suffer hunger for it, by which expression we may understand that we are never righteous enough, but always hunger after works of righteousness.
St. Jerom, quoted in the same
Peace is the fixedness of order; by order, I mean an arrangement of things like and unlike giving to each its own place. And as there is no man who would not willingly have joy, so is there no man who would not have peace; since even those who go to war desire nothing more than by war to come to a glorious peace.
St. Augustine, quoted in the same
Read more in St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea, which is included in all Verbum 9 Standard and Ordinariate software levels.
Verbum 9 Arrives!
October 27, 2020 By 11 Comments
We’re excited to announce the release of Verbum 9!
- Plan homilies and study for the whole liturgical year with the brand new Homily Manager.
- Use Dark Mode for desktop and mobile.
- Study the Vulgate with Latin-Hebrew and Latin-Greek interlinears.
- Explore the wisdom of the Church with the newly designed Factbook, now powered by Catholic reference works like The Catholic Encyclopedia, Sacramentum Mundi, and The Catholic Bible Dictionary.
- Pray and learn from the heart of the Western Church with The Liturgy of the Hours.
- Discover how all the books of the Bible connect to one another with Bible Books Explorer.
See all the new features in Verbum 9 or take the quiz to find the perfect upgrade for you.
Three Readings on Today’s Gospel from Sts. Jerome, Hilary, and Thomas Aquinas
October 18, 2020 By
Readings on Sunday’s Gospel, Parable of the Marriage Feast
October 9, 2020 By
St. Jerome on the battering-ram of affection
October 6, 2020 By
The day will come later when you shall return in triumph to your true country, when, crowned as a man of might, you shall walk the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem. Then you shall share with Paul the franchise of that city, and ask the same privilege for your parents. Yes, and for me also you shall intercede, who urged you on to victory. I know full well the fetters which you will say impede you. My breast is not of iron nor my heart of stone. I was not born from a rock or suckled by Hyrcanian tigers. I too have passed through all this. Your widowed sister clings to you to-day with loving arms; the house-slaves, in whose company you grew to manhood, cry ‘To what master are you leaving us?’ Your old nurse and her husband, who have the next claim to your affection after your own father, exclaim, ‘Wait for a few months till we die and then give us burial.’ Perhaps your foster mother with sagging breasts and wrinkled face may remind you of your old lullaby and sing it once again. Your tutors even, if they wish, may say with Virgil:
St. Jerome, Letter to Heliodorus on the Ascetic Life, A.D. 374 (Open in Verbum)
‘On you the whole house resting leans.’
The love of Christ and the fear of hell easily break such bonds as these.
But, you will say, the Scripture bids us to obey our parents. Nay, whosoever loves his parents more than Christ loses his own soul. The enemy takes up his sword to slay me: shall I think of my mother’s tears? Shall I desert from my army because of my father, to whom in Christ’s cause I owe no rites of burial, although in Christ’s cause I owe them to all men? Peter with his craven counsel was an offence to Our Lord before His passion. Paul’s answer to his brother s, who would have stayed his journey to Jerusalem, was this: ‘What mean ye, to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ The battering-ram of affection which shakes faith must be beaten back by the wall of the Gospel: ‘My mother and my brethren are these, whosoever do the will of my father which is in heaven.’ If men believe in Christ, they should cheer me on as I go to fight in His name. If they do not believe, ‘let the dead bury their dead.’
St. Jerome’s Letters and other works are on sale through the end of the week.
Readings on Sunday’s Gospel, the Parable of the Tenants
October 2, 2020 By
The Gospel for this Sunday is Matthew 21:33–43, the parable of the tenants. Here are Catholic commentaries on the Gospel:
- St. Hilary of Poitiers’ Commentary on Matthew (open in Verbum)
- St. Jerome’s Commentary on Matthew (open in Verbum)
- Catena Aurea (open in Verbum)
- Navarre Bible: St. Matthew’s Gospel (open in Verbum)
- The Great Commentary of Cornelius à Lapide, vol. 2 (open in Verbum)
- Collegeville Bible Commentary (open in Verbum)
- Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: the Gospel of Matthew (open in Verbum)
- Sacra Pagina: Gospel of Matthew (open in Verbum)
