As a result of working on the only complete Bible for children (St. Mary’s Press), I’ll be speaking on Scripture in Chicago this year. Some thoughts . . . What is the Bible? The Word of God in the words of human beings. In Genesis, God said, “Let it be,” and the entire universe came into being. In the Gospels, Jesus spoke and people are healed, storms cease, and a dead man walks out of a tomb. That same God speaks to us in Sacred Scripture. The Bible is powerful. As it says of itself, “The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than a two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). God said to Jeremiah, “My word is like fire, like a hammer shattering rocks (Jeremiah 23:29).” Sadly, for many Catholics, the Bible remains an unopened treasure.

The Constitution on Divine Revelation (21) says, “In the sacred books the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children and talks with them.” The Bible is an intimate, personal letter, a love letter from God. God even may speak directly to us when we open Scripture to a random page. Have you ever done this? If so, you’re in good company. St. Francis of Assisi called this practice the First Opening. (Today we call it the Lucky Dip—or Bible roulette!) Opening the Bible three times, St. Francis discovered the three rules his Franciscan communities were founded on.  Then there is St. Augustine. When he was the playboy of the West, God called him to convert through the Bible. He heard a voice say, “Take and read.” When Augustine opened the Bible, he read Romans 13:13-14, which says, “Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness . . . . ” This led him to become a Saint. When Thomas Merton was discerning whether or not he should be a Trappist (monks known for not speaking), he opened the Bible. There he saw the words, “Be silent” in Psalm 46:10.

Expecting God to speak to us through Scripture is not superstitious. Pray first and make it an act of faith. Louis Evely in That Man Is You  describes the attitudes we should have when approaching Scripture. He recalls the story of the woman who was healed by touching Jesus’ cloak:

Now everybody’d touched him, everybody’d hustled him, still nobody’d been cured or transformed. Only one had touched him with faith; a profound sense of well-being coursed through her; she was cured. As for us, we all read the Gospels now and then. But if we approach them like an ordinary book, they’ll produce no extraordinary effect on us.  We have to read them the way we’d have touched Christ; with the same reverence, the same faith, the same expectancy.

May many more people find themselves praying with the prophet Jeremiah, “When I found your words I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart.” (Jeremiah 15:16)

When have you had the experience of a Scripture verse speaking directly to your heart and making a difference in your life?