Yesterday was declared by Pope Francis as the “Sunday of the Word of God.“ Following up on that, the Dehon Study Center encourages SCJs in their communities and in ministries to place a special emphasis on the Word of God this week. To assist with this, Fr. Joseph Mukuna, SCJ, DSC director, shares the following quotes from Ven. Fr. Leo John Dehon regarding the importance of Scripture:
“The Holy Scripture, along with the divine Eucharist, is the food of our spiritual life. It is part of our super-substantial bread: ‘Man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God’ (Mt 4:4). The Priests of the Heart of Jesus, desirous of increasing their supernatural life, will eat Sacred Scripture daily. It will be their favorite study. With the help of prayer, it is in Sacred Scripture that they will best learn to know the Heart of Jesus, the object of their unique love” (Dehon, DSP, December 1919, 252).
“Like the Holy Eucharist, the Gospel is the mystery of the Heart of Jesus. He is there, beneath the letter, hidden with his love and his treasures of grace; his words are spirit and life. We must love and study all the Gospels, but there is one for which we must be passionate: that of Saint John. To succeed in preaching, therefore, the main thing is not to study Massillon, Bourdaloue, and Bossuet, let alone the completely secular authors Cicero and Quintilian. Above all, you have to study the Sacred Heart in the Gospel” (Dehon, The Crown of the Sacred Heart, III, 7).
“The apostle Saint John, in particular, is the apostle of love, the theologian of the Heart of Jesus. But the whole of the Holy Books speaks to us of the Savior. In the Old Testament, Jesus is announced, portrayed, and prepared. In the Gospel, it is Jesus living on earth, his words, and his mysteries. In the Epistles, Acts of the Apostles, and Revelation, Jesus continues in the Church and is triumphant in heaven. All our readings of Sacred Scripture and ascetic authors should help us get to know Jesus better and learn to love him better” (Dehon, DSP, December 1919, 253).
