Verbum Domini is in PDF form over on vatican.va. In English, even. It’s on “the Word of God in the mission of the Church”.
208 pages. That’s not just an “exhortation” that you should keep reading the Bible and be good; it’s a mini-book. So if you’re wondering why the synod on scripture was in 2008, but the post-synod exhortation is just coming out — 208 pages is why. (This ought to hold even us Ratzinger fanfolk till part 2 of Jesus of Nazareth comes out.)
Need I say that vatican.va was moving like a pig for a while? ‘Cause all the theologians from various denominations all wanted to jump on the new mini-book, too…. I think vatican.va needs to start some kind of mirroring or legal peer-to-peer download torrents, when the big stuff comes out like this.
The document begins in joy:
….sharing in the life of God, a Trinity of love, is complete joy.* And it is the Church’s gift and inescapable duty to communicate that joy, born of an encounter with the person of Christ, the Word of God in our midst. …There is no greater priority than this: once more to enable the people of our time to encounter God, the God who speaks to us and shares His love so that we might have life in abundance.
*The whole first part of the document is a riff on the beginning of 1 John: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life. For the life was manifested; and we have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal which was with the Father and hath appeared to us. That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you, that you may rejoice, and your joy may be full.” Full, fulfilled, complete, perfect is the word in Greek.
Via Rich Leonardi.
