Faith & Formation in our Parish
As we prepare to welcome the younger members of our Parish into full participation in the sacrament of the Eucharist (enrolments take place at Mass this weekend), we are reminded of our own baptism. Looking at the usage of this word in the New Testament (in Greek ‘batisma’ – transliterated), there is a sense of a continual submersion resulting in change. Reflecting on our own Baptism, we can fall into the trap of thinking of it as something that ‘happened’ to us in the past – that we have moved on from.
As Catholics, our faith challenges us to see our Baptism as a continual and powerful process of transformation. Some of our brethren in other Christian churches understand Baptism as a public and physical proclamation of belief, and thus some undergo the ritual of baptism several times. For us, as Catholics, our Baptism NEVER ENDS. It is an invitation into the life, person and likeness of Jesus; an invitation to be “transformed by a renewal of our mind”, body and spirit (Romans 12:2). In a sense, Jesus wants to submerge us in himself, so that every part of us takes on the flavour of His presence.
How are we responding to this glorious and transformative invitation? Individually, we are all at different places in a journey of realising and activating the power of our Baptism. Our challenge is to not fall into the trap that Jesus warns about in the Book of Revelation: “We are rich and full and have need of nothing” (Rev 3:17). We can never reach a place of knowing and understanding everything about a God who is eternal. So even God’s very nature invites us to pursue a deeper connection with Jesus and what we have received in the Sacrament of Baptism.
Throughout the year there are opportunities on offer to dive deeper; to learn more and grow in hunger for Jesus. Some of these opportunities include engaging in a Bible study group or doing a Bible reading program for yourself, joining a Catholic book club, attending a Know Your Faith session with Fr Francis, participating in the upcoming Alpha course (coming in October), or even setting aside some time every day to listen to God. Every time we say “Yes” to an opportunity to invest in our faith we respond to God’s invitation. Let us all pray together that the Holy Spirit will bring to our minds, both as individuals and corporately, what our next step into ‘more’ might look like.
Beth Davies
Mission Coordinator and Faith & Formation Leader
Extra Faith & Formation offering: The Numbering of the Psalms
The psalm for 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time is listed as “Psalm 22 R. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want”. This is one of the best-known of all the psalms but most people know it as the 23rd Psalm and it is listed under Psalm 23 in many bibles.
Those who look up words for psalms for hymn sheets, etc will have noticed that the numbering of the psalms in the Catholic Lectionary and in Catholic missals is not always the same as used by other Churches. Why are these numbers sometimes different?
The problem comes about because, since the promulgation of the Latin Bible (Vulgate) in the 6th century, the Roman Catholic Church has followed the numbering of the psalms used by the Greek translation of the Scriptures (the Septuagint) whereas the scriptures used by other Christian traditions follow the numbering in the Hebrew text.
Psalms 9 and 10 in the Hebrew text were combined into one psalm in the Greek Bible, so from Psalm 9 onwards, the Roman Catholic psalm numbers are one less than those in other versions. Because Psalm 147 of the Jewish psalms is split into two separate psalms in the Septuagint, the total number of psalms in both finishes up being the same – 150. However, only the first 8 and the last 3 psalms agree in numbering.
By Elizabeth Harrington