Monday, May 20, 2013

Ecclesiastes and Job can be Downers...

...if you just read through them on your own. The only way to go is the Office of Readings, which for the next three weeks (starting today) includes selections from these books followed by commentary on them from the saints and fathers of the Church.  Here, Augustine, Dorotheus, Gregory the Great ,  and others show us the way out of the depression of Ecclesiastes, and an answer to the problem of suffering the goes beyond what God told Job.  

The way and  the answer, of course, is Jesus. But you have to do these readings to really appreciate it.
Just one more example of the Word who is God fulfilling the questions, types, hopes and longings in the word of God.

Even if Office of Readings is not in your daily routine, you could always  do just the readings, minus psalmody, to have a fantastic Bible study/lectio divina/spiritual reading time.