Tip: Logos Bible Software for Catholics

A good priest friend of mine swears by  Logos Bible Software (in the right way, of course). AmP reader Phil:

"Logos Bible Software is the leading digital publisher of Christian resources. Recently we’ve been working on digitizing scores of Catholic titles. This blog post, “Logos Bible Software for Catholics,” explains everything in detail, and you can see all of our Catholic offerings in our new Catholic Product Guide."

Words of hope from today's Mass texts

Excerpts....

First reading:

" ... work out your salvation with fear and trembling ... Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life ..."

Responsorial psalm:

"The LORD is my light and my salvation;whom should I fear? The LORD is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?"

Gospel:

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple ... everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple."

"Sophia" at Metaphysical Musings provides us with a reflection.

Keeping up to date on the World Synod of Bishops...

... will be easier with the CNS Bible Blog launch:

As the world Synod of Bishops gets underway at the Vatican, Catholic News Service today introduces on these pages the CNS Bible Blog. Entries in this new blog will be easy to find: Just look for the little photo of the Bible at left or click on “CNS Bible Blog” in the categories section on the right side of this page.

Here’s a link to short biographies of our writers for this special series. You’ll see that they include priests, religious and laypeople with expertise in both the Old and New Testaments.

Check back here often for what we expect will be an intriguing look at the books of the Bible as participants in the Synod of Bishops meet in what Pope Benedict has said will be an important gathering in the life of the church.

Whispers is also doing overtime and John Allen has more.

Why you have to love World Net Daily

I mean, where else can you read stories like this?

"New experiments in genetic engineering could open the doors for the return of fearsome "giants" described in the Bible – the offspring of human women and fallen angels – warns author Thomas Horn in his best-selling book, "Nephilim Stargates: The Year 2012 and the Return of the Watchers."

In the Book of Genesis, beings of great stature called "giants" appear, which some biblical scholars believe came into existence after powerful angels known as 'Watchers' descended to earth and used women (or their biological matter) to construct bodies of flesh, which they used to "extend" themselves into the material world."

I for one welcome our new Nephilim overlords....

Recreating the bible in our own (green) image

Doesn't this little scheme speak volumes? It did to me:

"Now there is a Bible trying to make gardeners of us all. On Oct. 7, HarperCollins is releasing The Green Bible, a Scripture for the Prius age that calls attention to more than 1,000 verses related to nature by printing them in a pleasant shade of forest green, much as red-letter editions of the Bible encrimson the words of Jesus." (Time)

I don't think it was so much the idea of green highlights for nature-references, as the idea that previous generations would highlight the words of Jesus in red, that got to me.

How far we've truly developed as a people of God.

"World's oldest Bible goes online"

Very cool:

The oldest known surviving copy of the New Testament gets the modern touch Thursday when parts of it go online for the first time.

The British Library plans to begin publishing the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th century text handwritten in Greek, on its Web site. The Gospel of Mark and the Book of Psalms go online Thursday. The full manuscript is to be online in a year.

Translations of the Codex Sinaiticus have long been widely available, but publishing images of the manuscript online will let anyone see pages that, until now, have been viewed in detail mainly by academia.

As the Web site becomes operational, it will show photographs of each page of the text, with links to translations in English and German. There will also be a search function.

"It contains the earliest complete copy of the New Testament," said Scot McKendrick, the head of Western Manuscripts at the British Library. (CNN London)

The Gospel of Mark's grammar is on the simpler side, so it's more accessible to entry-level Greek scholars.

"Bee Tornado" or Modern Day Eleventh Plague?

True story [with my bracketed comments for illustrative purposes]:

A giant cloud of thousands of bees mysteriously appeared and began to swirl in a "tornado pattern" around [an Egyptian-run] Central Florida Mexican restaurant [and brick manufacturer].

[Hebrew] Customers at Oxie's restaurant located near Highway 17-92 and Plymouth Avenue in [in Lower Egypt] said they noticed a cloud in the sky and thought it was raining. They then realized, the cloud was a swarm of bees.

"A lot of people said it was bees and ran to their cars [and chariots]," restaurant owner [and Pharaoh] Oxie Ochiana said. "It was scary. I was panicking. I didn't know what to do. [When one of my customers claimed his God was a jealous God, I totally didn't believe him.]"

Witnesses said the bees began to swirl like a tornado and menace customers Thursday [saying, "Let my people go!"].

"I looked and it was like a tornado of bees just all around our parking lot, swarming," said restaurant worker Marie Olson [whose Hebrew name is Zipporah].

A crowd formed at a distance to watch the cloud of bees [and praise the Lord with Timbrel and Harp]."

"It was crazy," Olson said. "I was shocked. I was surprised to see it. I don't know where they came from, so it was amazing to actually see them like that. It was awesome. [Our God is faithful to his promises!]"

I swear, the non-bracketed parts are completely original.

Discovery: 2,500-yr-old Jewish seal which confirms claim in book of Nehemiah

Darn cool:

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

...

"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archeology and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."

Why so astonished? I rather expect this sort of thing.