Keep Your Bible Handy
It came.
You know what "it" is.
Only that motu thing has been more breathlessly awaited.
I started reading it - the Pope's Jesus book - and I can say already it's best to have a bible handy. I think I've referred to Scriptures thrice in twenty pages.
I got sidetracked by a few powerful lines he wrote about that tragic Old Testament figure Saul. I got out my bible dictionaries & commentaries and it's a fascinating if discombobulating exercise to read everyone's take.
The New American Bible Dictionary is very sympathetic. They say, basically, you knew it wasn't going to end well right from the very beginning since the monarchy wasn't God's idea. With an eye towards the history and not what we can learn from Saul's mistakes, the dictionary explains how he had a very difficult task of trying to unite the sacred traditions of the North or something like that.
The Haydock Douay-Rheims was all fire and brimstone. Merciless. The others are somewhere in between...
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