king Solomon – Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe

And the drama begins again… (Palm Sunday)

I shall say today what I wanted to last week, when we had a letter from the cardinal archbishop. After several weeks of talking about the Catholic Mass, I have wanted to introduce another significant element of the devout lives of Catholics: the devotion to Our Lady. If we peer into the chronicles of theContinue reading “And the drama begins again… (Palm Sunday)”

Reading through the Song of Songs

This is a difficult one. The Song of Songs is probably the hardest to understand in its place in the canon of Sacred Scripture – even more so than Ecclesiastes. It seems to be a series of love letters thrown back and forth between various couples, with no obvious point. Could it be taken as wordsContinue reading “Reading through the Song of Songs”

Reading through the book of Ecclesiastes (aka. Qoheleth)

Here’s the slightly controversial Old Testament book called Ecclesiastes, or Qoheleth. The word ecclesia in Greek means ‘assembly’ and, like the other book called Ecclesiasticus, was designed to be read to an assembly. As indeed was most of Scripture. The Hebrew word Q’hal has a similar meaning, but some scholars treat ‘Qoheleth’ as a proper name. My own BibleContinue reading “Reading through the book of Ecclesiastes (aka. Qoheleth)”

Reading through the second book of the Chronicles of the kings (aka. II Paralipomena)

Here is the second book of Paralipomena, which is the Greek name used in old Catholic Bibles for the books of Chronicles. In this follow-up to 1 Chronicles, the author continues with the story of the Israelite kings, after the death of David. The books of Chronicles are very Jerusalem-centred, so are more the work ofContinue reading “Reading through the second book of the Chronicles of the kings (aka. II Paralipomena)”

Reading through the third book of the Kings (also called I Kings)

The third book of Kings (which in many modern Bibles is called the first book of Kings, since the first and second books of Kings are often called the first and second books of Samuel) is a rather sad book, because the unity of the tribes that King David had to struggle long and hardContinue reading “Reading through the third book of the Kings (also called I Kings)”