The event was organized for extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, lectors, parish musicians, and ushers on Saturday, March 15, at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers.

Father Matthew S. Ernest, S.T.D., academic dean and professor and director of liturgy at the seminary, led the participants through morning prayers. Attendees then moved from the seminary’s chapel to its prayer hall for the first of two reflections by Father Ignatius Schweitzer, O.P., on exploring the spirituality of praying with the Bible, by drawing from the writings of the saints.

“In the sacred books, the Father who is in Heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them. And the force and power in the Word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons and daughters, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life,” Father Schweitzer said, quoting from Dei Verbum.

“The same Divine Word, the Second Person of the Trinity who took on human nature, has also taken on human words in the Scriptures—Old Testament and New Testament. The same Divine Person who took on a human nature has taken on human words in the Scriptures,” he added.

After a break for lunch, participants returned to the prayer hall for Father Schweitzer’s second reflection.

In his afternoon reflection, Father Ignatius said that he was observing Lent by doing an “express” read through the Bible in 63 days, indicating that doing so during the 40 days of Lent was possible but would require too much focus for proper consideration. He started on Septuagesima Sunday, the ninth Sunday before Easter.

“Jesus on the road to Emmaus opens [the readers’] mind to understand the Scriptures. He opens up the prophets, Moses, the Torah, and the Psalms, and opens up how it’s all about Him. And as we look back at the Old Testament, it’s not simply, ‘Okay, these are the prophecies in which Jesus fulfills them.’ You know, types of the Old Testament that are taken out, fulfilled in Christ. It’s not just looking back, prophecy and fulfillment, type fulfilled, antitype, but it’s also looking at the Old Testament by Jesus in a new way,” Father Schweitzer said during the morning reflection.

He continued: “For instance, Psalm 22. ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus prays that hanging on the cross. Psalm 22, where there are so many details in Psalm 22 that Jesus fulfills. You know, they gamble for his cloak, his seamless garment. This little detail and it’s like, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ God made this prophetic promise in Psalm 22, we see it fulfilled in Jesus. Isaiah 53 of the suffering servant fulfilled in Jesus.”

“I hope the talks made people more enthusiastic about their own praying of the Scriptures and made it more meaningful for them. A greater love for the word of God and for God I would consider to be the main goal of mine on Saturday,” Father Schweitzer told The Good Newsroom by email.

“I wanted to help stir up people’s faith in the real contact we have with God through the Bible and so helped their love for God grow. For instance, I don’t think many people, when they read the Bible, think that as they drink in the words of the Bible, they drink in the Word Himself, the second person of the Trinity. That has been revolutionary for my own praying of the Bible and hopefully it helped others at least a little,” he wrote.

“All of our participants here are liturgical ministers, so extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, lectors, musicians, and ushers. We’re hoping that they all take this as an opportunity to grow in their Lenten devotion and especially to have a renewed encounter with the Word of God, as that’s really the theme of Father Ignatius’s talks today,” Father Ernst said on Saturday.

Father Ignatius was an obvious choice to offer the day’s reflections, Father Ernst said. “Father Ignatius is our brand-new director of spiritual Formation here at Saint Joseph’s Seminary, so I thought who better to ask than someone who is directing our seminarians and their spiritual formation?”