Tolle ... Lege!

In an attempt to increase the "post tempo" on this blog, I am going to embark on a little project this Lent. In his Confessions, Saint Augustine recounts the story of his conversion to Christianity. He was particularly torn between his licentious life as a teacher of rhetoric and the yearnings he felt to be closer to God. One day, as he struggled to choose, he heard a child’s voice instructing him to “take up and read!” (tolle, lege! in Latin). Believing it was a message from God, he grabbed a nearby copy of Scripture and randomly selected a passage. His eye fell upon Romans 13:13-14:

let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

Of course, as we know, the rest is history. As an aside, a professor of mine once commented on how different things might be if he randomly opened to the Song of Songs instead!

In an occasional series, I will attempt to apply this approach in a manner consistent with a quote often attributed to the theologian Karl Barth: “preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” I will use the Lectionary Readings for a given day, along with randomly selected newswire sources as my inspiration. Here's hoping that a regular "feature" will encourage me to click "Publish Post" a bit more often.

And, we’ll see where it goes….