September 30th - Feast of St Jerome

Given this radio programme/blogs affection for lectio divina, it seems remiss of us not to mark the feast day of St Jerome who is known as a cantankerous Doctor of the Church. Jerome is generally seen as one of the more ascetical saints, who is supposed to have said that a beautiful woman was one whose knees should be as calloused as a camels from praying but main whose "claim to fame" is for translating the bible into Latin and producing the version known as the Vulgate which was the version used by the church for centuries.

 

 

Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ
From the prologue of the commentary on Isaiah by Saint Jerome, priest
(Nn. 1. 2: CCL 73, 1-3)
I interpret as I should, following the command of Christ: Search the Scriptures, and Seek and you shall find. Christ will not say to me what he said to the Jews: You erred, not knowing the Scriptures and not knowing the power of God. For if, as Paul says, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and if the man who does not know Scripture does not know the power and wisdom of Gods, then ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.

Therefore, I will imitate the head of a household who brings out of his storehouse things both new and old, and says to his spouse in the Song of Songs: I have kept for you things new and old, my beloved. In this way permit me to explain Isaiah, showing that he was not only a prophet, but an evangelist and an apostle as well. For he says about himself and the other evangelists: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news, of those who announce peace. And God speaks to him as if he were an apostle: Whom shall I send, who will go to my people? And he answers: Here I am; send me.

You can read more about this cantankerous saint HERE, HERE and HERE.