Jeremiah, reading by Damasus Winzen

Major Prophets (part 3) Book of Jeremiah

Prophet Jeremiah, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Book of Jeremiah is one of the books of the “major prophets,” which are so called not because they are more important than those that we know as the “minor prophets,” but because of their length. There are 5 books of major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel) compared to twelve of minor prophets. Jeremiah is 52 chapters in length.

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Jeremiah

Vigil Reading begins with Jeremiah in October
The monk Damasus Winzen is one of our monastic writers on Scripture.

Word in Season TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Monday Jeremiah 1: 1-19 Second Reading From Pathways in Scripture by Damasus Winzen (1901-1971) If we ask what the book of Jeremiah means to us today, we hear very often the answer that Jeremiah initiates a new period in Old Testament piety which frees the individual from the bonds of community life, that he is the first to record faithfully his innermost religious feelings, and that he is one of the great fighters who fought the battle for liberty of the spirit against tyranny of dead ceremonials. Looked at in this light Jeremiah would automatically become one of the "great liberals," and that would mean one of us. In reality he was wholly God's. God took possession of him before he was born. During his life the word of God was his one and overwhelming passion. Abraham received the promise; Jacob, the blessing; Moses, the staff. David was anointed. Isaiah had his lips cleansed with burning coal. Ezekiel had to eat the scroll. As for Jeremiah, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched his mouth saying: I am with you, I put my words into your mouth. This day I give you authority over the nations and kingdoms, to root out and pull down, to wreck and to ruin, to build and to plant. It was the Emmanuel (God with us), the God of the Word made flesh, who took possession of Jeremiah. In no other prophet was the union between the prophet's heart and the word of God as intimate and as deep as in Jeremiah. The word was his strength and his cross. It made him, a youth of twenty years and by nature a timid man, a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall against the whole land. The word of the Lord, he exclaimed, is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I weary myself to hold it in, but cannot. As for me, he cried out, your word is my joy and my delight, for I bear your name, Lord, Lord of hosts!  He never mixed the word of God with purely human dreams and desires, as the false prophets did. The word of God in his mouth was like a hammer that smashes the rock into pieces. The words of the letter to the Hebrews must be applied to Jeremiah's preaching: For the message of God is a living and active force, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing through soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and keen in judging the thoughts and purposes of the mind.   Responsory Ps 119:161-162; see Jn 6:63 Though princes persecute me without cause, I stand in awe of your word. + I delight in your word like one who finds a treasure. V. Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life. + I delight ...