November 19, 2010
Permanent deacons attend retreat with ‘biblicist’
Joan Preske, wife of Deacon Richard Preske of Evansville, discusses a point with Franciscan Father William Burton, during the deacons’ retreat at Santa Claus Hotel in Santa Claus. (Photo courtesy Patti Grannan) Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Permanent Deacons in the Diocese of Evansville attended a retreat at Santa Claus in late October, with Franciscan Father William Burton, from the Antonianum Friary in Chicago as the retreat master.
Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger presided at Mass, Oct. 22, and administered the Rite of Admission to Candidacy to 14 as-pirants.
Deacon Mike Morris, among the 42 deacons in attendance, said that Father Burton “provided us a unique picture of Jesus” as “a Jew and a Hellenistic citizen.”
Deacon Morris said this background information “made New Testament Scripture more easily understood and the in-depth look at the Gospel of Luke a lot clearer.”
He went on to say, “The perspective of Jesus at Table clarified what Luke was explaining to us. Putting languages, cultures, and politics in their proper relationships to the message helped me to really understand. Understanding our Jewish roots and rituals further enhanced our understanding of Scriptural references.”
Deacon Morris said that, at Father Burton’s suggestion, he has begun reading the book, “The Old Testament — An Introduction,” by Lawrence Boadt.
It is “an excellent source of further enlightenment,” Deacon Morris said. “The newer deacons have studied this text but our training did not [include it] 25 years ago. It was a great experience and very educational.”
Morris was ordained Sept. 20, 1985.
“The texts of the Old and New Testaments are ancient and complex because God chose for their authors people from times, cultures and languages that are foreign to us,” said Father Burton, in a series of Frequently Asked Questions on his website.
“Seeing that, in sacred Scripture, God speaks through people in human fashion, it follows that the interpreters of sacred Scriptures, if they are to ascertain what God has wished to communicate to us, should carefully search out the meaning which the sacred writers really had in mind, that meaning which God had thought well to manifest through the medium of their words.”
Father Burton accepts the title, “Biblicist,” acknowledging a little wariness about claiming to be an expert on the bible, but acknowledging that he has dedicated himself to ongoing study of the bible.
More can be found about him at http://www.biblicist.net.