LOVE the Word®

The stunning vintage samplers crafted by my mother’s respectful fingers might take your breath away.

Hundreds of thousands of colorful hand-stitches and hours of painstaking concentration and deliberation go into these linens of love, such as this Quaker Sampler called “Vierlande 1826.” Doesn’t it make your soul sigh just to look at the joy that left her hand? Delicate finery is fearfully, wonderfully made.

The Old Testament tabernacle veil teaches that you, Dear One, are also uniquely “stitched” together with a similar unrepeatable purpose, careful respect, and wondrous appreciation. Do not doubt your wonderful nature, for you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

Thank you, David, and Hank and Theresa, my newest Friends of the Show, for loving and lifting me!

LOVE the Word™ is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin.

L – Listen (Receive the Word.)

O – Observe (Choose one or more of the following personality approaches to connect the passage to your life and recent events.)

F | Franciscan – As you go into the marketplace, practice really seeing and looking into the people you speak to.

I | Ignatian – Spend some time in Adoration this week. Using all your senses, try to “see” and sense Jesus in the monstrance. What happens?

A | Augustinian – Mother Teresa of Calcutta spoke repeatedly about Jesus in “distressing disguise.” While she spoke specifically of the poor, it is also true of other people. Who in your life is currently most distressing to you?

T | Thomistic – Maybe you’d like to ask your priest to offer a special blessing over you and your family.

V – Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)

Remembering that He loves you and that you are in His presence, talk to God about the particulars of your O – Observe step. You may want to write your reflections in your LOVE the Word journal. Or get a free journal page and guide in the right-hand margin.

E – Entrust (May it be done to me according to your word!)
Thank you Lord, that we “live and move and have our being” in You (Acts 17:28). Amen +
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*LOVE the Word™ exercises are offered according to FIAT: the four personalities, or “prayer forms,” explored in Prayer and Temperament, by Chester Michael and Marie Norrisey: Franciscan, Ignatian, Augustinian, and Thomistic: FIAT! These prayer forms correspond to the Myers-Briggs personality types.

Notes and References

Old Testament Veil

• Exodus 26:31-35, directions and description of the tabernacle curtain
• Genesis 3:24, Cherubim guard the way to the Tree of Life.
• Numbers 4:5, The tabernacle veil was used to wrap the ark of the covenant for protection when the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness.

New Testament Veil in Christ’s Flesh

• Psalm 22:6, “I am a [tola] worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people.”
• Matthew 27:46, Jesus quotes Psalm 22 on the cross as prophetic of Himself.
• Exodus 40:21, In Hebrew, the word used to describe the veil is sakak, translated twice in this verse as “screen(ed).” It is sometimes also translated in the Scriptures as “covered,” “woven” or “knit.”
• Psalm 139:6, “You ‘stitched’ me together in my mother’s womb.”
• John 2:19-22, Jesus’ own flesh veils the Presence of God.
• Luke 9:28-36, The transfiguration reveals the presence of God beneath Jesus’ veil of flesh.
• Matthew 27:46-51, In the agony of His Passion, just after Jesus quotes Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, the veil in Herod’s Temple was split from top to bottom.
• Hebrews 9, The Holy of Holies was a type of Heaven, and the veil signified that it was closed till Christ burst through it by His death.

Human Flesh as a Veil for the Presence of God

• Matthew 18:10, Jesus says my flesh is guarded by angels, as was the Holy of Holies.
• 1 Corinthians 6:19, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own.
• Psalm 139:14, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made, fearfully meaning “respectfully.”

Episode Resources

Fulfilled, Uncovering the Biblical Foundations of Catholicism, Chapter 11, Holy of Holies

Ignite, Chapters 6 & 7, The How of the Bible

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“It is understood that there were two veils; one veiling the Holy of Holies, the other, the outer part of the tabernacle or temple. In the Passion then of our Lord and Savior, it was the outer veil which was rent from the top to the bottom, that by the rending of the veil from the beginning to the end of the world, the mysteries might be published which had been hid with good reason until the Lord’s coming. ‘But when that which is perfect is come’ (1 Cor. 13:10), then the second veil also shall be taken away, that we may see the things that are hidden within, to wit, the true Ark of the Testament, and behold the Cherubim and the rest in their real nature” (Catena Aurea, Gospel of Matthew, Origen, Matt. 27:51).

Read the Transcript

You can download a complete, word-for-word transcript here, courtesy of Kristie Hynniman who does our transcriptions for you.