5/24/2016 – Wednesday of the 8th week in Ordinary Time - Feast day of the Venerable Bede – 1 Peter 1:18-25

      Today’s reading from the first letter of Peter discusses the redemption that we have in our Lord, Jesus Christ and how the Word of God is an imperishable seed that has been planted in our hearts to bring us new birth in Christ.  Yes, it is indeed the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives that brings about conversion and renewal in us, but the Word of God that lives and abides in us is also an essential presence, presenting us the message of Christ’s Good New, the message of repentance and salvation. As we talk about the Word of God and the redemption we have in Christ today, we celebrate a very honored saint from the Middle Ages: the Venerable Bede.  Bede was born in England in the latter part of the 7^th century; he is the only native born person from Great Britain who has been named Doctor of the Church.  Although Bede spent his entire adult life in a monastery in England, he is ascribed the title Venerable and earned great respect and honor due to his reputation for knowledge and wisdom.  I remember reading his most acclaimed work, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, in my Western Civilization course in college.  For his well-known scholarship in the field of history, Bede is known as the Father of English History.  I really like this quote from Bede, which echoes how are new birth in Christ is to affect our lives, as we heard in the first reading:  “I was no longer the center of my life and therefore I could see God in everything.”  As Bede says, let us see God in all things.  Let us make him the center of our lives, the alpha and omega of our being.  The example of Bede’s life shows that no matter where we are planted, we can bloom or serve.  Bede only left the monastery once in his time as a monk, which was to teach in a Catholic school in York for a couple of months.  Yet, Bede’s influence and example of faith encouraged many believers in his own day and even now, more than 12 centuries after his death in 735.  It is recorded that Bede died while reciting these words of his favorite prayer: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As in the beginning, so now, and forever. Amen.”