A BIBLICAL COURSE - Province of Tucuman – Republic of the Argentine
P. Jose Veronesi OSB, Abbey of Christ the King, El Siambon
From 17th to 27th February 2009 a biblical course took place in our monastery of Christ the King on the Gospel of St John. It was conducted by Fr. Luis Herberto Rivas, professor of Sacred Scripture at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of the Argentine in Buenos Aires, who as a young man completed his studies at the Ecole biblique of Jerusalem and defended his doctorate before the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
Thanks to his vast knowledge and his breadth of teaching experience he enabled us to taste the unique wealth of the Johannine message. His rich and profound, and at the same time lively exposition gripped the attention and the interest of all the participants. The three daily sessions, each lasting at least one hour, gave us the opportunity to cover the whole Gospel of John with frequent reference also to his Letters. In parallel Fr Rivas gave in our church a conference on St Paul, which was open to the public.
The course, which had originally been conceived as being for our monastic community, was opened to our sister communities and also to lay people. The brothers and sisters of six monastic communities of Cono Sur were present as well as a number of lay people. The monks and sisters were lodged in our guest-quarters. This also gave an opportunity, beyond the limits of the course itself, for a fruitful fraternal exchange between our communities, with regard both to participation in the liturgy and to personal and group dialogues. This Biblical Course, which developed into a Monastic Encounter, amply exceeded our expectations and at every level was a great enrichment to our communities. For this we thank God and Fr Rivas, who was his instrument and his envoy.