Ancient Hopes Blog: Deep Dive into Scripture

Allow me to introduce myself.  I am Fr. John Worgul, a Catholic Priest who has devoted his entire life to the study of Scripture.  It all started in Sunday School with Mrs. Margaret LaHay in the late 1950s, when for me the dawning light of consciousness was just beginning to shine forth her rays.  My older sister Karen remembers me being riveted to Mrs. LaHay’s energetic, almost mystical, flannel graph narrations of the biblical stories.  At home, my mother’s worn and tattered Scofield Bible, made by Oxford University Press with Moroccan leather and India paper, was beheld by all with deep reverence.   While Jewish boys celebrate a Bar Mitzvah at 12 years of age, I, in my simple Baptist tradition, received one of these wonderfully made Bibles for my own which was my most sacred possession, and I still have it.  The very aroma of the paper and feel of the leather to the hand sends me into a sensual ecstasy.  They just do not make Bibles like that anymore.

To make a long story short, in time I found out that I was good for very little in this world, and the only thing I had a passion for was the Bible.  So, I studied Bible in College with the anxiety that, to do anything with it, I had to go on to Seminary where they would make me study Hebrew and Greek. I somehow lumbered my way through it all, and by an act of God, miraculously made it into graduate school and there was given the opportunity to study Hebrew Bible under a most accomplished and wonderful Jewish scholar, Stephen A. Geller.  He taught me how to see the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the ancient Hebrews, and to appreciate the beauty of its rich literariness and profound meanings.  From there I went on to teach Scripture many years in seminaries.  My Hebrew Bible, though not made of Moroccan leather and India paper, is worn somewhat like my mother’s Bible after 45 years of use and is my most valued possession.

I started as a Bible loving Baptist and now, at the tail end of it all, I am a Bible loving Catholic priest.  Whatever you are, I think that you will experience the entries of this blog as something completely unique, a different way of approaching holy Scripture.  I do not say this in a prideful way, for it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit over countless hours of meditation.  It is a combination of historical-grammatical analysis, literary analysis, biblical scholarship of all types, theologians, spiritual masters and mystics of the Church, united with my own existential probing into the meaning of my humble life.  It is all so very exciting that I can hardly contain my joy; I hope you too will enjoy our “Deep Dive” together.  So, with this, let’s begin where God began, with creation, and I will charge on until we make our way through the book of Revelation, if God gives me the strength and years to get there.