I am pleased with the success of Verbum in seminaries -- a good way to build a financial base. However, I am not pleased that more hasn't been done to give Verbum a Catholic flavor. The small things are still overwhelming evangelical in terminology and perspective. We have been told for several years, "yea, yes, we agree, it's coming" .... and what we have seen is zip, nada, nothing.
Here are some things, not for the seminarian, that would help give a Catholic flavor - just the top few to nudge you along and to remind you it's not always the big things:
- A distinctly Catholic Bible reading plan such as the two years of scripture readings for the Office of Readings from the Christian Prayer volume
- The Lenten reading plan for St. John Climacus
- Reading plans for the Catechism including one tied to the liturgical year
- A Catholic books of lists for the new Factbook: 7 deadly sins, gifts of the spirit, last words on the cross, sorrow of Mary, stations of the cross ....
- More workflows for scriptural prayer Methods of Praying with the Scriptures (catholic-resources.org) includes: Ignatian, Taize, Centering, Lectio Divina, Biblical meditation (rational)
- Workflows based on traditional Catholic (4 senses, typology) and Jewish methods as encouraged in Williamson, Peter. Catholic Principles for Interpreting Scripture: A Study of the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church. Vol. 22. Subsidia Biblica. Roma: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 2001. ... as many of the 16 or so methods included should have workflows
- Workflow based on multiple passages ... at a minimum the comparison of parallel passages as a first step
- Okay, this is a biggy but the alignment of the Vulgate to the Hebrew/LXX/Greek NT as appropriate [Think of Tov as example]
- A mapping of the Lexham Systematic Theology terminology to Catholic/Orthodox terminology so one doesn't struggle to find topics.
- Finally --- I shouldn't have the only word -- this is for others to supply.
Note a few of these e.g. the Catholic Book of Lists could likely be crowd sourced in this forum.