Congrats to Fr Devin Roza

Thanks everybody! I have been working on this book for about 2 years now, and it has been quite the enriching experience! I hope that you find using it as helpful as I did putting it together.

The idea for the book actually came about when I was reflecting on the fact that Bible commentaries today tend to be so different than Bible commentaries of the Church Fathers from the first centuries. They were so steeped in typology and symbolism, and many recent commentaries don't quite know what to make of that!

The problem that many recent commentaries confront is that "typology" deals with the realm of Divine Providence, a realm that we cannot actually know directly. That is, a person, and event, a symbol, etc., prefigures something that is going to come to its fullness in Jesus Christ. This is part of God's divine plan.

The typology of the Church Fathers can sometimes be exaggerated, and so the modern reader faces the problem, which types or symbols are valid and which are not?

There are many ways to confront this problem, but the way I take up in this book is to ask the question, "What does the Church, in the Bible, the Catechism, and her liturgy, consider to be a type or a symbol of the sacraments?" This study attempts to answer that question as exhaustively and succinctly as possible.

By "liturgy" I mean principally the following:

1. The Roman Missal and the Lectionary

2. The Liturgy of the Hours

3. The rites of the sacraments

The Liturgy of the Hours in particular is incredibly rich, with hundreds of readings from the Church Fathers, a very large percentage of whom are from the first 4 or 5 centuries of the Church.

So, without further ado, I will now post some example pages. Hopefully I won't make any marketing experts unhappy. You guys here certainly deserve a little extra a little early.

Not all the authors in the Liturgy of the Hours are included. Only those who make reference to symbols or types of the sacraments. Here are a little over a third of the included authors:

Here is the topic on the Passover Meal / Paschal Lamb as a prefiguration of the Eucharist. This topic is very long, 9 or 10 pages, here are just a couple of those pages.

Note that sometimes the OT and NT Background, as well as the Catechism background are quite extensive.

A few pages later...

George Somsel said:

Thank you very much for that information.  I need to ask one further question.  Does any of your book deal with the book of Revelation?  My personal view after much study is that the Eucharist ("first love", "eat with you") and baptism/confirmation (white garments) are important to the understanding of the book.

Yes, there are quite a few references to Revelation.

Speaking of which, the topic of "White Garment / Wedding Garment" was for me one of the most beautiful topics to prepare. There are 4 pages of references, but here is just one and a half of those pages, with a reference or two to Revelation so you can get an idea.

A little further down...

This looks as if I would use it a great deal. Thank you.

MJ Smith said:

This looks as if I would use it a great deal. Thank you.

Every once in a while as I have been working on this book and would come across a post or two of yours on the forum I have thought, "I'll bet MJ's going to love this." Hope so anyway!

Rosie Perera said:

Congrats, Devin. I ordered it too as soon as I saw it show up in pre-pub, and knew I recognized your name from the forums. Looks like it's picking up orders quite quickly. It's already "Almost there!" Looking forward to it.

Yes, it looks like it's picking up orders quite quickly, and has now hit "Under Development" after just a week or so. It has also been fun and a nice surprise watching the "Likes" go up - now close to 150! Thanks to everyone!