excerpt from Zenit

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Reflecting on what the Church of today can learn from Jerome, the Pope said, "Above all I think it is this: to love the word of God in sacred Scripture. St. Jerome said, 'To ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ.'

"That is why it is important that every Christian live in contact and in personal dialogue with the word of God, given to us in sacred Scripture."

Benedict XVI said this dialogue should have a personal and a communal dimension: "It should be truly personal, because God speaks to each of us through sacred Scripture and has a message for each of us. We shouldn't read sacred Scripture as a word from the past, but rather as the word of God addressed even to us, and we must try to understand what the Lord is telling us."

He added: "We must also keep in mind that the word of God is given to us in order to build communion, to unite us in the truth along our way to God.

"Therefore, despite the fact that it is always a personal word, it is also a word that builds community, and that builds the Church itself. Therefore, we should read it in communion with the living Church."

The Pope pointed out that "the privileged place for reading and listening to the word of God is in the liturgy. By celebrating the word and rendering the Body of Christ present in the sacrament, we bring the word into our life and make it alive and present among us."