Pope Francis proclaimed the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time as Word of God Sunday. Of course, with this proclamation, the Catholic Church continues to highlight the centrality of the Word of God in the Catholic faith.When there were disputes in the early Church on interpreting the Gospels or the Letters, the role of the Catholic Church was to help us understand what the Christian Scriptures teach. It was not until the fourth century that Pope Damasus I confirmed at the Council of Rome (382) that there are 27 books in the New Testament and of course 46 books in the Old Testament.
 
If your OT does not have 46 books it means you are missing 7 books. Only Catholic Bibles have 46 books in the Old Testament. These Biblical books reveal the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, our salvation through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Receiving Baptism, and going to Confession, partaking in the Body and Blood of Christ, to give us light, understanding, strength, so we can live and die in holiness -- in  a state of Grace.
 
The Word of God is meant to lead us to eternal life.
 
And so we need to thank the Holy Spirit, active in the Church, teaching us true doctrine and, showing us what is false. To instruct us on holiness, and sin that is to be avoided.
 
The Catholic Church has preserved the Word of God from the time it had been transmitted and recorded by the early Christian communities almost 2000 years ago. When there were disputes and disagreement over understanding the Scriptures as happened throughout the history of the Church, the Holy Spirit was entrusted to the Church Jesus Christ left us, so we would be protected from teaching moral or doctrinal errors. 

February 14th is Valentine’s day. And on this day we see red hearts, cards are exchanged, chocolates offered, to people whom we love. Yes, love. This raises the question, of course, “What do you mean by, love?”

There are many senses to “love.” Not all are “true” love; this is where people fall into love that is not true love.

The Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, tells us friendship is a kind of love, and there are three kinds of friendship. Utilitarian, pleasure-based, and true friendship. Each of these presupposes that the other is something “good” for us, because what is good makes us happy. We “love” the good that makes us happy.

But the friendship distinction is important because it tells us what kinds of love exist, and if they are true love, or at least, the need to be purified from their imperfection.
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Utilitarian friendship is seeing the other as a good that is useful and therefore we “love” this person because in fact they are useful. We even hear the expression, “I feel used…” We then become like a took to others. This intuition or experience sends red signals that this is not the red heart we are expecting.