By Dr. Scott Hahn

There were many memorable moments from our first annual West Coast Biblical Studies Conference. I want to share just one with you: 

A non-Catholic in attendance came up after one of my talks and told me: "I can't believe how much deeper this is than the Bible studies we're doing in my church. You're taking the whole Bible into consideration when you're looking at any given text. What you call the 'biblical worldview'' is so much bigger than ours."

He was only echoing what many people were saying during the late-January 2004 conference, which the St. Paul Center hosted in Los Angeles along with St. Joseph Communications. 

The conference was a great success. You could feel the excitement as some of the people were discovering for the first time the Bible's "big picture" - the story the Bible tells of God fathering His family throughout history, finally making us His sons and daughters in His one holy Catholic Church. 

This "big picture" - what the Catechism and the Church fathers call "the divine economy" - is the guiding principle behind everything we do at the St. Paul Center, from our conferences and publications to our free on-line Bible studies, to the biblical reflections on the Sunday readings we offer in each Breaking the Bread edition. 

Every day we're more convinced that the Catholic renewal, the life-long education in the faith being called for by Pope John Paul II, must be built on reading the Bible from the heart of the Church. 

This renewal will be one of the strongest prayers I take with me to Rome later this month to meet with Vatican officials to introduce them to the work of the St. Paul Center.

Spring 2004