Paraboles, I (Les)

« Un but : rendre heureux ceux qui aiment l’Évangile, quelles que soient leurs convictions religieuses ; redonner le goût et l’espérance de la vie ; retrouver le sens caché du bonheur quotidien ; rejoindre les enfants et la part d’enfance cachée en chacun de nous ; aider à toutes formes de transmission : catéchisme, catéchèse et prédication. Il ne s’agit pas d’historiettes, mais de la complicité de Dieu avec sa création et d’une confiance plus forte que toutes les épreuves et les croix de l’existence : découvrir la lumière du « Credo » à quelque âge que ce soit, enfin « accrocher son wagon à une étoile »… Jésus a parlé en images, et même davantage en « paraboles ». C’est sa manière personnelle de s’exprimer. L’Évangile nous livre plus de cent quatre-vingt-dix paraboles. Grave ou joyeuse, la « parabole » embrasse toutes les dimensions de notre vie. J’ai voulu livrer ici le secret qui m’a rendu heureux. La « parabole » ? Nous y trouvons la musique de l’âme de Jésus, sa poésie, la lumière sublime et concrète qui mènent aux mystères de Dieu… et de notre vie. » (Bernard Bro)

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‘One aim: to gladden those who love the Gospel, regardless of their religious convictions; to restore hope and the taste for life; rediscover the hidden meaning in everyday contentment; rediscover the world of childhood and also the child that is hidden in each one of us; assist in all forms of transmission: catechism, catechesis and preaching. They are not just ‘little stories’; they are a complicity between God and his creation, symbolic of a trust much stronger than all the hardships and crosses we have to bear in this life: to discover the shining light of ‘the Credo’, regardless of your age, in short ‘to hitch your wagon to a star’… Jesus employed imagery when speaking, and ‘parables’ even more so. It was His way of expressing himself. The Gospel contains more than one hundred and ninety parables. Whether serious or joyful, the ‘parables’ address every aspect of our lives. In this book, I want to disclose the secret of my happiness. What do we find in those parables? The music of Jesus’ soul, his poetry, the sublime and concrete light which reveals the mysteries of God… and of our own lives.’ (Bernard Bro) For more than fifty years, the Dominican Father Bernard Bro has experienced the joy of spreading the Gospel on all five continents, renewing preaching through the art of the ‘parable’. He has been emulated countless times, to his amazement… and great delight. He was Professor in dogmatic theology for ten years at the Pontifical Faculties of Saulchoir, then was appointed Director of Editions du Cerf, where he has published, amongst others, the Ecumenical Bible, the paperback series ‘Foi vivante’, the great series devoted to Biblical theology and contemporary theology as well as commentaries on all the texts of the Council by Father Bernard and Cardinal Congar. He was also responsible for the Lent Conferences at Notre-Dame de Paris for four years and for the Masses broadcast on France Culture radio, where he preached for thirty-five years. For decades, he preached on television on ‘Jour du Seigneur’ and, with the creation of the Catholic television channel KTO, has devised more than four hundred editions of the ‘Parables’ programme. ‘How wonderful! There is no divide between the most humdrum things in our everyday lives and the most divine aspects of the mystery… thanks to the parable.’