The letter was released yesterday to coincide with the 1600th anniversary of St. Jerome’s death.

Newsroom (October 1, 2020 13:13pm Gaudium Press) — Yesterday, the Pope has issued the Apostolic Letter ‘Scripturae Sacrae affectus’, on the Sacred Scriptures. The publication coincides with the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome, the composer of the vulgate.

“May the example of this great doctor and father of the church, who placed the Bible at the center of his life, awaken in us a renewed love for the Sacred Scripture and the desire to live in a personal dialogue with the word of God,” the Pope said at the end of the general audience.

The Letter is “a summons to love what Jerome loved, to rediscover his writings and to let ourselves be touched by his robust spirituality, which can be described in essence as a restless and impassioned desire for a greater knowledge of the God who chose to reveal himself,” the Pontiff said.

Christians today must follow the advice the Saint constantly gave to his contemporaries: “Read the divine Scriptures constantly; never let the sacred volume fall from your hand”.

The Letter delves into the life of St. Jerome, in his monumental work of translating the Old Testament from Hebrew, as well as his commentary on the Psalms and on the letters of St. Paul, which Francis recommends to Catholics today.

The Letter is an invitation to read Scripture; the Bible has been translated into more than 3,000 languages.

“To how many missionaries do we owe the invaluable publication of grammars, dictionaries and other linguistic tools that enable greater communication and become vehicles for the missionary aspiration of reaching everyone,” said Pope Francis.

“We need to support this work and invest in it, helping to overcome limits in communication and lost opportunities for encounter. Much remains to be done. It has been said that without translation there can be no understanding: we would understand neither ourselves nor others,” he said.

With information from CNS