In the Prologue of the Gospel of John we read:

 

“In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God…

and the Word became flesh” (Jn 1:1, 14)

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After quoting this, in his Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, Pope Benedict XVI teaches us:

 

The novelty of biblical revelation consists in the fact that God becomes known through the dialogue which he desires to have with us. The Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum had expressed this by acknowledging that the unseen God “from the fullness of his love, addresses men and women as his friends, and lives among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company”....God makes himself known to us as a mystery of infinite love in which the Father eternally utters his Word in the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the Word, who from the beginning is with God and is God, reveals God himself in the dialogue of love between the divine persons, and invites us to share in that love.

 

In this program, hosted by a bishop or priest, we enter into that loving dialogue with The God Who Speaks, first by hearing God's Word proclaimed in the Scriptures and then by reflecting on the authentic interpretation of that Word given by the successor of St Peter, the Pope.