"The Psalmist sings: The heavens proclaim the glory of God." No doubt, then, the whole universe also proclaims God's glory, and Paul develops that idea in this passage from his Letter to the Romans: "God's eternal power and divinity have become visible, recognised through the things he has made." (Rom 1:20).

The Letter to the Hebrews affirms that God has spoken to us in many and varied ways. These ways include: creation, our human conscience, the history of Israel, the prophets of the Old Testament and then Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh.

Taught by the history of Israel recorded and celebrated in the Old Testament, we learn to read all other histories as vehicles of God's revelation - both the revelation of his power and divinity and the meaning and value of our lives on earth. The prophet Amos represents God in reminding the Jews that they were not the only Chosen People.

All of us are chosen in different ways, chosen to exist, chosen as followers of Jesus, chosen for special ministries and works in preparing the coming of God's Kingdom. Our own personal histories are, then, part of God's self-revelation and self-donation.