Many thanks for Mike Aquilina’s gripping article on Marcion, enemy of the Old Testament (July 10 issue of Angelus).

As a Jewish convert to the Catholic faith, I couldn’t agree more that the Hebrew Scriptures are foundational and essential to the understanding of who Jesus Christ is. So many of the Church’s teachings have their roots in the Old Testament. We have to remind ourselves that the early Christians didn’t have a “New Testament” book. The New Covenant is, as Jesus said, the Eucharist. The Bible consisted of the Scriptures that Jesus read.

Thank God we are blessed with learned Scripture scholars, such as Brant Pitre, PH.D., who do such a fine job of explaining the Scriptures for us!

I’m often amazed that there are any non-Jewish Catholics at all, let alone a billion of them! I wonder how many people realize what a tremendous grace it is to be Catholic. Catholicism is the fulfillment of Temple worship, according to the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain. The Catholic Church is Jewish. The Old Testament proves it.

— Marilyn Boussaid, St. James Church, Redondo Beach