VATICAN CITY (CNS) — God constantly tries to enter into dialogue with the people he created — speaking through creation and even through silence, but mainly in the church through the Bible and through his son Jesus Christ, Pope Benedict XVI said.

In his apostolic exhortation, “Verbum Domini” (“The Word of the Lord”), the pope encouraged Catholics to embrace and value each of the ways God tries to speak to humanity.

The document, a papal reflection on the conclusions of the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Word of God, was released at the Vatican Nov. 11 and emphasized the need to improve Catholics’ familiarity with the Bible and with the need to read and understand it in harmony with the church.

The Bible is not a dusty collection of ancient writings addressed only to ancient peoples, he said. But it’s also not some sort of private letter addressed to individuals who are free to interpret it any way they please, the pope said in the document, which is close to 200 pages long.

The pope said he wrote “Verbum Domini” because “I would like the work of the synod to have a real effect on the life of the church: on our personal relationship with the sacred Scriptures, on their interpretation in the liturgy and catechesis, and in scientific research so that the Bible may not be simply a word from the past, but a living and timely word.”