How to Read the Bible – A Three Step Plan (written for Catholics - valid for all)

taylormarshall.com ^ | September 30, 2013 | Dr. Taylor Marshall

[NYer]

How do you read the Bible? Today is the feast day of Saint Jerome, who once quipped, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome

It’s a running joke that if you want to find a Bible verse, you ought to ask a Protestant and not a Catholic. Protestants read the Bible. Catholics not so much.

This raises the question:

Why Don’t More Catholics Read the Bible?

I think the answer lies in the fact that we Catholics go to Mass. The Holy Mass has at least two Bible readings every time. If you pray the Breviary or Liturgy of Hours, multiply that several times.

Joe Catholic says to himself, “Why should I study the Bible? I go to Mass. I hear it there. Check and check.”

There is something beautiful in this. For Catholics, Bible reading is liturgical. Hence, Bible reading remains chiefly a community experience.

Three Step Plan to Kick It Up a Notch

It’s good to listen to the readings from the Bible at Holy Mass. However, we also need a personal (even private) encounter with God in the pages of Sacred Scripture. All of the saints breathed Sacred Scripture. Scripture served as the grammar for their souls. They couldn’t communicate without it.

Here are some basic spiritual needs that you have every single day of your life:

1. Praise – Voicing your delight in God and His provision for your life. Gratitude destroys discouragement.
2. Wisdom – You need practical advice to navigate the complexities of life.
3. Challenge – You need to be lifted higher. You need to grow in your faith. You need to be inspired. You must be an intentional Christian.

So when you wake up tomorrow, do the following:

1. Read a Psalm. Start with Psalm 1. Make it your anthem of praise for that day.
2. Read at least one Proverb. Proverbs are the wisdom morsels of your day. There are 31 chapters. Why not read one chapter every day during the month. Oct 1 is Provers 1. October 31 is Proverbs 31. You get the idea.
3. Read a chapter of the one of the Gospels. This is your challenge. Your Savior challenges you in the four Gospels. He calls you to be not merely a nominal Catholic but a disciple. You cannot seriously read the Gospels and stay lukewarm. Christ speaks in a way that cannot be ignored.

“But I’m so busy. I don’t have the time!”

What? You’re too busy. Sorry, you just got served a yellow card:

That’s a yellow card. You’ve been warned…

Doing these three readings will take you only 3-5 minutes. That’s the time of a commercial break. It will change your life for good. I promise. It takes 21 days to make a habit, so give it 21 days and see if you aren’t hooked. Put the Bible on your night stand and read it in the mornings. Start fresh.

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“Luther was a heretic who tried to change the Holy Bible to fit his viewpoint.”

False. This is your opinion.

“His followers who deny the True Church

Your Luther Derangement Syndrome is extreme in this post! I don’t follow Luther. Most protestants do not follow Luther. Are you stuck hundreds of years in the past??

“[true] the Catholic Church, i.e.,

Your opinion again. Prove it.

“the Church that gave us the Holy Bible,”

God gave us the Bible. You have failed again.

“Luther never wanted for the church to break apart. He wanted reforms, which were accomplished.”

Some were. The rest were not.

“His followers, who he would not recognize if he lived today,”

He has no followers today.

“would just as soon God’s Pilgrim Church on earth, disappear from the earth.”

I personally would prefer the Roman church would follow Scripture and jettison pagan practices.

“To deny the Catholic Church is to deny Jesus Christ.”

Yea. Opinion again.

Nothing new. Maybe you could repeat some more of the same stuff...

[Elsie]

Most of the things that prompt a rely from me do not require very much thinking.

Not only that; but so much of this stuff has been gone over in the past, my library of canned responses are quite sufficient.

To those that have been on the receiving end of them many times say, "BORING!!"; but to the lurkers they are new.

[Elsie]

“What we have here is a failure to communicate”.

The RCC's problem is a failure to EXcommunicate.

[Elsie]

There you go again; claiming something with NO proof.

Don’t you EVER feel ashamed about this?

[Elsie]

The Catholic Church start started when Christ commissioned Peter to build His Church.

ANOTHER example of a poorly catechized catholic!

---

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

[Elsie]

Keep it up and YOU'LL get excommunicated from the 30,001^st PROTESTant denomination for SURE!

[Elsie]

... and launched the reexamination of the Scriptures by God’s people.

FIXED

[Elsie]

Luther was a heretic ...

Then WHY didn't your CHOSEN RELIGION kill him when they had the chance?

[Elsie]

...are you going to retract the statement ...

THE???

How about ANY where he's been PROVEN wrong???

[Elsie]

The point is that if I say something about *all* protestants, which is not likely, then what I have said applies equally to each protestant, individually and personally.

Oh?

That's easy enough to check out...

[Elsie]

However, as I am not bigoted against protestants, I would never say that about all protestants, and the rules forbid me from saying anything like that about an individual poster, no matter how many lies he might tell.

For doing so would expose 'hatred in the heart'.

[Elsie]

So, which is it?

The arrogance of only two from which to choose underwhelms me.

[Elsie]

That is a plain-vanilla Christian teaching, common to all denominations.

Oh; you mean THIS!!!

Ecclesiastes 12:7

and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

I was observing that SHE had the POWER to do that.

She returned her soul to God two millennia ago,

[Elsie]

That’s right!

[Elsie]

...said the guy who is one grand better that the ANTI-Christ...

[aMorePerfectUnion]

placemarker

[Elsie]

Can we get a panel member who doesn’t know what “is” means?

[Elsie]

[Just mythoughts]

“He who is separated from the body of the Catholic Church, however laudable his conduct may otherwise seem, will never enjoy eternal life, and the anger of God remains on him by reason of the crime of which he is guilty in living separated from Christ.” ~ St. Augustine & the Council of Cirta (412 AD).

Augie was on a power trip. Why he sounds just like the affliction that has overcome our modern age government.

[daniel1212]

“I could give you links to the threads for all those examples”

No, you can’t.

Yes i can, referring those broadly said of Protestants, as that is how i obtained them. If it will stop your protesting i will. Meanwhile, as i see very few post by you on the RF i do not think your opinion of no bigotry against Protestants has much weight.

“(as well as false charges against me)”

Unless you are Protestantism personified, false charges against you would not be indicative of bigotry—if such charges were in fact laid.

That was an aside, thus in parenthesis.

if such charges were in fact laid.

Now you infer i am lying, while promoting fairness. So if i substantiate these will you apologize?

“but i doubt if anything would suffice”

Doesn’t matter. You don’t have anything.

Now you have really stuck you neck out. So if i provide them you will apologize or plead they are not like the bigotry you accuse Prots of engaging in? Maybe RC bigotry is acceptable.

There has been no documentation of anti-protestant bigotry whatsoever. However, that “word of a Catholic” remark actually *is* indicative of bigotry—bigotry that holds Catholics, *all* Catholics, to be dishonest.

Oh i see, so "typical Protestant" or "typical of Protestants here" is unwarranted, and is bigotry, and something RCs do not engage in?

“And in any case, what you protest is not against forum rules”

Oh, don’t even try that gambit.

And why not? This is the beginning of an appeal to reason, that (rather than crying) charges of bigotry should not be the issue, as what matters is whether a charge is warranted, rather than engage in bigotry.

Firstly, I am not protesting anything. It is the protestants who are whining about imaginary anti-protestant bigotry.

You are indeed protesting, that "The height of anti-Catholic bigotry on FR boggles the mind," and thus it is you who made this the issue.

Then why all the whining about this nonexistent anti-protestant bigotry?

Because of your original charge, and denial of ANY like-bigotry as anti-protestant.

This time, however, it is the protestants who are whining, not the Catholics. Tell *them* to get more thick-skinned and stop crying about imaginary anti-protestant bigotry.

I am certainly not crying, but that was your cry, nor am i denying some anti-Catholic bigotry exists, but as we are to expose deception so i responded to your assertion that there is no like anti-protestant bigotry.

So, if there were any anti-protestant bigotry here, the expression thereof would not violate forum rules. Interesting, but irrelevant, as there is no anti-protestant bigotry here.

Such an absolute assertion borders on insolence, and makes it difficult to objectively judge what is bigotry.

You can personally accuse metmom that "hatred clouds your mind" which does violate forum rules, but you protest what is not against forum rules.

I can say “some protestants are hate-filled bigotry sewers,” as long as I make it clear that I am not talking about anyone here

At least you implicate yourself as guilty, if unapologetic.

“Protestants are heretics” is not making it personal. “You are a heretic” is making it personal.”

It is hard for me to believe that anyone capable of using a computer is incapable of seeing the rank hypocrisy of that rule.

Then you would not do well as a mod, as a general charge is not personal and does not mean all inclusively, as RCs themselves argue. and technically, that "Protestants are heretics" is a doctrinal charge made by some Catholics, direct or implied, but which does not translate into all Protestants technically being heretics (Rome. Want details? http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P2H.HTM) according to heretical

Not, of course, that I’m saying that any poster on FR is a habitual purveyor of lies and deceit. I would never say anything like that.

But that is basically not a RC unknown on FR.

The point is that if I say something about *all* protestants, which is not likely, then what I have said applies equally to each protestant, individually and personally.

So you deny the RC belief in the unsubstantiated sinlessness of Mary, since "all have sinned?"

Anyway, if you can contradict your assertion of no anti-protestant bigotry, let me know if you want the examples which i will PM them to you and and others (carrying debates across thread is not allowed), before i take the time to gather them.

But again, rather than protesting anti-Catholic bigotry, exposing why a charge is unwarranted should be the issue, if needed.