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

[narses]

aMorePerfectUnion wrote:

No. I consider Breatharians to be a false belief system. They appear to gravitate toward verses and pictures about breathing. They also appear to post the same things, spamming threads. I do not know why.

This is the newest attack on the Catholic faith here at FR. Mocking the great commands of Our Lord:

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ “

[narses]

“Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats 19 my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”
As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?”
He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.” [John 6: 49-71]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

See - repetition about breathing.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I do not believe I’ve ever seen another poster on FR repeat something more times with apparently less understanding of the entire passage. Over and over.

[narses]

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum,
et exsultávit spíritus meus
in Deo salvatóre meo,
quia respéxit humilitátem
ancíllæ suæ.

Ecce enim ex hoc beátam
me dicent omnes generatiónes,
quia fecit mihi magna,
qui potens est,
et sanctum nomen eius,
et misericórdia eius in progénies
et progénies timéntibus eum.
Fecit poténtiam in bráchio suo,
dispérsit supérbos mente cordis sui;
depósuit poténtes de sede
et exaltávit húmiles.
Esuriéntes implévit bonis
et dívites dimísit inánes.
Suscépit Ísrael púerum suum,
recordátus misericórdiæ,
sicut locútus est ad patres nostros,
Ábraham et sémini eius in sæcula.

Glória Patri et Fílio
et Spirítui Sancto.
Sicut erat in princípio,
et nunc et semper,
et in sæcula sæculórum.

Amen.

She became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in heaven, and such a Child . . . Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God . . . None can say of her nor announce to her greater things, even though he had as many tongues as the earth possesses flowers and blades of grass: the sky, stars; and the sea, grains of sand. It needs to be pondered in the heart what it means to be the Mother of God.

(Commentary on the Magnificat, 1521; in Luther’s Works, Pelikan et al, vol. 21, 326)

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Greek FRiend. learn it. use it.

The second part of each conditional clause in this verse is in the passive voice and the perfect tense in the Greek text.

The passive voice indicates that someone has already done the forgiving or retaining.

That person must be God since He alone has the authority to do that (Matt. 9:2–3; Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21).

The perfect tense indicates that the action has continuing effects; the sins stand forgiven or retained at least temporarily if not permanently.

Or, you could just keep repeating the same breathing verses and artworks endlessly. Either way.

[narses]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

poor narses. all you’ve put forth is pictures of eating, breathing and posted verses of breathing.

greek tenses have meaning. no interpretation needed.

[narses]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

There's someone out there for every breatharian... may you find your breath-mate.

[boatbums]

Your own post shows your error: It was a Catholic one. Why wouldn’t it admit Christians of any faith that sought admittance? Kenny is a Christian that happens to attend a Unitarian church. Is that hard to understand?

Your good buddy, "Kenny" was not being attacked as you accused me of doing. Get a grip. I simply asked how, considering what Unitarian Universalists hold as their faith tenets (and I posted a paragraph from one of their links), a Christian could attend one. A "church" that has no problem with members who are atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, etc. hardly qualifies as a "church" according to Scripture and what makes it even MORE surprising is how FRoman Catholics consistently insist that "Protestants" (like your other good buddy, the Southern Baptist) don't have a legitimate church because it's not a ROMAN Catholic one. Strange how opinions can change so.

[boatbums]

Thank you for that information about the UU. Maybe Verga will ask his friend “Kenny” how he is okay about being a member of a “church” that claims his faith is no more valid than atheists, pagans, humanists, Muslims, polytheists, etc.?

[boatbums]

For some folks, when bluster is all they got, they just bluster louder.

[boatbums]

Okay, so you were a failed Protestant, then? Sorry that your experience made you hate others that DO have a wonderful relationship with Christ, worship in glorious unison with fellow believers, learn the whole Word of God under men divinely-ordained to the ministry and as pastors/teachers, elders and deacons, help their communities in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping/healing the sick, leading lost souls to Christ and being a force for God throughout their part of the world.

My Mom, a Roman Catholic, tells me her priest usually gives a five or ten minute homily (really a sermonette). I'd much rather sit under a pastor who devoted his life to teaching and leading his flock as God leads him. Pastors who DON'T preach "hell and brimstone" and who tell them "they are going to hell if they don’t change their ways", but preach the grace of God which saves us through faith. THAT is the kind of worship and fellowship God wants for ALL His children and it IS found outside of the Roman Catholic Church. I know, because that's why I left.

[boatbums]

Uh...watching the telly? :o)

[boatbums]

Siccing the dogs on AMPU now rather than trying to understand his point? What would you do if you didn't have your cartoons and alert the posse posts?

[Elsie]

poor narses. all you’ve put forth is pictures of eating, breathing and posted verses of breathing.

He just canNOT get away from that REPETIOUS thing!

[Elsie]

Thank you for that information about the UU.

1372 replies (so far) and we have very little 'information' in this thread.

[Elsie]

For some folks, when bluster is all they got, they just bluster louder.

Time to click yer heels together three times?

[Elsie]

Okay, so you were a failed Protestant, then?

Romans 15:1
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.