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

[caww]

.....“to know history is to be a Catholic”

Chuckle...;)

[boatbums]

Excellent work, as usual. Thank you. I can already hear all the fingers being popped into ears and the la-la-la-la chorus being sung rather than admit the truth in what their eyes have read! ;o)

[boatbums]

They determined what would be divinely inspired??????”

Who knew Almighty God needed an editor??? ;o)

[boatbums]

since the Catholics were the only ones around....we get to name the date....

Oh, you mean like the "we've been here for 2013 years" date? The time that would be thirty years BEFORE Jesus' ministry even got off the ground? If you cannot be honest about the little details tell me why should you be trusted with the big ones?

[boatbums]

you think it is crackers and grape juice Catholics believe that it is the Body and Blood of Christ....just as He said it was....more than once

You have "faith" that it is the body and blood of Christ EVEN when it still looks, tastes and feels like the cracker and grape juice it is. We've given up NOTHING since we already believe in Jesus Christ and have received his gift of eternal life by faith in Him. Participating in the Lord's Supper ordinance with fellow believers IS doing exactly like He said we should - in REMEMBRANCE OF HIM and recognizing we are all part of that one loaf.

[boatbums]

Once baptised Catholic,you are always Catholic. If you fall away from the Church you are a LAPSED CATHOLIC.

I see, so Catholics, in your view have no free will to decide for themselves what faith they will follow? Since most were baptized as babies and had NO input whatsoever in the initiation into the Roman Catholic Church, they by default have lost their freedom to chose? You claimed you were brought up in Protestantism, was that a choice given to you or were you dragged there kicking and screaming? How is EITHER situation what Jesus said we each MUST do to be saved - believe on Him?

[Elsie]

This is going to be my last post on this thread. There’s just no talking to you people.

Aren't you just the nicest person!

Very wise and only slightly arrogant.

[Elsie]

<> Then why do you bash Catholicism with all these long diatribes? Always, and I mean always, telling others how wrong Catholicism is, and never once saying Catholics do anything right.

You REFUSE to pay attention.

[Elsie]

I know the truth and the “true will set you free”.

No straw used here.

Their flesh was REAL flesh and their blood was REAL blood...

---

Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.^[1]

Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.

Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy

Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy

Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.^[2]

Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.^[3]

Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony^[4]

Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Popes

[Elsie]

It mattereth not.

I get ACCUSED of many things, but strangely, no EVIDENCE ever shows up...

I was once ACCUSED of being ugly... by a TOAD!!

[Elsie]

So to hell with Jesus telling Peter “Upon this rock I would be MY CHURCH”.

Wipe the drool from your keyboard, as many mistakes appear to be Freudian.

[Elsie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9VxjfMKa9PE

[Elsie]

I’m stealing your work here about the ROCK!!

[Elsie]

  Hold on to these texts, love these texts, repeat them in a fraternal and peaceful manner.

 — John Rotelle, Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City Press, 1995), Sermons, Volume III/10, Sermon 358.5, p. 193

 

[Elsie]

I can afford to give the state of Indiana a dollar .....and hope to win something.

I'm smart enough not to.

[Elsie]

Christianity has been brought forward(saved in many instances) by the Catholic Church....

Elijah!!

How ya been, boy??

---

Romans 11:4
And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

[Elsie]

You should have KILLED Luther when you had the chance.

[Elsie]

your post 1628 describes Protestantism perfectly

Said the guy whose 'church' had to undergo a COUNTER Reformation to try to cure some of it's EXCESSES.Reformed Baptist Church of GOD, reformation of 1879

[Elsie]

But He still wouldn't have arrived, as God, in a stained vessel

Mighty bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!

[Elsie]

WOW, twice in a week or so you have made an intelligent posting

You should check in more often...