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

[terycarl]

You say all that , but my church has no instances of molestation or coverup. To even be a volunteer there, you have to pass a police background check

you are speaking of a local congregation, ours also go through that because we also have a Catholic Grade school (does your congregation have a grade school), I didn't think so....anywayyour congregation may have no accusations, nor does mine, but I am speaking for the entire Catholic church....yes, we have violations, and you should connect yourself with all Protestant denominations who also have violations....we have done something about it, you haven't!

[boatbums]

We are to share bread and wine in memory of His actual sacrifice - as He said

that's not what He said at all, and the Christian church has NEVER taught that until the revolution, when people appeared who just weren't strong enough to believe that Christ would have actually given of HIMSELF rather than a hunk of bread for our benefit.

That is EXACTLY what Jesus said. In fact, it wasn't until hundreds of years later that the idea of the "Eucharist" being a propitiatory offering came about. I've said this before and I'll do so again. If you want to believe that the Eucharist "host" transubstantiates into the real body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ - though remaining for all practical purposes the same elements it started out as (some flour and water) - be my guest. You are believing something happens by faith and those who continue to celebrate the Lord's Supper ordinance without having to believe the elements have to miraculously change in substance are ALSO joining together with other believers to participate in the remembrance of what they believe Christ did for them on the cross. It's when Roman Catholics INSIST that only the participation in the same manner as they do it can infuse the grace necessary for salvation, I WILL draw the line - and I'm not alone in that.

We are saved BY grace THROUGH faith in Christ. Receiving the "sacraments" is not how one gets an allotment of grace. It is NOT the sacrament that endows one with sanctifying grace - it is faith alone in Christ alone. To the GLORY of God alone!

[BlueDragon]

From 2004 http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20040311.html

Shockingly, Only 2% of Catholic Clergy Sexual Abusers Were Ever Jailed: A Demonstration that the Self-Policing of Criminal Behavior Will Never Work

[boatbums]

you state that God continues to save those who do not follow Catholicism.....how do you know that???

Because my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24) and, "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life." (John 6:47)

the Catholic Church has taught the same thing for 2,013 years, it was the revolutionaries that decided to change things. Crackers and grape juice VS The Body and Blood of Christ ????? O.K. I guess, I'll stick with the 2,013 year old truth.

There is an example of that "myth" I was mentioning. Read a little of John Henry Newman sometime and see how he explains the "development" of the doctrines of the RCC as an explanation for why the RCC believes things today that it DIDN'T in the early church.

This back and forthing is pointless. We are repeating the same arguments that have come up on this thread and the countless others that seem to always delve into the same topics no matter what they start out as. Y'all will continue to believe what you are told to believe and I will continue to believe what God's word tells me to believe. I wish you peace and pray you truly understand the gospel of the grace of God.

[Elsie]

And if I can get those numbers, I'm a shoe-in...

I question the mental capacity of a person who thinks that the record of the PAST numbers occurance of being selected somehow affects the FUTURE of them being pulled.

Even the most brain dead among us would say the odds of a true coin being heads or tails is 50/50, even if it has come up heads for the last 25 throws!

[Elsie]

Well when you try to change the Bible to fit what you want it to say, it’s time to be EX-COMMUNICATED.

Well; that's a given, but it's the ones who are not LIVING according to the church's teachings that should get the boot!

[Elsie]

Luther was excommunicated for several reasons but mostly for refusing to adhere to his vows of fidelity and obedience.

OH?

I've not seen that listing of percentages posted.

[Elsie]

I base what I believe about Luther on what I have read, what he wrote and what has been written about him.

This is as it should be.

---

He was not all wrong when he began his protestation of the pope’s misuse of indulgences, but he went too far and lost the chance he had for reform within and broke away completely when he refused to submit to the authority of the Church and work within her to build her up.

Oh?

What kind of 'chance' was that?

What had happened to OTHER 'reformers' in the church prior to Luther?

[Elsie]

I think the lottery is little more than an extra tax on poor people.

Nope; uninformed people.

People driven by HOPE other than FACT.

[Elsie]

“the priest has been given the power, by God, to consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ... but ONLY if the correct mumbo-jumbo is uttered and believed.

[Elsie]

ERGO: So when we receive Communion, we actually participate in the body and blood of Christ, not just eat symbols of them.

[Elsie]

Bob would be proud!

[Elsie]

that is almost a perfect description of what the Sacrament of Confirmation....Confirmation is a Sacrament through which the Holy Spirit comes to us, in a special way, to enable us to profess our faith as strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ.

---

And finding certain disciples, he said unto them, `Have ye RECEIVED the holy Ghost since ye believed?'

And they said unto him, `We have not so much as heard whether there be any holy Ghost.'

And he said unto them, `Unto what then were ye baptized?'

And they said, `Unto John's baptism.'

Then said Paul, `John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.'

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

And all the men were about twelve." (Acts 19:1-7)

[Elsie]

However, the last supper is now a Christian tradition...

Yup; it sure is!

So is CHRISTMAS.

[Elsie]

....for 2,013 years the true Christian church has taught just that....what Christianity has done to this meal is to continue it as Christ ordered....DO THIS...in memory of Me

Don't you want to subtract about 33 years?

[Elsie]

... is to continue it as Christ ordered....DO THIS...in memory of Me

Sorry; but we have CONTINUED nothing; but CREATED something totally new.

---

THIS is the PASSOVER meal.

[Elsie]

I have never, in my life, denied that the Catholic church has made errors....

DENIED is not the same as ADMITTED.

[Elsie]

I promise not to point out that the incidence of pedophiles in the Protestant world FAR surpasses that in Catholicism,

Since they are not in the 'true' church; what ELSE would you expect?

[Elsie]

...He doesn't have to restate them every ten years...

Vatican I; Vatican II...

[Elsie]

 

 

Eerily familiar...

 

 

Party ownership of the print media
made it easy to manipulate public opinion,
and the film and radio carried the process further.

 

16. Ministry Of Truth

.......

The Ministry of Truth, Winston's place of work, contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below.

The Ministry of Truth concerned itself with Lies. Party ownership of the print media made it easy to manipulate public opinion, and the film and radio carried the process further.

The primary job of the Ministry of Truth was to supply the citizens of Oceania with newspapers, films, textbooks, telescreen programmes, plays, novels - with every conceivable kind of information, instruction, or entertainment, from a statue to a slogan, from a lyric poem to a biological treatise, and from a child's spelling-book to a Newspeak dictionary.

Winston worked in the RECORDS DEPARTMENT (a single branch of the Ministry of Truth) editing and writing for The Times. He dictated into a machine called a speakwrite. Winston would receive articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, in Newspeak, rectify. If, for example, the Ministry of Plenty forecast a surplus, and in reality the result was grossly less, Winston's job was to change previous versions so the old version would agree with the new one. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs - to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance.

When his day's work started, Winston pulled the speakwrite towards him, blew the dust from its mouthpiece, and put on his spectacles. He dialed 'back numbers' on the telescreen and called for the appropriate issues of The Times, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes' delay. The messages he had received referred to articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to rectify.

In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages; to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and on the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.

As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of The Times and pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames.

What happened in the unseen labyrinth to which the tubes led, he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms. As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead.

In the cubicle next to him the little woman with sandy hair toiled day in day out, simply at tracking down and deleting from the Press the names of people who had been vaporized and were therefore considered never to have existed. And this hall, with its fifty workers or thereabouts, was only one-sub-section, a single cell, as it were, in the huge complexity of the Records Department. Beyond, above, below, were other swarms of workers engaged in an unimaginable multitude of jobs.

There were huge printing-shops and their sub editors, their typography experts, and their elaborately equipped studios for the faking of photographs. There was the tele-programmes section with its engineers, its producers and its teams of actors specially chosen for their skill in imitating voices; clerks whose job was simply to draw up lists of books and periodicals which were due for recall; vast repositories where the corrected documents were stored; and the hidden furnaces where the original copies were destroyed.

And somewhere or other, quite anonymous, there were the directing brains who co-ordinated the whole effort and laid down the lines of policy which made it necessary that this fragment of the past should be preserved, that one falsified, and the other rubbed out of existence.