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]

...He doesn't have to restate them every ten years... Vatican I; Vatican II...

more than ten years slipped by between those two....longer that most "denominations" have even existed....but re-establishing norms, clarifying questions, changing internal proceedures, re establishing already, but questioned by others(outside the church)truths, brings the organization up to date...Mind you, I did not approve of some of the things that they changed, but they are 2,013 years old and I am 74.....they win.

[terycarl]

16. Ministry Of Truth

Wow, very interesting, which denomination of Protertantism is that???

[terycarl]

Second, we have no connection to other Protestant groups.

sure you do, you profess to be Christian and you are not Catholic...ie:Protestant

if your statements concerning background clearances didn't concern just your congregation, then it applied to your entire denomination.....or if not, what????

[terycarl]

did Jesus ever attend Mass? no

WRONG AGAIN KEMOSABE.....the Last Supper was every bit the first Mass...probably talking about the current events, referring to the Scriptures, and THE CONSECRATION OF BREAD AND WINE INTO THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST.......sounds like what goes on every day in the Catholic Church......every day.....more than once a day in many....MASS

[GeronL]

My faith is based on the teachings of Jesus in the NT, nothing that comes afterward is part of my religion

[terycarl]

The Catholic Church is nothing like what the Bible calls us to be

the Catholic Church wrote the Bible...therefore it is EXACTLY what the Bible calls us to be...

[terycarl]

Probably that the first person to compare the Reformation to the Holocaust forfeits the debate.

when you run out of intelligent things to say, you refer to something that you misinterpret....sounds like a protestant to me.

[terycarl]

My church was conceived in the heart of God before the foundations of eternity. God has no grandchildren. Only children.

I hate overlyintellectual answers.....God's children are all impotent?????....bummer.

[terycarl]

Say the magic words and these wafers are CONSECRATED!

AT LAST YOU HAVE AWAKENED FROM YOUR SLEEP !!!Quickly REJOIN..the Catholic Church, we will welcome you BACK.

[smvoice]

What? “Sinless, bodily assumed, keeper of grace, Mother of the Universe, pope making, priest faking remit/retain sins, eucharist invoking, saint promoting, prayers for the dead devoting, purgatory emoting, and Rev. 12 blindly groping” people is what God calls us to be? In the Bible the Catholic Church wrote? Please give the Scriptures so I can look these abominations up. No? They’re not actually IN the Bible? Then why, as “good Catholics” who WROTE the Bible, didn’t you WRITE about those THINGS that you fervently hold as The TRUTH of God????!!

[terycarl]

Again, there is no evidence...Your religion has to add words or delete words to make your Eucharist palatable...And that don't fly with me or God... all the evidence for the Eucharist is in the Bible...even your readers digest version, they took none of that out....the references to eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood are numerous...read 1Cor. 10:16 and get back to me on what was added...

[smvoice]

Ooops, I mis-spoke. It’s not Mother of the Universe, it’s QUEEN of the Universe. Isn’t that right, terycarl? Wouldn’t want to be accused of lying here.

[terycarl]

And you my friend, and the rest of this heretics that deny God’s Pilgrim Church on Earth will bust hell wide open one day.” That post is the opposite if Christ’s command that Christians should be known by their love for one another.

attempting to save one from damnation shows Christ's love to the "Nth" degree !!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Yes. All.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“I hate overlyintellectual answers.....God’s children are all impotent?????....bummer.”

God’s children impotent?? Hardly. You will have to look lower...

“And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“attempting to save one from damnation shows Christ’s love to the “Nth” degree”

I think the “bust hell wide open” part was particularly loving.

[NKP_Vet]

“That post is the opposite if Christ’s command that Christians should be known by their love for one another:.

I am a soldier for Christ and fight for his Holy Church. I don’t appreciate anyone denigrating the sacrament of Holy
Communion.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“I am a soldier for Christ and fight for his Holy Church. I don’t appreciate anyone denigrating the sacrament of Holy
Communion”

Please. Do not make this personal. No public confession needed.

But in non-personal terms...

If someone rationalizes away Christ’s commands for lesser purposes, He can handle that person Himself.

[terycarl]

So are YOU saying that the early Christians didn't have THE Apostles to deliver the Scriptures to them as their rule of faith? Are you saying the early Christians didn't already HAVE the Old Testament Scriptures - recognized by them already as the HOLY word of God - from which to understand the teachings that were being given to them? Are you saying that the Holy Spirit had nothing to do with the recognition of the Divine word of God in the hearts of the believers and that the Scriptures were the POWER of God unto salvation to all those that believed??? The way you make it sound your “Catholic” (upper case “C”) church took it upon themselves to tell GOD what they would or would not accept. THAT is what I am disputing here. Perhaps the way you word your posts has something to do with that?

where to begin with this....first of all the Church DID have the Apostles to deliver Scripture....they were among the first Catholics. The early Christians did, indeed have the Jewish Old Testament books and acknowledged that fact, the Holy Spirit was all important and led the early Catholic church and the early believers, who became (were) Catholic, to be able to determine true scripture, to be able to organize and start the true church of God (Catholic). No!, the Catholic church told God nothing, but listened and acted when He told the church what to do....Whatsoever you shall bind, shall be bound, whatever you shall loose will be loosed.....God wasn't fooling around, He established a religion and promised to be with Her for the rest of time.....I'll stick with that.

[BlueDragon]

Take a break? I led off with what year the study came from. I dind't hide it -- nor did I make assertion without having a source to back it up. In FACT, all I did was give you the link [smile].

It is a well known study, and was one much discussed, though I admit I didn't delve into all that much, nor take it as gospel.

That said, it's obvious to those who have been watching this stuff unfold for years that the study included reaching back into some past decades.

What did stand out was just how few RC priests went to jail over the various abuses which were otherwise of a serious criminal nature.

I had not much noticed, or perhaps better said was not reminded until today, how in Australia, with a much smaller population, more of those accused seemed to be facing the legal music (and I'm not talking canon law) then their U.S. RCC counterparts. Not having statistics to actually compare, it was just an impression I got today, from a brief scan of info found at a few Aussie-centric of links discussing the issue.

In comparison --- do other-than-Roman Catholic ministers accused of being sexual predators end up with such a low going-to-jail rate as their U.S.counterparts once did? If so -- was it comparable in times past? Has the conviction and jail sentencing rate increased for RC priests? Has it increased for others? How would those compare from times in not too distant past with now?

I really don't know. Though if I was to guess --- there are likely some other-than-RC ministers who have not even been openly accused -- but are still guilty. There could even be some "guilty" but not accused priests left-- though with all the allegations that have surfaced, more followed when others saw the ice being broken. I mean, what guy would want to talk about being homo-molested, if such a thing had occurred to him? In some ways --- it could be comparably far worse psychologically due to the double-condemnation of the homo aspect, than for a girl to be molested of a more heterosexual nature, though that too can be psychologically scarring enough to have serious repercussions, with the suffering being not always entirely identical, case-by-case, person-by-person, whether it is a girl, or a boy involved.

If you yourself want to make honest comparisons, incarceration rate could be one question to seek answers for, over the long haul.

I know that as soon as it looks like some other-than-RC pastor is accused, rightfully so or not, then the community at large attacks at least rhetorically, with just as much vigor as against RC priests, at least in their own local area, and those guys usually end up being trundled off to jail. Or at least that's the impression I've got in the last few years, anyway.

Meanwhile, cases against RC priests seem to drag on and on and on, before there is any resolution. It's a rarer case that get's settled quickly -- unless it's off the radar screens, perhaps.

You were mentioning sexual abuse among other-than Roman Catholic clergy, right?

As far as the majority of sex abuse allegations among RC priesthood being of a homo nature --- why even bother to mention that? Doesn't everyone know that by now? It was bad enough people would make jokes, bad jokes possibly, in poor taste, but the type which could get a laugh, like being relived when the news was that a newly surfacing allegation involved a girl, rather than young teen or preteen boy.

Even Achmed the dead terrorists made jokes -- with Jews, Achmed said -- I don't kill the Jews --- I just toss a penny between them and watch them fight to the death (the way Achmed told it was funny, maybe you had to have been there) and with two priests he tosses in a young boy -- with the winner having to fight Micheal Jackson.