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

[Iscool]

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...

I have numerous times...And that's where the conversation ends...

No where in scripture is anyone ever told to turn bread and wine into flesh and blood...No where...

No where in the scriptures is it said that any one ever turned bread and wine into flesh and blood...

No where in the scriptures has anyone been told how to turn bread and wine into flesh and blood...And there's good reason for all those things...Because it never happened and no one said it will happen...

How is it that a man will wave his hand over a piece of bread and wine and convince people that the bread and wine has changed, when it clearly hasn't...And then take it to the limit and claim the bread and wine is Jesus Christ, right there in their presence...

Jesus doesn't take any ones brain away...The bread and wine can be proven scientifically to still be bread and wine...And there's no biblical sanction for anyone to turn bread into flesh...

Since there is no sanction for any of this, and no evidence any such thing takes place, when one reads, 'eat my flesh' and my flesh is food', one might want to step back and realize that maybe they have been mislead; that they don't really get it...

[Iscool]

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.

That was disrespectful speaking about the Creator's mother that way...It's Queen of Heaven and all creation...

[Iscool]

I am a soldier for Christ and fight for his Holy Church.

You're in the wrong generation...

[Jvette]

My faith is based on the teachings of Jesus in the NT.

Mine too.

All that comes afterward is guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit working through the Church for the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that He would be with us til the end of ages, that the Holy Spirit would guide us to all truth and remind us of all that He taught.

Jesus never told anyone in the NT to write anything down, so the NT itself is something that came afterward.

[boatbums]

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,

Yes, the RCC did change things, invented things and dropped certain things. Glad to see you have corrected yourself since you claimed, "the Catholic Church has taught the same thing for 2,013 years".

[NKP_Vet]

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” Timothy - 2:3-4

[boatbums]

That's what is called a “retroactive” application in Catholicism. Jesus “consecrated” the bread and wine into His body, blood, soul and divinity while he was standing right in front of them all WITHIN His still uncrucified and unglorified body. They can call it the “first Mass” because it's “their” religion and “they” wrote the Bible and whatever “they” decide the past was, it was. Anything contrary to "their" story belongs down the "Memory Hole" and we must all erase our collective histories and minds of anything that contradicts the "official line".

Praise God He rescues us from Groupthink! ;o)

[Elsie]

....I have nerves of steel but I hate to dodge lightning bolts...

Good; but don't let them be connected to a brain of mush.

[Elsie]

....and I have NEVER had faith enough in a false idiology to deny the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist....

John 6:28-29

[Elsie]

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.

Hey!

You've the qualifications to be POPE some day; and NOT one of these namby-pamby "Can we all get along?" types; too!

[Elsie]

Now send some more money to Jimmy Swaggart. He needs another Cadillac.

But he'll only get a cheesy standard model...

 

Cadillac Deville: Für eine Mexiko-Reise im Jahr 1999 von Johannes Paul II. ließ General Motors diesen Cadillac Deville umbauen.

Besonders eindrucksvoll ist der Hochsitz im Fond, der nur über einen ausfahrbaren Tritt zu erreichen war.

[Elsie]

there is certainly a ritual which he must go through, it is the same ritual that priests have used for 2,013 years...who are you to challenge it???

Easy!

The Scripture says to TEST everything!

...who are you to blindly accept it???

It's ALWAYS been done this way?

---

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

[Elsie]

is that anything like Baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit...??????or it doesn't count?????

At LEAST that is found in the BIBLE!

Where do you find the "certain ritual" wording?

[Elsie]

...are allowed to recieve the Eucharist ...

Well; isn't THAT special!!

[Elsie]

...come, join in.....and you probably wouldn't need to be rebaptized a Catholic.......you once were, you know.

I once had communion; too, but your "...allegiance... ... to the Catholic church..." seems to have ALLOWED you to call IT meaningless.

[Elsie]

...we now go by the gregorian calender ...

ALL catholics?

Worldwide??

[Elsie]

no, I'm trying to adjust for the calender....we now go by the gregorian calender authorized by Pope Gregory in whatever year...not important.

So; I guess the CALENDAR used by the earliest 'catholics' was no longer good enough for you guys!

[Elsie]

...you start with a Passover meal, and end with the Eucharist...what could be more PERFECT !!!

You start with a typical Jewish girl, and end up with a co-redemtrix...what could be more... (insert applicable word here)

[Elsie]

... I am 74.....they win.

We septuagenarians are a tough nut to crack!

[Elsie]

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

The MAGISTERIUMists.

You may have heard of them.

Quite a powerful group.

There is NO record of them among early catholics.

I have NO idea what year they originated...not important.