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

[metmom]

Yup. They teach that you get saved by eating Jesus.

And only as long as He’s in you, before He’s ummm,... expelled, shall we say?

[metmom]

Hey! It worked.

Elsie is rubbing off on you.

[terycarl]

Perhaps you also missed when I posted that in numerous evangelical churches I attended for years, there was a systematic exposition of the Scriptures, book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse - through the Hebrew Scriptures and through the New Testament. ALL of it. Many times. Not repeating by rote just 27% and leaving out 73%, as the mass does

didn't pay real close attention in religion class, did you??

and, by the way, you were an altar boy, not an alter boy......unless you were one of those also.....just saying

[Elsie]

It’s 20 replies ahead of you...

[metmom]

elsie:Come to Me, all who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy."

tc:how about the rich man who Jesus told to give all his wealth to the poor and to follow Him....does that sound like an easy yoke to you????If so, give everything that you own to the poor and join a Catholic order of Nuns and devote your life to Christ....

What? Did Jesus lie then?

[metmom]

Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Hey! Wait a minute. I thought Jesus said we had to eat His literal flesh and blood to be saved. Which is it now?

Or did the Catholic church get it wrong when they *wrote* the Bible?

[metmom]

I realized that that might be too much for most Catholics.

[metmom]

Well, at least it got in there at some point.

[Elsie]

“My question was: Does the Bible state It is the sole or final authority”

Given that the catholic claim is that THEY put the bible together; that THEY did the heavylifting to make SURE only the GOOD stuff got in it, and the WRONG stuff was out.

Then why on EARTH did they NOT include all the Church Fathers writings, too?

Who today could question them??

It sure seems to me that THEY are the ones that dropped the ball in this matter.

INCLUDE the 'veneration' of MARY.

INCLUDE the 'fact' that she assended to Heaven.

INCLUDE all the unique CATHOLIC things into the bible and you'd get no sass back from PROTESTANTS!

[Iscool]

Yup. They teach that you get saved by eating Jesus.

And only as long as He’s in you, before He’s ummm,... expelled, shall we say?

(_{Oh Noooo...I lost my salvation again!!!})

[Elsie]

But what is lacking more?

The humor...

or the sense???

[Elsie]

Just keep reading...

[Elsie]

Just keep readin’!

[Elsie]

And guess where from!

[terycarl]

Yes, that certainly separates it...But since most Catholics don't believe it is any more than a ritual, I don't think you've got much going for you...There's certainly no evidence of your mass in the scriptures...

ALL Catholics who are really participating Catholics, believe in the true presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. Evidence of the Mass in the scriptures????the Mass is a repetition and reenactment of the scriptures...there is no Protestant service ANYWHERE that comes close to the scriptural authenticity of the Catholic Mass....NONE!!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Other than a typo, I’m not sure why you are posting to me, but be well.

[Elsie]

Catholics believe what Jesus said.

LITERALLY??

Everything he said.

You SURE???

[Elsie]

....does that sound like an easy yoke to you????

I can only assume that YOU have not followed your own recommendation.

[terycarl]

So tell us...What did Peter bind on earth that became bound in heaven, and what did Peter loose on earth that became loosed in heaven...

so far, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, I'll try to come up with some more....oh yeah, the infallibility of the Pope....these declarations don't happen often, but they are NEVER wrong.