Can I try?
Obviously, that pocket sized New Testament will be re-read many times and will be a great assistance in my journey.
One can, in absence of the Sacraments of the Church be sanctified through the reading of the scripture, as well as with the Sacraments. One thing does not exclude the other. Our spiritual work in not complete till we learn to read and love the Holy Scripture.
But the essential part in this scenario that you presented is prayer. The first prayer should be a prayer of contrition for every unconfessed sin. Then one should ask God to not tempt him with more sin. Then, given the extrraordonary circumstance, one will die in a state of grace without the sacraments of the Church.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we never pray alone, even on the desert island. We pray, always, with the entire Church in Heaven: the Communion of Saints known and unknown.
I think our challenges are greater where we are than in a desert island. If one searches for salvation, he will do well to find himself in a desert. Most of the treasure of the Church was build in a desert, sometimes literal and often deliberate desert of monastic life. Happy is he whose circumstances allow him to become a hermit.
St Jerome in the Desert
Joachim Patenier
c. 1520
Oil on wood, 78 x 137 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
annalex,
That pocket sized New Testament would hopefully be more than just “mere assistance”—more than just a helpful read in addition to everything else.
It will have the equivalent value of the air you breathe. By God’s grace and the help of the Holy Spirit. It will save your soul!
The words of GOD, unfiltered. Read, without distraction—will introduce Jesus Christ to you. You will be able to know Him fully as he was meant to be known, loved, and experienced. Once you run out of food, Christ will become your ONLY bread—TRUE bread, as you’ll have no wafer substitute.
You would be able to repeat the words of the great apostle (or “saint”) Paul, himself:
“7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, EVERYTHING ELSE IS WORTHLESS when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him.
I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through FAITH in Christ. * For God’s way of making us right with himself DEPENDS ON FAITH. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” ~ Phillippians 3