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]

For as with the Eucharist (and bind and loosing), in which" The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest's command. (John A, O'Brien, >I>The Faith of Millions, Our Sunday Visitor (1938), p. 235; has Nihil obstat & Imprimitur) , so what Rome autocratically declares is truth must indeed be Truth, not because of Scriptural substantiation, by which the church established its claims.

God subservient to man.

Catholicism in a nutshell.

[metmom]

You were bad.....

[CynicalBear]

>>Moses,Abraham, Adam, Eve, Soloman, David, Etc Etc are not in Heaven because they didn't know Christ???<<

Your statement would have been accurate if you had said “>b>were>/b> not in heaven because they didn’t’ know Christ”. They did NOT go to heaven until they met Christ when they were taken to heaven after His resurrection. If you were trying to say they went to heaven without knowing Christ first you would be in error.

[verga]

Or is smart enough not to have them pulled for making it personal.

[verga]

And yet here you are on this Religion forum, posting to non-Catholics anti-Catholic bigots.....

Fixed if for you. Do you see the difference? I have many protestant friends and acquaintances, but not a single one that is an anti Catholic bigot.

[smvoice]

How do you know that one or more of your “protestant friends and acquaintances” aren’t on this forum, posting to you day and night, trying to make you see with Scripture where your Church is deceiving you? That isn’t a “bigot”, that is a concerned friend, doing his/her job as an ambassador for Christ, preaching to you reconciliation with God, before it is too late.

[verga]

How do you know that one or more of your “protestant friends and acquaintances” aren’t on this forum, posting to you day and night, trying to make you see with Scripture where your Church is deceiving you?

Maybe you missed this really important part: "not a single one that is an anti Catholic bigot."

[BlueDragon]

Or is smart enough not to have them pulled for making it personal.

Secret Agent Man

[verga]

Love that song, thanks for posting.

[Elsie]

AM!

[Elsie]

Or is smart enough not to have them pulled for making it personal.

979 wasn't personal; but it DID have ...

[Elsie]

On second thought; it was...

QUITE!!!

[Elsie]

Maybe you missed this really important part: "not a single one that is an anti Catholic bigot."

I didn't miss the 'single' part.

[Elsie]

[BlueDragon]

What it did not produce was a single example of anti-protestant bigotry.

So true!

The fans are staying away from the park in droves?

[smvoice]

No, I didn't miss it. The point being, you are accusing people here who disagree with you or your religion of being bigots. You just might be accusing one of your friends or acquaintances of being one, you have no idea, really. Be careful how you throw around that word. It could come back to bite you.

[BlueDragon]

I'm sorry that your explainin' skills are so limited.

Perhaps you need prayer...

The subtleties are not lost on all. But for some, to volley the same ball right back, have it clear the net, drop it squarely before them -- it just bounces away as if something odd & bizarre just occurred, if noticed at all...

He spoke in parables [see also Isaiah 6]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

placemarker awaiting the first shred of evidence from terycarl to back up his posts... so far, nothing.

[metmom]

No, I didn't miss it. The point being, you are accusing people here who disagree with you or your religion of being bigots. You just might be accusing one of your friends or acquaintances of being one, you have no idea, really. Be careful how you throw around that word. It could come back to bite you.

Matthew 7:1-5 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

[verga]

I have spoken the truth, nothing more, nothing less.