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

[Elsie]

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

---

Matthew 4:5

...he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

[Elsie]

The point being, you are accusing people here who disagree with you or your religion of being bigots

No!

I am SHOCKED!!! Just WHO would do a thing like that???

[Elsie]

I told you to eat the wafer; but "NO!!!" you said...

[editor-surveyor]

And I thought that you were the mad hatter!

Don’t know where to go now.

[editor-surveyor]

Thanks for posting that!

I was going to cut it out and scan it, but this is way better.

[boatbums]

“Does THIS qualify?”

No. The writer was clearly referring to certain individuals that post here on FR, and not to all protestants or Protestantism in general.

Keep reading.

[boatbums]

There are MANY examples of such hypocrisies exhibited regularly on this very forum.

[CynicalBear]

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

Maybe they are Protestants like Pelosi is Catholic.

[roamer_1]

[roamer_1:] Hey! The Bible doesn't say it isn't true - so it COULD be true

Indeed, as it is true that actual evidence from Scripture is not needed for RC doctrine, only that it does not contradict Scripture, but which Rome is the autocratic judge of. Meanwhile RCs have much liberty to compel Scripture to support Rome, following her presumption.

I know it isn't your main thrust, but the parallels to Temple era Pharisaical Judaism are an astonishment - and not only on the subjects that you have defined herein. It brings Isaiah 28 to mind.

Theirs is the very same spirit that allows penumbras in our Constitution (since their method allows anything that is not explicit, even if they eventually destroy the explicit by the sheer weight of their additions). It is the spirit and definition of iniquity - Lawlessness.

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, 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.

The irony of it does not escape me - Though it seems to be a matter of logic wholly lost upon our Romanist FRiends (and Mormons too, for that matter). One cannot claim an authority higher than the authority upon which one's establishment is claimed (or plainly, where one's evidences lie), as one will inherently damage destroy the very authority one claims to have.

Thank you for your reply - I was beginning to think no one got the message - and as to the mythical, magical, most highly sainted 'Butcher of God', as with all mythical saints, relics are available upon request (for a nominal fee, of course). :P

[daniel1212]

Perhaps we should ping him next time Prots are called ignorant self worshipers, etc.

It does seem that RCs even at their highest levels did think about Prots much. Something about Trent and anathemas.

[smvoice]

But you HAVEN’T spoken the truth. We are not bigots. We disagree with you and your church. That does not make us bigots. Unless you are falsely accusing us of something just because you don’t like what we say. Wouldn’t that make YOU a bigot?

[verga]

But you HAVEN’T spoken the truth.

The truth and only the truth.

[daniel1212]

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)

God subservient to man. Catholicism in a nutshell.

And in the above sense is affirmed more broadly by a man (Alphonsus Ligouri) whose writings were declared free from anything meriting censure by Pope Gregory XVL (1839) in the bull of his canonization,

“With regard to the mystic body of Christ, that is, all the faithful, the priest has the power of the keys, or the power of delivering sinners from hell, of making them worthy of paradise, and of changing them from the slaves of Satan into the children of God.

And God himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of his priests, and either not to pardon or to pardon, according as they refuse or give absolution, provided the penitent is capable of it. " Such is," says St. Maximus of Turin, " this judiciary power ascribed to Peter that its decision carries with it the decision of God." 2 The sentence of the priest precedes, and God subscribes to it. .” – Dignity and Duties of the Priest, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, Vol. 12, p. 2. http://www.archive.org/stream/alphonsusworks12liguuoft/alphonsusworks12liguuoft_djvu.txt

[daniel1212]

And like as including everything not Catholic as Protestant, even cults who deny the most basic of doctrines which Protestantism historically held, thus even sola ecclesia cults are included, so it seems being an “anti-Catholic bigot” would includes anyone who posts any substantiated thing that impugns Rome in the least, and seeks to engage in reasonable and civil exchange. I have been trying to for years.

[daniel1212]

Did you make that?

[smvoice]

It would certainly seem that way, Daniel. We’re the “bigots” because we do not adhere to what the “bigots” say. Strange world we’re in, there is NO way to communicate in this twisted ridiculous “logic” they have. It is hopeless.

[Jvette]

Again, I strongly agree that the Scriptures you provide here do say that Jesus is the only way for salvation. There is no other, as it says under heaven whereby we must be saved.

And for those who believe, Jesus saves because they believe.

Praise be to God, that we know Him as our Lord and Savior.

However, how can one believe what one has never been told about?

God has written His law into the hearts of all men and desires that all men be saved. Would that we could reach everyone with that message.

But that is not the case. There are those who never hear it or never heard it. Are they therefore condemned without ever knowing Jesus?

I don’t believe so. I believe that all people have desired and searched for God. How could it be otherwise. He is the creator of all. How could anything in His creation not feel His pull?

Jesus is the way and the Scripture you gave makes that clear, but it doesn’t say ONLY those who believe will be saved. It says that if you believe you will be saved.

[daniel1212]

I know it isn't your main thrust, but the parallels to Temple era Pharisaical Judaism are an astonishment - and not only on the subjects that you have defined herein. It brings Isaiah 28 to mind.

Yes, it is amazing that Prots are accused of being like Pharisees or following them because we hold some things in common with them, as did the NT church, while it is the scribes and Pharisees who are most like Rome.

And in fact, as said before, under the Roman model souls are to submit to the magisterium which is the steward of Divine revelation and the inheritor of promises of God's presence, and having historical descent. Which thus invalidates the church which began in dissent from such, while in reality is validates warranted dissent from such, as a means by which truth and faith is preserved. And thus the needed and continuing need for the Reformation.

For the decision of their Scribes, or "Soferim" (Josephus, σοπισταί; N. T., γραμματεἴς), consisting originally of Aaronites, Levites, and common Israelites, they claimed the same authority as for the Biblical law, even in case of error (Sifre, Deut. 153-154); they endowed them with the power to abrogate the Law at times (see Abrogation of Laws), and they went so far as to say that he who transgressed their words deserved death (Ber. 4a). By dint of this authority, claimed to be divine (R. H. 25a), they put the entire calendric system upon a new basis, independent of the priesthood. They took many burdens from the people by claiming for the sage, or scribe, the power of dissolving vows (Ḥag. i. 8; Tosef., i.). http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12087-pharisees

[CynicalBear]

>>not protected from electing an idiot.<<

Wait,,,,,,,what???? Weren’t we told not too long ago that the Holy Spirit guides the Bishops in their election of the pope? As I remember it the discussion was along the lines of “the majority” is what indicates it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now they are “not protected from electing an idiot”?

[Elsie]

The truth and only the truth.

Yup: Mary is dead.