[ealgeone]

>When you read a passage from the Bible....do you think about what it is saying? Do you ever contemplate how you could incorporate the message into your life? <

All the time. Why would you think that a Catholic would do otherwise? Catholicism has a rich history of meditations on the Bible. A search on Amazon.com for "Catholic Bible meditations" brings up 961 results. Protestants should rid themselves of the prejudice that Catholics do not follow the word of God.

Reason I asked is that you are doing exactly what catholics claim cannot be done or is being done wrong by non-catholics.

You're reading the Word and letting God speak to you through His Word. You are not listening to a priest. Christians do the same thing.

You claimed earlier that catholics accept Scripture as the Word of God. So do Christians.

You also claimed that catholics do not accept Protestant interpretations of Scripture.

In other words catholics say you can't read the Bible and draw your own conclusions.....which is exactly what you are doing.

It is what Christians have been doing for a long, long time.

God wants us to understand His Word. All He wants us to do is to read it. He will use the Holy Spirit to teach us the meaning.

[Petrosius]

First, I want to take exception with your distinction between catholics [sic] and Christians. Catholics are Christians. Indeed, along with the Orthodox there were practically the only Christians for 1500 years. While I do think that Protestants are in error I do not deny their identity as Christians. Simple charity would have Protestants also recognize their fellow Catholic Christians as Christians. Second, your consistent non-Captitalization of "catholic" is deliberately disrespectful. Something that I would have thought a true Christian would not do.

Reason I asked is that you are doing exactly what catholics claim cannot be done or is being done wrong by non-catholics.

You're reading the Word and letting God speak to you through His Word. You are not listening to a priest. Christians do the same thing.

Yes, we Catholics do let God speak to us through his Word. If you were to attend a Catholic Mass you would know how important the Sacred Scriptures are to us. But we listen to the Word of God also informed by Catholic teaching. When you read the Gospel of Matthew are you not also informed by Paul's writings? When reading Paul are you not also informed by Matthew? The Sacred Scriptures and the teachings of the Church have but one source, God himself. Our understanding of each is informed by the other.

In other words catholics say you can't read the Bible and draw your own conclusions.....which is exactly what you are doing.

It is what [Protestant] Christians have been doing for a long, long time.

While Protestants like to claim that they are merely coming to their own conclusions after reading the Bible, the truth is that they are just as dependent upon Protestant tradition as Catholics are on theirs. Can you honestly say to me that you have reached your conclusions on your own before you were influenced by Protestant preaching, commentaries and instruction? If so, you would be one of the few.

Furthermore, unless you claim an infallibility with regard to the interpretation of Scripture that you would deny to the Church as a whole, by what right do you have to claim that Catholic interpretations of Scripture are any less valid than your own?