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]

46 to go!

[NKP_Vet]

“If you had spent that time studying the bible instead of theology, you likely would have stayed Protestant...”

Oh, you mean sorta like John Henry Cardinal Newman? Ever heard of him, he was one of the greatest theologian of the 19th Century, born and raised a Protestant, who converted to Catholism at the age of 44. Here’s a famous quote from Cardinal Newman.

“To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.”

[BlueDragon]

To go deeper [into history] than Newman would admit to, is to see history as not as supportive of certain and particular Romanist claims as he and others would prefer.

But hey, I know that won't stop people from trotting out Newman's own self-justifying, self serving statements as salve for their own decision to, in the final end, simply accept what they are told, regardless of how much counterfactual conditional reasoning and cognitive dissonance must be engaged in to "argue away" any information that logically refutes various Romish, "papist" conceptual statements and positions, if only to the extent those may be more properly applied...

If any here does not understand what I'm talking about, then I must say to them "to be deep into the religion forum on FreeRepublic, is to see Romish, off-hand apologetic claims go down in flames repeatedly" with many of them only left "standing" without serious doubt and troubles through full embrasure of the physiological procedures mentioned in the previous, above paragraph.

[Iscool]

“If you had spent that time studying the bible instead of theology, you likely would have stayed Protestant...”

Oh, you mean sorta like John Henry Cardinal Newman? Ever heard of him, he was one of the greatest theologian of the 19th Century, born and raised a Protestant, who converted to Catholism at the age of 44. Here’s a famous quote from Cardinal Newman.

“To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.”

That in no way means he was a Christian...Have you got a testimony from him where he trusted in Jesus Christ for his salvation??? Just because someone studies about religion doesn't mean he believes the bible, or understands it...

I like this quote much better...

The Protestant goes directly to the Word of God for instruction, and to the throne of grace in his devotions; whilst the pious Roman Catholic consults the teaching of his church...From this general principle of Evangelical freedom, and direct individual relationship of the believer to Christ, proceed the three fundamental doctrines of Protestantism - the absolute supremacy of (1) the Word, and of (2) the grace of Christ, and (3) the general priesthood of believers...

Philip Schaff

[BlueDragon]

No way Newman could have been a Christian? That's perhaps not anyone's actual call to make, save for One. But for what it's worth, I'd go for saying Newman was "Christian".

Otherwise, a Christian does not need be perfect in all things (I do sincerely hope) to be accepted, where acceptance counts the most.

It is interesting however, that you bring up Philip Schaff, for I do think of him and others (and their assembled works) each time I see Newman trotted out on these pages.

[NKP_Vet]

I don’t really think I have ever heard someone call a former Angelical Bishop, then a Roman Catholic Cardinal......not a Christian.

The height of anti-Catholic bigotry on FR boggles the mind.

[Elsie]

... unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

Here's a good one for you, narses...

[Elsie]

The height of anti-Catholic bigotry on FR boggles the mind.

The height of anti-PROTESTant bigotry on FR boggles the soul.

[dsc]

“The height of anti-PROTESTant bigotry on FR boggles the soul.”

Remind me, what do we call it when someone utters a statement he knows to be false? Would that be the “L” word?

There is not and never has been a scintilla of anti-protestant bigotry on FR.

[Elsie]

Remind me, what do we call it when someone utters a statement he knows to be false?

First I'd have to KNOW how you KNOW that he KNOWS it to be false.

Do you have a specific example or is this a broad brush attempt to cover up dissent?

[Elsie]

[BlueDragon]

There is not and never has been a scintilla of anti-protestant bigotry on FR.

[NKP_Vet]

“Newman trotted out on these pages”.

Newman is hated by PROTESTants because he became Catholic.

Guess that’s the same reason they hate Sitting Bull.

http://taylormarshall.com/2011/04/photo-sitting-bull-wore-crucifix.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+taylormarshall+%28Canterbury+Tales+by+Taylor+Marshall%29

And Sitting Bull’s old buddy Buffalo Bill was a Catholic convert.

Norma McCorvey - aka Jane Roe. Her name will forever be linked to the horror of legalized abortion but her soul is committed to God and the pro-life cause. She became a Catholic at a Mass concelebrated by Fr. Frank Pavone.

Then there’s.....

Bob Hope
John Wayne
Laura Ingram
Newt Gingrich
Gary Cooper
Malcom Muggeridge
Robert Bork
Jeb Bush
King Charles II of England and his brother James II of England
Cardinal Avery Dulles
Lord David Alton - British politician and member of the House of Lords
Actress Susan Hayward
Doc Holiday
Bobby Jindal
Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC)
Joyce Kilmer, poet/Writer
Larry Kudlow
Father Richard John Neuhaus
Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa’s successor in the Missionaries of Charity
Robert Novak
Walker Percy
Vincent Price
Notre Dame Coach Knute Rockne
Frances Shand Kyd - Princess Di’s mother
Tony Snow
Satchel Paige

And that’s just a few notable Catholic converts.

[MarkBsnr]

The height of anti-PROTESTant bigotry on FR boggles the soul.

It's a junior form of boggle.

[BlueDragon]

Philip Marshall --- more and more "Self Justification" distortions, with the distortions and contortions needed for justification of particular Romish aspects of Catholicism, just the same recycled partial-truths and special pleadings they were when Rome was more embarrassingly seen to have long been run off the main rails onto some series of sidings, of it's own "developmental" makings.

I've looked at his stuff. It's not that good. Same old recycled stuff, for the most part. I'm not impressed, nor should I be, for I have encountered the Lord in much fullness, far from the narrow confines of the church of Rome.

[Elsie]

Newman is hated by PROTESTants because he became Catholic.

He IS??

What a shame!

[BlueDragon]

correction — I meant Taylor Marshall. Not some poor “Philip” somewhere...

[BlueDragon]

"It's a junior form of boggle."

And if you think that's funny (it was);

A Whopper Jr. is not exactly a Whopper. But eat enough of them, and...

[NKP_Vet]

Why are PROTESTants still protesting 500 years later? LOL.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Man! I don’t hate any of those “notable examples” - though I did notice you didn’t include Reid, Pelosi, etc.

I hope all come to saving faith in Christ, including your list and you.