Bible illiterate Catholics--a small rant

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jennifer_J
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jennifer_J

Guest
Our parish has an religious ed program that’s for the whole parish, which is a great idea. It’s attended about as well as one would expect, which is less than there should be. Tonight was our second meeting and I was asked to be a facilitator for group discussion. Our theme tonight was scripture. Oh my goodness, there were people in my group who were clueless about the bible! I mean really clueless–my favorite question: what’s the difference between the old and new testament!!! :eek: Most were unable to locate Luke 6 or come up with a favorite verse (until I prompted them to think of their favorite bible story). I also told them they hear the bible read to them at each Mass!!! This was in response to the lady who said she was brought up strict Catholic and they didn’t read the bible…sigh I hope this prompts some of them to break open their bibles at least once! lol
Thanks for letting me vent. Pray for me during next month, the theme is the Eucharist, I can only imagine the questions…
Jennifer
 
how about a really basic start? lots of catholics haven’t read or seen the bible. so maybe there should be two religiious ed classes…
 
Jennifer,

Just plan to approach the Eucharist at that same level. There are plenty of Catholics out there (I was one once) who didn’t have so much as a clue. Your mission: teach them, bring them up to speed. Be happy that they are there. They are seeking that knowledge.

First find out where they stand in their understanding. Then be prepared to start from that point. If the information is presented correctly and with enthusiasm (Come Holy Spirit…), they will want more. You can light that fire in them.

Best of luck and patience to you,

SG257
 
I must admit to being a bible-illiterate Catholic.

My “excuse” is that I am a new convert and I can only learn so fast. I am very interested in learning more about Scripture, but there is not as much info out there as there is for stuff like Apologetics.

Plus, I am very scared of other people knowing the extent of my ignorance, especially in a class setting like you described.

I understand your frustration, but I think you need to have a little more patience if you want to be an effective teacher. There are so many reasons people may not be very familiar with the Bible…mine is just one of them.

Rejoice that they are now in your hands and God is trusting you with their instruction… make the most of it!

malia
 
As a religious ed coordinator for our community, I agree with many of these statements - including like Feanaro’s Wife. Hey we should all be continually learning. Unfortantely many people believe religious education ends after confirmation. The newest movement is a family program - so on Sundays everyone attends something either. It will take a while to catch on, but I have faith!

We are using a great video series called What Catholics Believe - it deals with basic beliefs to more complex issues. After a question the facilitators pauses the video and have a discussion about it. We even used it for our first meeting for Confirmation - for both parents and candidates.

Another great program I was in involved researching the Creed - backed with CCC, reviewing bible references, and apologetics. It was great because it could be used as a refresher course as well an advanced study.

Keep your chin held high! Sometimes we need to water the seed to make it flourish :).
 
Hey - GOOD JOB!!! Don’t give up - my Prayers will certainly be with you.

My advice - if you want it, lol - take it from the top. Give out some mild homework…for instance…memorize the books of the Bible. Memorize 1 verse per week [their own favorite - or one that you pick to educate the class with, like - “Wherever two or more are gathered in My Name, there I will be among them” Matt. 18:20.

Give scripture for everything you do and encourage them to look it up.

Peace…BTW…to me - there is no more important thing [Aside from conversion itself] than to know scripture…my reason:
Ephesians 6:10-18. Esp. VV14 & 17.

Peace
 
If they are adults and youth entering a religious education program, presumably it is because they are in need of religious eduction. It is the role of the catechist, aided by the director, to determine their needs and design the course to meet their needs. It would be far more productive to spend time to plan your course to provide the basic grounding in how to use the bible, rather than to rant and rave about their ignorance. the simplest way to do this is to take the syllabus you have, find the relevant scriptures for each topic, and after an orientation on how to do this, assign them to look up, read and journal about those scriptures as part of the lesson or homework. That is why I like using Journey of Faith from Liguori as part of RCIA and Confirmation classes for adults, because it requires them to do this. We begin each year with Bible Basics for 6 week.
 
Thanks for the advice! Lots of good things for me to remember.

Just to clarify a bit–
I, of course, answered their questions and joked with them about their being uncomfortable with the bible. I don’t think I made anyone feel bad and I truly felt they were interested (well, except one of the confirmation kids, who openly stated she didn’t like anything about the bible). My point, was really just to be shocked at the lack of knowledge. I’m a convert but had I remained a Protestant I wouldn’t have been good at it because I can’t necessarily cite chapter and verse, but I’m apparently a very knowledgable Catholic because I’m able to use a bible to find what I want. LOL

Also, I have nothing to do with planning these PEACE sessions, I’m just supposed to facilitate discussion–and was called the day before to do this. I prayed on my way there to be helpful for the group! I understand that people are in various places in their faith journey. Our program last night was led by our priest talking in general about scripture and the need to read scripture and then a small group discussion–there’s no lesson per se. In fact I think it’s too loosely planned with not enough support, but, again, I’m not in charge…

I was thinking of typing up a list of basic bible stories with chapter and verse for them as a reference. Do you think this would be good? I’m also contemplating contacting the leader with my concerns, what do you think??
Code: 
It would be far more productive to spend time to plan your course to provide the basic grounding in how to use the bible, rather than to rant and rave about their ignorance
btw, gosh, if I can’t rant a bit here, were can I go to express myself about being shocked at the lack of knowledge and maybe get a few ideas!? Puzzleannie, I felt a bit attacked with your post, I’m sure it wasn’t your intent (I hope). I was just looking for some insight and help so I can be effective as I go through this process! And let me say this again–I DIDN’T plan this course, I’m just a concerned facilitator!!!
God bless,
Jennifer
 
I have a similar rant. I’ve been going to my dad’s church w/ him for some Scripture presentations. Here you have a group of people (as you said, too small, but some none-the-less) who want to know. And then the people there are in my estimate - teaching them the wrong thing!!

They’re being filled with the junk that came out of the ‘enlightened’ German miminalist ‘theologians’.

It was pretty telling at the last one. There was a ‘doctor’ of something or other giving a presentation on the synoptic gospels. Where it was the same old garbage and when someone asks a tough question, the answer is “I don’t know” - because she was just parroting the garbage she’s been taught and she never thought to ask those kind of questions.

AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!! :banghead:
 
Jennifer J:
btw, gosh, if I can’t rant a bit here, were can I go to express myself about being shocked at the lack of knowledge and maybe get a few ideas!?
Click to expand...
Of course you can rant! You even gave us readers a forwarning with your post title! 😉

My read on your post was legitamate frustration, with a whisper of an appeal for how to approach next month.

…and you can make a big difference and feed their faith with the correct information. Even if you are not “running the show” you still have a voice. Who knows, just John 6 being explained with a bit of an apologetics tone can really sharpen their focus. I’ll bet they pay more attention to the Liturgy of the Eucharist after that! 😃
 
Hey, I think this is great. You have the people who *need *to be there, there! At our parish, the people who show up for the lent educations series, for example, are always the same folks who showed up last time.

This is awesome! You have the people who need help getting help! PTL!

Otherwise, I feel your pain.🙂
 
So many people have the messed up idea that Catholics are not supposed to read the Bible…which is wrong.

But if people are honest, you’ll find that it is much the same in the n-C churches. If their pastors didn’t preach it on Sunday they’d never crack it either, and if you go to discuss something with a rank and file n-C, most times you’ll find that they are not much more knowing about the Bible than the average Catholic.

I hung out with a couple of guys who used to regularly come at me about the Catholic faith and yet I found they knew almost diddly about the Bible. Which was great for me when it came to the defense of the faith! 😃

One thing that most people don’t realize is that the church offers indulgences for reading the Bible, so if it wasn’t important, then why would they encourage it that way?

Another important aspect is that most folks don’t realize that they can read the entire Bible in about a year if they just read about 3 chapters every day. I did it…(Fact is that I’ve read it several times) and I still read some of the Bible every day, either here online, or the good old fashioned way.

People who don’t read the Bible, just don’t know what they’re missing…and that’s a cryin’ shame.

BTW, I’d be sure that everyone has a good Bible of their own and maybe you could use a handout that has online Bibles with search engines. These are my two best choices.
Douay-Rheims searchable
Revised Standard Version with Deuterocanonicals
Pax vobiscum,
 
After several years of teaching adults in RCIA, Bible Study and Adult Confirmation I’ve learned to not expect a high level of biblical literacy or literacy in the Faith in general. As the above poster stated, however, it is a GREAT chance for you to plant some seeds from which a love for the Scriptures will grow. Some of the most gratifying moments I’ve had doing teaching the Faith have been seeing the light bulbs go on over the heads of those who have discovered something really cool about the Scriptures that they never knew. For example, I was leading an apologetics workshop where the topic was Mary. When I showed them the parallels between 2 Samuel and Luke 1 in showing how Mary is the Ark of the Covenant, they were astonished.

So go slow with them and give them some motivation to overcome their discomfort level in reading the Bible. It’s got to start somewhere, and you are blessed that God is using you!

Good luck and feel free to visit my webpage linked below for some helps and hints.
 
I would like to make a suggestion for anyone involved with Religious Ed on an adult level, that is studying scripture. In my opinion, a good starting point for scripture study is first study the Vat. II document Dei Verbum.

I feel this would offer several benefits. First, most Catholics are not familar with the teachings of this document as a work in its own right. Rather, many of us are only familiar with it as it is quoted in such works as the Catechism. But this is the document that gives us the Church’s teaching on Divine Revelation itself.

A second advantage, as I see it, is that given that most Catholics are really unfamilar with Dei Verbum, this would provide an opportunity of a shared learning experience amoung all involved in the Rel Ed program.

Finally, and perhaps the most important point, how can we come to the full appreciation of what the scriptures teach if we have a basic ignorance of the Church’s teaching of what exactly Divine Revelation is?
 
40.png
TOME:
I would like to make a suggestion for anyone involved with Religious Ed on an adult level, that is studying scripture. In my opinion, a good starting point for scripture study is first study the Vat. II document Dei Verbum.

I feel this would offer several benefits. First, most Catholics are not familar with the teachings of this document as a work in its own right. Rather, many of us are only familiar with it as it is quoted in such works as the Catechism. But this is the document that gives us the Church’s teaching on Divine Revelation itself.

A second advantage, as I see it, is that given that most Catholics are really unfamilar with Dei Verbum, this would provide an opportunity of a shared learning experience amoung all involved in the Rel Ed program.

Finally, and perhaps the most important point, how can we come to the full appreciation of what the scriptures teach if we have a basic ignorance of the Church’s teaching of what exactly Divine Revelation is?
Click to expand...
In theory, I agree this is a good thing to do. Contained in Dei Verbum is a wealth of insight and solid direction on the basis of which we as Catholics should approach the Scriptures.

On the other hand, as short and accessable a document as it might seem to those of us who are used to reading Church documents, it is very diificult for the average of Catholic to draw any benefit out of it without extensive guidance. It could take several weeks for a teacher to go through this document and do it enough justice to make it practical to the minimally religiously educated Catholic who comes to a class expecting to read the Bible and learn how it can change his life. Like it or not, many a Catholic has been turned off by too academic an approach to learning the Scriptures, and they end up turning to more simplistic resources, such as many “Bible churches” use.

Rather than attempting to study DV first in a block, I think it is more useful to incorporate the principles found therein into the Scripture study lessons themselves (much like the Catechism is used) so that one learns the Scriptures while learning at the same time about the Scriptures. That way, Catholic Bible students get a more well-balanced meal of the inspired Word and authoritative teaching.
 
Any time you get into a parish level scripture study group, I think it’s good to suggest that everyone look at the list of books in the Bible.

This accomplishes a couple things. It might help clear up the confusion between the NT and the OT. It might help them with the cross references that are given in many editions of the Bible. And, it may help make them aware of the differences between the gospel of John and the epistles attributed to him, and the book of Revelation as well.

I have been too eager to start up a bible discussion group in my parish and the pastor flatly rejected that five years ago. He’s still there. There’s still no bible study. Our parish’s 100th anniversary is coming up, and I pointed out to him that means there’s been no bible study there for that long, too. The “chain is unbroken” sad to say.

Best wishes and prayers for you.
 
It makes me happy that we actually HAVE a bible study, but as a teenager who’s also a Catholic, not many Catholics actually open up their bibles and just read. They’re too overwhelmed by the size of these bibles, and the bible studies given at my church are merely devotional and not aimed at the youth.

We have two little programs at my church: Bible study, which is devotional in character, and Scripture study (which I go to) and discusses the importance of Scripture in the church, from its formation and collaboration, to revelations, to seeing certain scenes in context with the Catholic Church.

I would be very impressed if more Catholic devoted teenagers had at least three favourite verses memorised. 😃
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top