Bible Study Pros and Cons

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iguana27:
Wisdom, does this ever present a challenge to your faith? Do you find it difficult to discern what is not in line with Catholic teaching? Are they tolerant of your view of the Scripture?
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It hasn’t yet presented a challenge to my faith. I was a cradle catholic, with pretty much no training etc. It was very easy to leave the church. I never went anywhere else, just not to church. When I did start feeling God calling me I did an extensive study of Christian churches, what they believe, how they worship, history etc. The only one that made any sense to me was Catholicism. This is my choice, I left before because I didn’t know the Church, I’m not leaving it again.

I think it gives me a reason to really dig deeper into the faith. I haven’t found it difficult to discern what is not in line with Catholic teaching, Praise God! I do alot of talking to my priest & other friends to make sure I’m not out of line.

Some are tolerant, some are not. In one of my first classes we were studying Exodus & they cross-referenced John 6:22-71, well, the group leader was very careful to make sure we all understood that Jesus was just speaking symbolically, I disagreed & stated that I believed in the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in the Eucharist. We went back and forth with that a few times until she realized that I did understand what she was saying then she just shrugged her shoulders & went on. There’s really not much time for discussion, they try to get through all the questions. I’ve had a few people come up to me after class to tell me that they felt bad that I was singled out etc. Now I do try to focus on what we do agree on, most of them only know Catholics from what they’ve heard. However if there’s any Pope or Mary bashing I know I have to speak up, so far I haven’t had to. I have also met some “on the fence” Catholics that I try to encourage and instruct (I didn’t know my faith & if I was in a non-Catholic Bible study then I probably would have really left the Church) and I pray that they don’t leave the Church.
 
I started read the bible daily in 1967, when I had to go into the field in the military. A priest gave me a copy of the bible and told me to read. He did this because I could not attend church on Sunday.

When I came back to the states I found a Catholic resource for read the bible daily. It was “God’s Word Today”. Throughout the years I have read every book of the bible, many two or three times.

I believe every Catholic should be reading the bible daily as part of their devotions. I recommend the above guide in doing so.

I am the leader in our local parish’s bible study. We use Scott Hahn cource on catholicexchange.com.
 
I am very fortunate to be able to attend the women’s bible study at my parish due to the fact I do not work outside the home. Our bible study is from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., so a lot of the women in our parish are not able to attend.
 
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Mummybee:
My parish had a bible study during lent, but it was held on weekday mornings at 9 am!!! I wonder what kind of turnout they got, considering the day and hour…that’s what kept me from going. I had to be at work then.

I think that our parishes need to make adult catechesis more available to those who are not in the RCIA classes. I think we need to study the bible and the catechism faithfully. My sister left the church about 8 years ago and joined the baptists. They have “Sunday School” for adults and children every Sunday. They are constantly studying their faith. Why don’t we? It seems like there is an unspoken acceptance that after confirmation, we don’t ‘need’ to go any further with it. There are so many adult Catholics raising their children who have a very flawed or inadequate understanding of their own faith. This is a pitiful situation, imho.
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we provide Bible studies during the day for moms, shift workers and retirees, on weeknights for working people, on Saturday morning during CCD for parents and other adults. All adults of the parish are invited to participate in Sunday morning RCIA and confirmation classes, but none have chosen to do so. Sunday classes have been offered for adults at different times but never elicited any interest. At any of the adult classes, whether bible study or other topics, in English or Spanish seldom more than half a dozen attend.

The attitude that confirmation constitutes “graduation” from religious education results, as you say, from a very flawed or inadequate understanding of the faith on the part of adults, and is indeed a pitiful situation. So is the attitude that graduation from high school or college means you know everthing and have no more need to learn, read or study. Every employer who hires recent college graduates will tell you the first few years are their training and on the job education, because they receive only the fundamentals in college.

Intellectual laziness is also a part of the problem, and the state of our culture indicates this is an epidemic.
 
There aren’t Bible studies that I know of in the area I have recently moved, but with my health, I wouldn’t be able to attend one anyways. Sadly, I’m confined to the CA Forums 😉 . Thank you everyone for helping me and God Bless.
 
(Jesus the Christ.)

Master teacher,master carpenter and reported to be the son of God,not recorded to have ever written anything with no one on earth having any idea as tho what he may have looked like.
 
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iguana27:
Do you have a bible study in your parish? Have you attended it? If there were one, would you attend it?

Do you think that Bible study is important for Catholics?
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2. Absolutely 🙂 - one can hardly share the good news of a Jesus Christ of whose life and significance one knows nothing. As Frank Sheed pointed out.​

  1. If there were one, yes, definitely. ##
 
If there is no Bible study in your parish, and you would like there to be one, perhaps the Lord is prompting you to get the wheels in motion.

If you can’t teach/lead it yourself, find someone who can. Talk to your priest and/or adult education leader for direction on this venture. If this is a need in your parish, I believe it would be a great disservice to your parish community to simply go somewhere else. You have this on your heart because the Lord is trying to use you.

Blessings
 
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drforjc:
Too often people’s opinions which frankly did not always match with the official teaching of the magisterium were put forth and there on equal footing with church teaching and a whole session could be spent correcting the error which often ignited dissension within the group as a result.
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We have followed specifically designed studies that have cross referenced each answer with the exact reference to the Catechism. I did not experience the problems you write about. I think the group I am in is fairly conservative and orthodox, and perhaps does not question the catechism and it’s truth.
 
I wish I could trust the teaching at our parish but unfortunately I do not. I went to one series and when things were said that didn’t sound correct I questioned it and the instructor brushed me off. I asked the pastor if it was in the Catechism and was told that the Catechism wasn’t written for lay persons. He also doesn’t like EWTN or anyone associated with it. Basically I don’t think they want questioning persons in their class and I want orthodox teaching that is loyal to our pope. I would love to be in a group with an awesome teacher who loves our church and and our pope. Occassionally I think of changing parishes but the church I go to is only 5 blocks away. So now I get my teaching from EWTN TV and radio and from you good people here on CAF. I go to mass at the church down the street and that’s all.
 
In our parish there is an ongoing Bible Study for a group of women that meet every Thursday Morning. In the Fall we have one and during Lent another which is made up of small groups of ten to twenty that meet at different times and in different places(In the Church, in homes, or a Senior Citizen Residence. The participants are male and female of a broad spectrum of ages. Our evangelization committee picks a particular study for use by everyone for any given season. For example in Lent of Last year we did the Passion in all four Gospels, Lent this year was the book of Wisdom, Last Fall it was Revelation. This coming Fall it will be Women of the New Testament. We also had a 28 week study of John’s Gospel with CD’s by Father Echert of ETWN renown and Pastor of St. Augustines in St. Paul, MN. The shorter ones are usually from the Little Rock series. We are currently looking for another longer term study for next year and are considering Bible Time Line. Everyone has enough fun that they look forward to the next one. Usually the small groups stay together with a few drops or additions for a particular group. No one really becomes an expert, but we all learn.
 
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