Catholics learning the bible

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I guess it really just depends on where you grow up. I have always learned scripture and studied it BECAUSE I am Catholic, not in spite of it.
 
Thank you so much, what a great forum, I feel so good just knowing that we are informing each other with great resources! I thank you all for your good words and sharing your resources with me! I will continue to work at being an ambassador for our Lord and ask him to use my desire for knowledge to bring others to Our Church! The True Church, The Catholic Church!
 
Im catholic and have read the new testament close to 25 times and the old testament also.
 
Razanir said:
If you’re interested in answering these for her, definitely start threads for them, or even just do a search on the forums. Here’s a few quick answers, though:

My usual defense of prayer to the saints– You ask people on Earth to pray for you. What’s so different about asking someone already in Heaven?

Statues– Statues are not evil, unlike how many Protestant churches interpret the 1st/2nd Commandment (Catholics and Lutherans use a different numbering than most Christian groups). God actually told the Isrealites to make statues on several occasions. Such as the Cherubim on the Arc of the Covenant or the snake statue from Exodus. Also, if you’re against making images of people or things, why do you carry around money? Why do you have pictures of family members? If making any sort of a statue or image is against that commandment, money and family pictures are also sinful.
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Thanks so much its funny I was just on UCatholic, and on No Apologies #19 he answers us, take a listen here is the link ucatholic.com/apologetics/19/
 
Before I converted to the Catholic faith I had the same misconception, thinking that Catholics don’t read their bibles, now I know that they are the most biblically rich tradition of all! it’s just that the scriptures are reprinted for ease of reading in the missal/hymn book in your pew! I also wanted longer meatier homilies from my Priest but finally I realized that it was up to me to “flesh” out for myself the daily scripture readings due to obvious time constraints that a Mass usually has. If I wanted a Catholic bible sturdy I had to either start one (with my Priests permission) or join one already in progress or ask my Priest to Lead one. If I wanted to go deeper into the Catholic faith I either went on-line or to my local Catholic book store and I could always turn on EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) for great Catholic teachings! It will be 16 years since I’ve entered the “fullness of the faith” and my journey has been rich, rewarding, deep, and spiritual. I will never be able to “plum” the richness of our faith in my life time but I am sure trying to! I weep for those who just go through the motions and don’t know what a truely living vibrant Catholic faith awaits them just for their small effort. I’ve also prayed for truely “hungry for the Word” Catholic friends and God has never disappointed me. May God bless you as you go deeper into your faith.
 
caytee said:
Before I converted to the Catholic faith I had the same misconception, thinking that Catholics don’t read their bibles, now I know that they are the most biblically rich tradition of all! it’s just that the scriptures are reprinted for ease of reading in the missal/hymn book in your pew! I also wanted longer meatier homilies from my Priest but finally I realized that it was up to me to “flesh” out for myself the daily scripture readings due to obvious time constraints that a Mass usually has. If I wanted a Catholic bible sturdy I had to either start one (with my Priests permission) or join one already in progress or ask my Priest to Lead one. If I wanted to go deeper into the Catholic faith I either went on-line or to my local Catholic book store and I could always turn on EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) for great Catholic teachings! It will be 16 years since I’ve entered the “fullness of the faith” and my journey has been rich, rewarding, deep, and spiritual. I will never be able to “plum” the richness of our faith in my life time but I am sure trying to! I weep for those who just go through the motions and don’t know what a truely living vibrant Catholic faith awaits them just for their small effort. I’ve also prayed for truely “hungry for the Word” Catholic friends and God has never disappointed me. May God bless you as you go deeper into your faith.
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2nd Timothy 2:15 (New Testament) “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”. RSV edition
 
mconti21 said:
I have been a Catholic all my life, recently my sister who has left the church several years ago decided to try to go back, She is attending a Local church that is not Catholic. They are having a bible study and she asked me to attend with her, I have been going, their bible has 66 books ours has an additional 8 books. I have enjoyed the teaching and love the women in the group, but I am a Catholic,

Why are we never taught to read scripture, and ruminate on it, It really is so uplifting and makes me love mass on Sunday!! I can relate to the readings and the gospel!! I would love for the homily to be used to Teach not for daily announcements and updating us on the finances of the church as a whole, I do understand that it is important to stay abreast of the current happenings especially the Cardinals right now who are facing such a large task, but being rich in scripture will help us pray for them and with them.

Proverbs 3: 5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight

Wow, isn’t that so powerful, just to communicate with God using his words that were recorded for us to refer to when we are unsure of our path!!!

Thank you Lord for all of your guidance that you are sending us at this time, I ask that you care for these men that have such a difucult task,in picking someone to lead your church!!! We trust in you, your word is the lamp for my feet, a light for my path! Amen

I would love to know why we don’t use apologist’s more often, why don’t we learn how rich scripture is??
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Wow. Your post really spoke to me on a personal level. First let me say that I used to be anti-Catholic and enjoyed throwing “knowledge” at those who did not understand their own faith. Every Catholic should seek to understand their beliefs and be able to somewhat explain them to anyone who asks. You can do this by attending scripture studies at your parish or with books by Catholic apologists. Or simply read from the wealth of Catholic information online.

The verses from Proverbs are the same ones I used to recite over and over while praying to God to guide me into His truth while I was studying the Catholic faith. As you can see, I’m now preaching what I used to attack so those verses will always hold a special place in my heart.

There is danger in studying scripture on your own however. We can see the thousands of different Protestant denominations that can arise without the Church to guide us. Just as our country has judges and legislators to interpret the Constitution for us, so does the Holy Church with scripture.
 
Apolojez said:
Wow. Your post really spoke to me on a personal level. First let me say that I used to be anti-Catholic and enjoyed throwing “knowledge” at those who did not understand their own faith. Every Catholic should seek to understand their beliefs and be able to somewhat explain them to anyone who asks. You can do this by attending scripture studies at your parish or with books by Catholic apologists. Or simply read from the wealth of Catholic information online.

The verses from Proverbs are the same ones I used to recite over and over while praying to God to guide me into His truth while I was studying the Catholic faith. As you can see, I’m now preaching what I used to attack so those verses will always hold a special place in my heart.

There is danger in studying scripture on your own however. We can see the thousands of different Protestant denominations that can arise without the Church to guide us. Just as our country has judges and legislators to interpret the Constitution for us, so does the Holy Church with scripture.
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My suggestion would be to either get a catholic study bible or a catholic commentary.
 
mconti21 said:
Thank you! I would like to lead my sister back to our church, she has been telling me, why do you pray to saints? why not go directly to God? why do we have stautues in church? why do we believe in Baptisim at when young or sacrements? I would llike to know where the answers are for these questions so I can stand firm in my belief and be able to defend our religion.
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I’d recommend 3 books to help…
  1. Rome Sweet Home by Scott & Kim Hahn. It’s a lovely narrative of their conversion and answers some doctrinal issues.
  2. Born Fundamentalist Born Again Catholic by David Currie. This book addresses doctrine differences much more systematically and would be a good resource to answer specific issues.
  3. Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating. This may be a bit more heady as it’s written to answer the “professional” anti Catholic rather than a layman struggling but has more excellent perspectives.
If I had to get just one I’d get David Currie. But all I think would be helpful.
 
october_baby said:
I am trying to get on the committee that decides what taught in our church. My first
suggestion is going to be bible study.
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And, there are many great bible studies for Catholics!

I have attended one called “The Great Adventure” which starts at Genesis. It lasts for 24 weeks and there is homework questions, discussion, and a DVD by Jeff Cavins. Altogether it is two hours, once a week. It is inspiring, and very Catholic.
 
Dorothy said:
And, there are many great bible studies for Catholics!

I have attended one called “The Great Adventure” which starts at Genesis. It lasts for 24 weeks and there is homework questions, discussion, and a DVD by Jeff Cavins. Altogether it is two hours, once a week. It is inspiring, and very Catholic.
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Thank you! If I get on I’ll recommend it. 🙂
 
latingirl said:
Catholics do read Scripture at every Mass we have three readings plus our hymns are loaded with Scripture references. If you are asking why more Catholics don’t study Scripture at home, it’s because they are lazy NOT because they aren’t taught. Our bishop comes to visit our parish twice a year and he’s always telling us “Read the Bible” The former-pope constantly told us to read the Bible. So the statement we aren’t taught is completely false.

There is alot of laziness in people. You will find it in all churches really, even those that have Bible studies. Yes, Catholics are notorious for laziness. many of them have Bibles at home but don’t study them. I can’t explain it in any way besides laziness because every single serious Catholic I know studies the Bible.

Personally, the study of Scripture is what made me a Catholic. Every church I’ve been to offered some kind of Bible study- along with the readings during Mass. If you are upset about your particular parish not having a Bible study, offer to start one or suggest to start one. Please, never ever assume it isn’t officially taught or encouraged, that is what those people in Protestant Churches say and it isn’t true at all. It is a misunderstanding. Please don’t fall for it. The Church offers indulgences for reading Scriptures.

Most people don’t know about apologetics. I leave apologetic material at my church to get people interested.

The reason why Catholics have 7 more books in their Bible is because they use the Canon prescribed by the early Christians and ratified in the Councils of Rome and Carthage. Protestants use the Canon of the pharisees, ratified in 100 AD.But this is horribly inconsistent because if Protestants insist on this Canon, they wouldn’t be using the New Testament. The Catholic Canon is correct and was used by all Christians until Luther protested it.
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We had this conversation before, it must be a location thing, you’re lucky to have this encouragement, as my location does not encourage us to read scripture, but you could say that it is common sense.
 
latingirl said:
. . .every single serious Catholic I know studies the Bible.

Personally, the study of Scripture is what made me a Catholic. Every church I’ve been to offered some kind of Bible study- along with the readings during Mass. If you are upset about your particular parish not having a Bible study, offer to start one or suggest to start one. Please, never ever assume it isn’t officially taught or encouraged, that is what those people in Protestant Churches say and it isn’t true at all. It is a misunderstanding. Please don’t fall for it. The Church offers indulgences for reading Scriptures.

Most people don’t know about apologetics. I leave apologetic material at my church to get people interested.

The reason why Catholics have 7 more books in their Bible is because they use the Canon prescribed by the early Christians and ratified in the Councils of Rome and Carthage. Protestants use the Canon of the pharisees, ratified in 100 AD.But this is horribly inconsistent because if Protestants insist on this Canon, they wouldn’t be using the New Testament. The Catholic Canon is correct and was used by all Christians until Luther protested it.
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I’m glad that evangelicals insisted on reading the Bible, because it’s difficult to avoid the fact that the simplest interpretation of various texts is the one the Church has always affirmed & stood by. How does one ‘eat and drink condemnation’ at communion if the elements aren’t really Christ’s Body & Blood?

The Protestant myth dies hard, because scripture reading isn’t necessary for salvation; as the history of the Church shows, it’s very easy for people to confuse the personal inspirations or ideas they glean from scripture to run off into the blue. As the proverb has it, the devil can cite scripture for his purposes. . .

Recently I’ve come across references to the Church fathers who pointed out that Jewish authorities excised passages & removed books that too clearly indicated that Jesus is indeed the Christ (and were still left with substantive references that couldn’t easily be pulled out, but which could be more readily explained away).
 
I have been told and thought that Catholics do not read the Bible. I am finding that not to be true at all. With the daily readings, you have the first and great encouragement. Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is another great encouragement. Before praying the Rosary I like to look up each Mystery and read related scripture, it really helps in mediation of them.

I do not think I have been on any Catholic site or blog that did not use tons of scripture. When going to a protestant church, for the most part you bring your Bible. I have realized that is almost like a badge stating they are Christians. We don’t need to take our Bibles because the Scripture is right there in the Missals. With every church it falls on to each person to read and study God’s word.
 
TwinMommy said:
I have been told and thought that Catholics do not read the Bible. I am finding that not to be true at all. With the daily readings, you have the first and great encouragement. Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is another great encouragement. Before praying the Rosary I like to look up each Mystery and read related scripture, it really helps in mediation of them.

I do not think I have been on any Catholic site or blog that did not use tons of scripture. When going to a protestant church, for the most part you bring your Bible. I have realized that is almost like a badge stating they are Christians. We don’t need to take our Bibles because the Scripture is right there in the Missals. With every church it falls on to each person to read and study God’s word.
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👍👍
 
mconti21 said:
Thank you! I would like to lead my sister back to our church, she has been telling me, why do you pray to saints? why not go directly to God? why do we have stautues in church? why do we believe in Baptisim at when young or sacrements? I would llike to know where the answers are for these questions so I can stand firm in my belief and be able to defend our religion.
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Read/listen to Tim Staples’ materials! He’s a former Pentacostal/Evangelical preacher who teaches biblical Catholic apologetics that correct Protestant errors wonderfully!

youtube.com/watch?v=fcQwoGDFVl4

Also, for your efforts to evangelize sleepy uninformed Catholics, read Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell.
 
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