"Duty" to read scripture?

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brian_custer said:
the “weeknight bible study” is supposed to be a substitute for the magestrium?
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Of course not. Why do you keep deliberately twisting the idea of reading the Bible? If you don’t want to, that’s your decision. But there’s no need to accuse those of us who follow the Church’s teaching on this of “private interpretation” and “replacing the magesterium.”
 
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Citizens know how to behave according to the law. But how many have read the law end to end?

It seems the goal is often confused with the method to achieve that goal. That’s the mistake the Pharisees made.

If we stay focus on the goal then we would realise any method to achieve that goal is fine. There is not just one method. However there is one goal.
 
brian_custer said:
the “weeknight bible study” is supposed to be a substitute for the magestrium?
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Of course not. Bible study, from a Catholic perspective, must be in unity with all of Catholic doctrine. I would never hold a Bible study without a Catechism handy.
 
He said he wasn’t trying to be mean - I think he wanted to understand. I threw out weeknight Bible study without realizing others might not know what I was talking about.
 
I started this topic to stimulate – I thought – a discussion of the good reasons for reading the Bible. The plethora of places to purchase a Catholic edition Bible should indicate that reading Scripture is a good idea.

I’m reading the Bible in a Year from Ascension Press, where the daily chunks of scripture are printed together under each day of the year. I generally look forward to the daily reading. There’s two passages from the OT and a passage from the NT, accompanied by a meditation. I think this version is very well-done (I have no commercial interest in saying this).

From one angle, I read about the sins that people commit and it gives me pause to reflect on my own sins.

From another angle, it gives me a daily devotion to focus on.

The readings are a commentary on the daily news and the problems with the world.

The Church has not passed official verdict on every verse in the Bible, because it is a living Word. One way we’re told to read it, is as if it were were written for each of us individually, to affect each of us. I don’t think we’re discouraged from forming an interpretation of scripture, but rather to keep an open mind to increasing our understanding of it.

For example, the baptism of Christ in the Jordan and the descent of the Holy Spirit is a rather strange event, until I reflect back on how the ministry of Elijah was transferred to Elisha – then the similarity explains a lot about what is going on.

Reading scripture forces me to think about how the Lord interacted with real people in history as a hope for Him acting in my life.
 
Part of my daily routine is to watch the monologue of Steven Colbert via DVR, So, I let it record and then watch it 1/2 hr later, skipping the commercials. Well, yesterday, he was spoofing ‘shark week’ and he did so by lighting a candle on a shark menorah – he may have referred to it as a shark-enorah.

I was offended.

The menorah is a sacred object in the Temple which symbolized the theophany of God in the burning bush. The menorah was to be kept burning constantly, symbolizing that the Word of God is living and sacred. The burning bush itself was not just an historical event, fading in the consciousness of the Jewish nation.

I was offended at this blasphemy for the sake of a joke, in late night TV, converting it into the symbol of a dangerous creature. So, this was the first night of shark week so Steve=n was lighting one candle, mocking the Chanukah observance, mocking the menorah.

Being familiar with scripture, I was offended.
 
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Dlee said:
He said he wasn’t trying to be mean - I think he wanted to understand. I threw out weeknight Bible study without realizing others might not know what I was talking about.
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If it had only been the one remark, I might agree. But when you look at all of his responses on this thread, there’s a pattern. I don’t understand how anyone could be hostile toward reading the Bible, but he is
 
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