How To Get Catholics To Read the Scriptures?

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Fidelis

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Carried from another thread…

What can we do, as individuals, to get our fellow Catholics to read the Bible?
 
Question them on the beliefs that Catholics hold. Sometimes in order to bring someone to scripture you have to ask them to prove something to you.
 
Inspire them with your witness.

Discuss some of what you have read with them.

Reflect on the scriptural aspect of the Mass, make that connection.

Find the thread that can link them or an action to a passage in the bible, and then introduce them to it.

</end brainstorm>

SG257
 
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Fidelis:
What can we do, as individuals, to get our fellow Catholics to read the Bible?
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The process is called enculturation: changing a culture. To do this, you start by changing the values of the culture. The culture itself exists only in the discourse between individuals, and so you introduce into that discourse validations of the new value which you want the culture to adopt.

You present knowledge of the Bible as a highly-desirable trait. You praise other people for their knowledge of the Bible. You express a desire to know the Bible better, and you connect a better knowledge of the Bible with other positive values in the culture: holiness, godliness, etc.

This is the method used by companies which want to advertise their products and by governments which want the public to support their wars. It works.
 
Everyone should buy The Catholic Answer Bible which is such a great tool I doubt any Catholic would not open it up and read what it has to say. It explains the majority of Catholic doctrines and sacraments from “scriptural basis for the papacy” to “infant baptism”, the “eucharist”, and “the deuterocanonical books.”

Check it out 👍
 
An appropriate quote from Pope Benedict XVI at his audience just yesterday:
The assiduous study of Holy Scripture, accompanied by prayer, initiates that intimate exchange in which, reading, we listen to God Who speaks and, praying, we reply to him with faithful openness of heart. If effectively promoted, this practice will, I am convinced, bring a new spiritual springtime. As a fixed point in biblical pastoral activity, ‘Lectio divina’ should, then, be further encouraged, also by the use of new methods, carefully studied and in keeping with the times."
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I agree it’s a culture change and that will take time.

A few thoughts:

Ask your priest to TEACH from the Mass readings during his homily at least one Sunday a month. Quoting chapter and verse would be an added bonus… quoting a few related Catechism paragraphs even better. This may sound silly, but in many parishes we need to start from below ground level - - actually giving people an ‘ear’ for the names of the books of the bible and getting them used to hearing chapter and verse to spark their interest and to bring those words into their vocabulary. It’s all part of re-conditioning ourselves.

Others need to see us, and especially our priests and nuns reading OUR bibles, or at least hear us talking occasionally about reading our bibles if they can’t see us do it (such as before Mass, during Adoration, etc.) Now I’m sure most priests read their bibles during their personal time with the Lord, but I can honestly say I personally have never heard a priest say something to the effect of ‘I was reading my bible the other night’, or 'as I was studying the bible to prepare for this homily’. Instead I’ve heard ‘as i was preparing for this homily I was thinking…’. If they use the bible to prepare for the homily, they need to say it. It’s part of the culture change and the mind-set change. People around us need to witness with their eyes and ears that, ‘hey, there are Catholics who read the bible. What a concept!’.

Adult catechesis and apologetics. We have a lot of lost ground to make-up, and as our Bishop recently said (me paraphrasing), “we have lost 2 generations of Catholics mainly due to poor catechesis. We have a lot of souls to bring back to the faith and a lot of apologizing to do for not educating them properly.”
 
Lots of Catholics DO read the Scriptures. They also read the Catechism. They read works of St. Teresa, they read the Church Fathers. They read the pillars and tracts and these forums, and those on other Catholic sites as well. They read well known prayers and devotions. They sing sacred songs.

Rather than being so (excuse the term) parochial, as though Catholics, and only Catholics, have somehow more of a need to read the Bible than any other Christian group (um, are we going to get the Mormans and the Jehovah Witnesses to read the Scriptures too?), why not ask how to get more PEOPLE to LEARN THEIR FAITH–and that means ALL their faith.

The Bible is wonderful.

Cookbooks are wonderful, too. But if the only thing that I did about cooking was read “the Joy of Cooking”, I might be able to discourse learnedly of sauce bechamel, or tell you how to devein a shrimp–but would I know WHY the sauce came about, could I actually MAKE it in my kitchen, and would I understand not just the theory but the PRACTICE of cooking?

Naturally the Bible is far MORE than even a classic book like the Joy, but even so, it cannot be used, as so many who clamor “READ THE BIBLE”, as some sort of catch-all Do It Yourself Guide. You HAVE to have the guidance of the Holy Spirit–you have to have the teachings of the Magesterium, you have to have a lot of solid foundation of faith teaching, INCLUDING the scriptures, before you just try to “coast along” and “read the Bible”.

There is a lot more to reading any book, but especially the Bible, than just sitting down, starting at the beginning of a chapter, and stopping at the end.
 
Good ideas, all! Another possibility is to encourage people to say some of the prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours:
universalis.com/cgi-bin/display/-600/USA/today.htm

Not only will they be joining priests, nuns, monks and lay people in saying these prayers but they will be exposed to a wider scope of the Bible. And natural curiosity may encourage them to delve deeper. 🙂
 
Tantum ergo:
Lots of Catholics DO read the Scriptures. They also read the Catechism. They read works of St. Teresa, they read the Church Fathers. They read the pillars and tracts and these forums, and those on other Catholic sites as well. They read well known prayers and devotions. They sing sacred songs.
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There is no question that we Catholics are *exposed * to a large amount of Scripture. I was referring to a more systematic study where one gets familiar with the layout, how to look things up, the general flow of events, and perhaps engaging in a personal or facilitated group study to draw out the implications of certain texts, like the Sunday readings.
Rather than being so (excuse the term) parochial, as though Catholics, and only Catholics, have somehow more of a need to read the Bible than any other Christian group (um, are we going to get the Mormans and the Jehovah Witnesses to read the Scriptures too?),
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I singled out Catholics because I’m a Catholic, this is a Catholic forum, and, arguably, Catholics are not generally known for their dedication to Scripture reading. Thus the specific thrust of this thread. I’ll let the JW’s and LDS take care of themselves. 🙂
why not ask how to get more PEOPLE to LEARN THEIR FAITH–and that means ALL their faith.
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Which includes reading the Scriptures. It doesn’t have to be a broad and vague approach, and it doesn’t have to be either/or.
Naturally the Bible is far MORE than even a classic book like the Joy, but even so, it cannot be used, as so many who clamor “READ THE BIBLE”, as some sort of catch-all Do It Yourself Guide. You HAVE to have the guidance of the Holy Spirit–you have to have the teachings of the Magesterium, you have to have a lot of solid foundation of faith teaching, INCLUDING the scriptures, before you just try to “coast along” and “read the Bible”.
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No argument there. No one would like to see this approach to the Scriptures more than me. 🙂 The question at hand is how we can do it better.
There is a lot more to reading any book, but especially the Bible, than just sitting down, starting at the beginning of a chapter, and stopping at the end.
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I don’t remember anyone implying that there wasn’t, but for the record, again, I agree. On the other hand, I think it’s more helpful on this particular issue to think about what we CAN do better, rather than what can, or is, being done badly. Thanks for your comments. 🙂
 
**Tell them Catholics are the only ones who truly read ,live and interpret the Bible. Explain that the problem is the Bible is a very large book with many request , requirements and instructions from God that most other denominations dont want to hear or follow.

SARA**
 
The easiest way to get Catholics to read the Bible, who otherwise don’t, is to get them started reading the daily Mass readings. It only takes about 10 to 15 minutes time to read and meditate on them.

The Mass readings take us through the Bible (in snippets) over a 3 year cycle. They are published in many parish bulletins, and if they aren’t published in yours ask that they be included.

There are lots of simple meditation booklets to go with the daily readings if people aren’t aware of what they should be looking for when they read. Magnificat Magazine is a good example of these, in fact, the best one, IMHO. But, there are others out there. You only have to ask at your local Catholic bookstore.
 
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Fidelis:
An appropriate quote from Pope Benedict XVI at his audience just yesterday:
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That was an awesome quote! Where can I find the complete text of the address?
 
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