How to Study the Bible as a Catholic

 As a Catholic Deacon, I am sometimes asked, "How do you study and gain understanding of the bible?".

Always a good and welcome question, because as a catholic, we do not interpret the bible on our own (at least, we're not supposed to). 

The 2nd question that goes along with the first is, "What bible do you read?". My answer is always the douay-rheims version. Here is a link to the 96 page booklet that explains all of the reasons why this is the most accurate version:

http://advancedchristianity.com/pages/mpc/docs/which_bible_should_you_read.pdf


Now that we have the proper version, the first place I go is the teaching/commentary of all of the Church Fathers. Wouldn't it be nice if there was already a place where all of the early teachings of the scriptures by the Church Fathers has been compiled? Luckily for us, there is. It was compiled my none other than St. Thomas Aquinas in a 4 volume set called the "Catena Aurea". Over 2700 pages of bible commentary from the Church Fathers (online version here:)

https://www.immaculatalibrary.com/books/catena-aurea.html


My 2nd "go to" source is the Great Commentary of Cornelius A'Lapide, which is an 8 volume set and covers more that just the Gospels. Cornelius A'Lapide's created a Scripture commentary so complete and scholarly that it was practically the universal commentary in use by Catholics for hundreds of years. All 8 volumes can be found here:

https://ecatholic2000.com/lapide/untitled-170.shtml


If you begin to read the commentary just on Matthew 26:51-52, you will see that it covers a lot of ground. There are references to other sources, and other bible verses, which all have commentary of their own to dig into. You can spend a great deal of time reading and researching only two verses of Scripture!

As a Catholic Deacon, these are my starting points. There are other sources that I might use, but I never give my own personal opinion about what a Gospel verse means. As for all the non-catholic christians out there, you can be assured that reading the bible will benefit anyone who cares enough to read it with faith.The Holy Spirit will guide you no matter, as God does not require your understanding to inspire you.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Kurgan promotes Lust and Masturbation

Image
The Kurgan is now promoting lust and masturbation as a path to martial bliss.  To set the table, let's take a look at the official Catholic definitions of "Lust" and "Mastubation" LUST - A disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes. Source - Catechism of the Catholic Church 1992 - #2351 MASTURBATION - The deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. Masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action. The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to it's purpose. Source - CCC - #2351 And we also see by the sin of Onan, who God slew, God does not approve of contraception, which Onan was guilty of by "pulling out" and wasting his seed on the ground. Source - https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-s...
Read more

Pope Francis says that all religions lead to God, and he is absolutely correct.

Image
Before all of you "trad" and "faithful" christians or catholics get your shorts in a bunch and start in with the rash judgement, let's take a deep breath..... Breath in....... Hold,,,,,, Breath out.        Breath in........Hold........Breath out...... OK. Now that we have relaxed our muscles and a we have a brain full of oxygen, let's discuss. The article is here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-pope-francis-every-religion-is-a-way-to-arrive-at-god/ Now, let's break down the article, and analyze what is said and the context in which it was said. " Pope Francis today told young people of different faiths that “every religion is a way to arrive at God.” Addressing an inter-religious meeting of young people in Singapore just before departing for his return flight to Rome, Pope Francis turned to one of the central themes of his pontificate – inter-religious dialogue." So far, so good. The Pope is speaking to a group of young people of di...
Read more

Three Marriages, No Annulments — The Domestic Contradiction of The Kurgan

“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled.” — Hebrews 13:4 The Kurgan never misses a chance to attack others for their failings, especially in matters of faith. He’s the first to declare someone “not a real Catholic,” denounce “fake clergy,” or assign people to the flames for liturgical imperfection. But when it comes to his own life , a strange silence takes hold. Or worse—an open contradiction. In his latest blog post, “The Cowards,” he casually admits: “I made plenty of errors too. Twice divorced and many women in between. BUT… I am now happily married with a sixth kid on the way.” The problem? He has never mentioned a single annulment . And as far as anyone can tell, he doesn’t recognize any ecclesiastical authority capable of granting one. After all, in his view, the Church has been “fake” since 1958. Which means this supposed champion of tradition and canon law is—by his own admission— on his third marriage, with no canonical process, n...
Read more