Very random
Whenever I hear Protestants tell me that the Bible is all they need for salvation, does that mean that if they own the Physicians' Desk Reference, is that all they need to perform open heart surgery?
I saw some Peacenik bumper sticker the other day... "Arms Are For Hugging". They're also for choke holds.
Lastly, who really is Barack baby daddy?
Is that pic on the right a picture of Barrack??? Um...
ReplyDeleteTotally off topic: You've inspired me to create a totally CATHOLIC blog!! God bless!
~Michelle Therese
Protestants are wrong about the Bible being the complete answer book but many of them are right in holding it very high in their value sites to visit monthly with attentiveness. We all know educated Catholics who by the time they die, will not have read more than 150 pages of the bible on their own and yet will have read countless pages...thousands on thousands of pages... of mystery novels, spy novels, romance novels etc., Gourmet magazine, Travel magazine, biographies etc..... so Protestants are wrong dogmatically on the overview of the Bible but many of them are 100% right about a priority spectrum of one's reading material. And so if your house burns down and you don't have insurance, don't call the Catholic parish...call the Amish in PA and you just may have more luck finding a building crew.
ReplyDeleteThe annoying thing about bible alone is that different Protestant denominations define this phrase in different ways.
ReplyDeleteI attended an Independent Baptist church-before I was Catholic-which really thought that a person can't be saved if they don't hear scripture first.
I've talked to other Protestants who defined bible only as the bible, plus historical records, plus Strong's concordance(sp?) plus.....
Protestants are wrong about the Bible being the complete answer book but many of them are right in holding it very high in their value sites to visit monthly with attentiveness.
ReplyDeleteIn a three year liturgical cycle, Catholics have the entire Bible read to them at Mass. Coupled withthe fact that our Catechism is Biblically based, I'd venture to say that Catholics do a pretty damn good job of being exposed/reading The Holy Bible.
We all know educated Catholics who by the time they die, will not have read more than 150 pages of the bible on their own and yet will have read countless pages...thousands on thousands of pages... of mystery novels, spy novels, romance novels etc., Gourmet magazine, Travel magazine, biographies etc.....
And? You're painting with a pretty broad brush there, Bill. I really don't think Catholics have a monopoly on pissing away their time.
so Protestants are wrong dogmatically on the overview of the Bible but many of them are 100% right about a priority spectrum of one's reading material.
Again, you're painting with a fairly broad brush
And so if your house burns down and you don't have insurance, don't call the Catholic parish...call the Amish in PA and you just may have more luck finding a building crew.
Interesting point. But I do recall reading not that long ago that the Int'ntl Red Cross stated a certain organization that gave the most world-wide to charities/disaster relief. Can you guess what this particular organization is?
You got it... The Catholic Church.
CC,
ReplyDeleteThjat was one of the contestants (here in The States) from a year or two ago who was on American Idol... a certain phenomenon named Sanjiya. And what a 3 Ring Circus he was!
vir sc
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary as Aquinas would say. Several modern Popes (see ending quotation below) have urged the Catholic laity to read the Bible on their own and that contradicts your satiation with their hearing it at Mass only.
And by and large those Popes have been ignored ...a fact your post inadvertently attests to. Perhaps such Popes noticed that only the Catholic Bible notes memorization as a work that leads to helping other:
2 Maccabees 2:25 "we have aimed to please those who prefer simple reading, as well as to make it easy for the studious who wish to commit things to memory, and to be helpful to all."
Oddly after Aquinas, this memorization of Scripture that was in Aquinas preeminently and in Jerome and in Augustine to an encyclopedic degree falls off within Catholicism precipatedly in the face of Protestant stress on the Bible....so that post Aquinas there is no well known Catholic who memorized like Aquinas.
And yet when faced with the devil's quoting of Scripture, Christ quoted Scripture back and did not fault memorization but incomplete memorization in the devil: "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that cometh forth from the mouth of God."
Maybe that is why modern Popes urged Catholics to read it away from liturgy:
From Divino Afflante Spiritu (The Most Opportune Way to Promote Biblical Studies)
Pope Pius XII 30 September 1943:
"Pius X most heartily commended the Society of St. Jerome, which strives to promote among the faithful -- and to facilitate with all its power -- the truly praiseworthy custom of reading and meditating on the holy Gospels . . . proclaiming it 'a most useful undertaking, as well as most suited to the times,' seeing that it helps in no small way 'to dissipate the idea that the Church is opposed to or in any way impedes the reading of the Scriptures in the vernacular.' [Letter to Cardinal Casetta, 'Qui piam,' Jan. 21, 1907, Pii X Acta, 4,23-25] And Benedict XV . . . exhorted 'all the children of the Church, especially clerics, to reverence the Holy Scripture, to read it piously and meditate on it constantly'; he reminded them 'that in these pages is to be sought that food, by which the spiritual life is nourished unto perfection,' . . . he likewise once again expressed his warm approval of the work of the society called after St. Jerome himself, by means of which the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles are being so widely diffused, 'that there is no Christian family any more without them and that all are accustomed to read and meditate on them daily.' [Spiritus Paraclitus, Sept. 15, 1920, A.A.S., 12 (1920), 385-422]"
On the contrary as Aquinas would say. Several modern Popes (see ending quotation below) have urged the Catholic laity to read the Bible on their own and that contradicts your satiation with their hearing it at Mass only.
ReplyDeleteUmmm... Bill, when did I ever use the word "only"? Please refrain from putting words in my mouth.
And while I agree with you that more Catholics should delve into Sacred Scripture more often, and that many a pope has been ignored whenever they have called for such throughout the centuries... what in the world does your rather long discourse have to do with the truism that the Protestant myth of Sola Scriptura makes about as much sense as an owner of the PDR qualified to perform surgury?
If you'd like to post your thoughts about Catholic laxity concerning reading The Holy Bible on your own blog, I'm sure it would be one fascinating read. And if I ever choose to post on this particular topic, I can only hope to make it as well researched as your comment here.
But in the meantime, I'm getting the impression that you're looking for an argument where none is to be found.