Editor’s note: The author explains her family’s Lenten commitment to take the Love Dare here . Regular updates will be posted all through Lent. Click here to catch up on previous posts. Due to CE staff scheduling, we will not be able to keep up with these posts daily, but we will make sure they are all posted, even though it means they run past Lent. ]
Read the Bible.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).
Many other Christians think that Catholics do not read the Bible. While it is true that many Catholics do not actively study the Bible on their own, many others do. There are great tools for this in Catholic books stores and even audio studies such as Jeff Cavin’s Bible Study of the Book of Matthew.
Our family believes that in order to better serve Christ; we must know God in His Word! We often challenge our children to find a Bible story that represents a situation we are going through and when they were little, we used to have them memorize Bible verses. This is always an area we can do more in, BUT Catholics do know their Bibles because of the Mass.
During the Mass the Bible is covered in a three year cycle. This includes the Gospels, much of the Old Testament and the New Testament. While not everything is completely read, the focus on the Word of God cannot be denied. Besides that fact, much of the prayers during the Mass and the responses are directly from the Bible.
Catholics are also privileged to have the fullness of the faith. The Mass is separated into two parts; The Liturgy of the Word and The Liturgy of the Eucharist. We tell our children to think of it this way; If you wanted to get to know our family, we might share with you a book or love letters we have written to each other. Or perhaps, those of you reading this are starting to feel like you know us already! How much better will we know each other, if after reading, we all have dinner together? You will hear the tone of our voices as we laugh and share. You will see our craziness (and at our house even some bad behavior). How much better can we know the Lord then if we read His Word and then come to His table and share in His supper?!
Lord, inspire us to get to know You better through Your Word. Help us to make time for You.
