“What would happen if we turned back when we forget
it, if we opened it more times a day, if we read the message of God contained
in the Bible the way we read messages on our cellphones? What would happen if we always brought it
with us, or at least a small pocket-sized Gospel?” -Pope Francis (Angelus
3/5/17)
7 comments:
Amen to that!
I try to read the Bible daily, or at least the quotes for each mystery of the Rosary. Mom's return home and the more care she needs doesn't make it easy.
Well, technically since I have the YouVersion Bible app on my phone, I in fact DO take the Bible with me everywhere I go.
BC, I agree! I have the 'Olive Tree' Bible study app on my phone so I am always carrying around at least 6-7 translations of the Bible, two Study Bibles and an audio NT! And they fit in my pocket! :-)
A good thought that didn't originate with Pope Francis:
https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2017/3/9/why-did-reuters-and-everyone-else-miss-pope-francis-all-too-familiar-biblecellphone-quote
Pope Francis apparently did briefly note that someone else said this first, though it seems somewhat unclear who did. In the article above you can read one older (and nicely elaborated) version. The original source is bound to be one of our Protestant brethren though...
Amen! I do believe, based on what I've hitherto read, that the Catholic Church is quietly but gradually enjoining her lay faithful to read, study, and pray on the Bible for themselves - because if I recall correctly, in the past, the lay faithful (even those who could read) were not exactly encouraged to do so.
That said, I think we can indeed cultivate better a culture of actually doing these aforementioned things, with as much zeal as our Protestant brethren (though, of course, in the light of the fact that for the Church, the Bible is only the WRITTEN half of, and by no means, the entire Word of God). At least where I come from - Bible-reading amongst Catholics in the Philippines is not yet so robust, which may be attributed to our being rather more cultural than actually spiritually Catholic.
@Ed, it is a struggle for me too. I even have reading plans and, if you see my guest posts here, I have several Bibles for different purposes (I just purchased too, yesterday, a NOAB-3, because the NOAB-4 is so expensive and this one was literally just 1/6 of the latter's price). I don't even get to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet in the morning as I should every day. :(
@BC and Rolf: I have Lighthouse Media's RSV/RSV-2CE on my phone though, admittedly, the app doesn't run smoothly 100% of the time especially when it comes to loading the Scriptures. I also have an NRSV w/ Apocrypha (Android only though) and YouVersion (having downloaded only Catholic editions and the ESV [for study reference]). I've taken to annotating the Lighthouse Media app, and it syncs across devices so there's a nice added touch to it.
Another good option for daily Bible reading/praying is the Liturgy of the Hours. I recently started praying it again now that I'm getting used to Mom being back home and a normal routine is beginning to establish. The single books for it, Shorter Christian Prayer and Christan Prayer, aren't too bad on the wallet. There's also an app that has the Office and daily Mass readings, which was free last I knew.
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