ironmonk Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 (edited) When something is "too much to read"... Is it really? "Too much to read" has caused many Catholics to leave the Church, and many anti-Catholics to remain anti-Catholic. We all (reading this) have the means to be scholars for we all are online and have access to all the history and teachings of the Church that we would ever need to understand her teachings more fully. We are at fault if we do not dive into the study and read what is too much to read. ....Just a thought... Think about it... God Bless, ironmonk Edited August 27, 2004 by ironmonk
Livin_the_MASS Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 [quote name='ironmonk' date='Aug 27 2004, 09:39 AM'] When something is "too much to read"... Is it really? "Too much to read" has caused many Catholics to leave the Church, and many anti-Catholics to remain anti-Catholic. We all (reading this) have the means to be scholars for we all are online and have access to all the history and teachings of the Church that we would ever need to understand her teachings more fully. We are at fault if we do not dive into the study and read what is too much to read. ....Just a thought... Think about it... God Bless, ironmonk [/quote] Thats what I'm talking about monk!
lifeteenchick527 Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 Iornmonk....thats so true...but i also agree with mikey...but i mean...if u cant read all of it at once...spend like 10 min a day reading somethin like the Catechism or bible or another book/website/information about the church's teachings
StColette Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 I agree there can never be too much reading one of the most important things we must do is to read. Through reading we gain the knowledge to defend our faith and learn why the Church teaches certain things. It's almost a very good idea to cross reference Church teachings with the Bible, this not only helps you learn Scripture better but it helps you to be able to defend the teachings of the Church as Biblical.
ironmonk Posted August 28, 2004 Author Posted August 28, 2004 [quote name='StColette' date='Aug 27 2004, 08:29 PM'] I agree there can never be too much reading one of the most important things we must do is to read. Through reading we gain the knowledge to defend our faith and learn why the Church teaches certain things. It's almost a very good idea to cross reference Church teachings with the Bible, this not only helps you learn Scripture better but it helps you to be able to defend the teachings of the Church as Biblical. [/quote] That is a very good idea. I've been reading the Scriptures since I was six... at twelve I got a burning desire to read and re-read and keep reading the scriptures. I read at least one chapter a day (the chapters are very small), sometimes I would read much more... but always at least one chapter... as Aesop said "Little by little does the trick". I then began to take notes, and grouped them by topic.... by the grace of God I think that is what helped me get the correct context of the bible... for when I decided to search out the One Church and found out that it was Catholic - I was already a baptised Catholic - I could easily see the basis of Church teachings in the Scriptures. Learning the faith is a lifelong process. I suggest reading at least one chapter a day of the Scriptures, note the footnotes, and look at the cross references, take notes.... and along side our scripture study, read the ECF's and Council writings. God Bless, ironmonk
MichaelFilo Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 Were you influenced by church scriptual evidence, or did you just read it, and found the church that applyed
Norseman82 Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 [quote name='StColette' date='Aug 27 2004, 06:29 PM'] It's almost a very good idea to cross reference Church teachings with the Bible, this not only helps you learn Scripture better but it helps you to be able to defend the teachings of the Church as Biblical. [/quote] That's what the Cathechism does...both ways! In each part of the Cathechism, it will give scriptural references..... And in the back part of the cathechism (at least the hardcopy version), there is a cross-reference of scripture verses to applicable parts of the Cathechism, something I found useful when going through Romans and preparing notes for my parish Bible study.
yiannii Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 It is easy to make wild anti-Catholic claims such as there being a female pope in hostory. To refute this would require research and reading - much more required effort than making the claim...lol
MorphRC Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 [quote name='yiannii' date='Aug 28 2004, 06:58 PM'] It is easy to make wild anti-Catholic claims such as there being a female pope in hostory. To refute this would require research and reading - much more required effort than making the claim...lol [/quote] Yeh. Its cowardly. I think it was Scott Hahn or Karl Keating that said: 'For an anti-catholic it takes 10 seconds to make a comment, but it takes a Catholic 10 minutes to refute it'. Something along those lines.
StColette Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 [quote name='MorphRC' date='Aug 28 2004, 03:53 AM'] I think it was Scott Hahn or Karl Keating that said: 'For an anti-catholic it takes 10 seconds to make a comment, but it takes a Catholic 10 minutes to refute it'. [/quote] How true that is !!!!
ironmonk Posted August 29, 2004 Author Posted August 29, 2004 [quote name='MichaelFilo' date='Aug 27 2004, 09:23 PM'] Were you influenced by church scriptual evidence, or did you just read it, and found the church that applyed [/quote] That's kind of a tuff question... I was not influenced by Catholic teaching in regard to the Scriptures. I say this because some anti-Catholics have tried to say that I was brainwashed by the Church. I was baptized Catholic. I went to Catholic school from first to half of third grade. I don't remember much from Catholic School. By the time I was 15, I realized after reading the bible a few times, that Christ made one Church and it was wrong that there were so many denominations that claimed to be Christian. So I started studying history to find out which Church was the One Church. So, I found that the Catholic Church was, and I was already Catholic, also I knew the bible very well so I was set.... it wasn't until the Church was attacked by an anti-Catholic, that asked me some questions that I could not answer because of my lack of knowledge of Sacred Tradition that I had a fire lit inside and spent roughly 20 hours a week defending the Church online. The way I learned was that I was invited onto an anti-Catholic board, and I started looking for the answers to the attacks which I did not know... It was my syllabus for what to study first... since I didn't know where to begin. God Bless, ironmonk
jmjtina Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 (edited) I think many of those who read alot (like me) have met many who just don't like to read. Whatever the reason may be, it's a good idea to also talk with your faith to many people, to defend it , share it. If you learn the faith, you are able to defend it, while if you don't know too much about the faith, or are unable to refute the basic misconceptions, it can cause you to doubt and even lose your faith. If you don't know the facts, how can you conform your mind to the the teachings of the Church? That's why reading is so important, but reading now comes in many different outlets.... I think it's important that many people find outlets to learn about their faith. Phatmass is one of them. It's dialogue and reading. If you ask a question, or present a thought, be prepared to read. It really isn't fair to ask a question or state a way of thinking if you aren't ready to do some reading and hear rebuttals. There is also radio shows on [url="http://www.catholic.com/radio/calive.asp"]Catholic Answers LIVE Radio Show[/url] where they have taped Q&A online or EWTN or even, yes, Q&A phatmass chatroom. I personally have listened to 90% of the taped shows on Catholic Answers as I do homework or just clean my room. The bottom line is wanting to learn about your faith. The thirst for more knowledge, because the more you get to know someone, the more you love them. If you learn more about Jesus, your love for him only intensifies. Learning what the Holy Mother teaches and why will only draw us closer to this awesome heavenly family we have and help us spread the Truth. +jmj God Bless that was long...... Edited August 29, 2004 by jmjtina
MichaelFilo Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 [quote name='ironmonk' date='Aug 29 2004, 12:58 PM'] That's kind of a tuff question... I was not influenced by Catholic teaching in regard to the Scriptures. I say this because some anti-Catholics have tried to say that I was brainwashed by the Church. I was baptized Catholic. I went to Catholic school from first to half of third grade. I don't remember much from Catholic School. By the time I was 15, I realized after reading the bible a few times, that Christ made one Church and it was wrong that there were so many denominations that claimed to be Christian. So I started studying history to find out which Church was the One Church. So, I found that the Catholic Church was, and I was already Catholic, also I knew the bible very well so I was set.... it wasn't until the Church was attacked by an anti-Catholic, that asked me some questions that I could not answer because of my lack of knowledge of Sacred Tradition that I had a fire lit inside and spent roughly 20 hours a week defending the Church online. The way I learned was that I was invited onto an anti-Catholic board, and I started looking for the answers to the attacks which I did not know... It was my syllabus for what to study first... since I didn't know where to begin. God Bless, ironmonk [/quote] This is actually a very beautiful story. It is also very interesting. Reading the bible with an unbiased mind (as much as possible) does seem to lead to the Catholic Faith. Thanks for sharing Ironmonk. Sorry if I made you post a long one. God bless, Mikey
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