Last week I spoke to you about our times not being "business as usual", and about good, solid Catholic education for your children being more important now than it has ever been. I said that because so many people of my generation and, even more so, those of the one or two generations after mine, were raised and educated in a time when the teaching of the Catholic Faith was not consistently good – the time of turmoil and testing that followed Vatican II – it is often difficult for us to take on the task of teaching the Faith to others. That leads me to the topic I wanted to speak to you about today.

Over the years I have heard many good things about what are called "bible study groups" – groups of people who gather to read and discuss Sacred Scripture and to pray. "What could be wrong with people getting together and discussing the Bible and praying?", you may ask. Well, nothing , but…

Most American wings of the various protestant churches and their descendants insist strongly on what is called "individual interpretation of Scripture". One of the things their founders rejected when they rejected the Catholic Church was its claim to have the authority to interpret Scripture – that is, to say what the Bible means. There is one denomination whose motto is "no creed but Christ, no law but Scripture". Now that works ok until you and I disagree on what a particular scripture passage means, or when we don't see eye to eye on who or what Christ actually was or is. When that happens, we have to part company. That is why there are over 200,000 protestant sects in the world today.

And that is what makes me nervous about Catholic Bible study groups. Sometimes there is way too much of "what-this-passage-means-to-me", and way too little of "what-this-passage-means".

I had a friend in the seminary whose bishop asked him to specialize in the study of the Bible. All of us in the seminary had to take courses and pass exams about all the books of the New Testament and the major books of the Old, but when I began my specialized studies in Canon Law, he began preparing to be a real Bible scholar. He began with two years of preliminary studies – years when he spent at least 8 hours a day studying ancient languages – not just Greek, Latin, and Hebrew – but all the languages of the ancient east – Sanskrit, Ugaritic, and other tongues whose names I cannot even pronounce. After these two years he had to begin a detailed study of the history of the lands in which the bible was written, and of the various religions and cultures that surrounded and preceded the Israelites. Then he had to study the various literary forms that were used at the time the bible was written. This involved studying ancient texts other than the bible, and that involved getting at least a passable knowledge of archeology. It was only after he had all that under his belt that he was allowed to move on to the study of the actual biblical texts. And this study was not just a matter of reading the text in the original language in which it was written and talking about it, but of dissecting it – seeing its connections to other parts of the Bible – and studying what the Fathers of the Church, Church Councils, Popes, and theologians had to say about the text through the centuries. Now that is Scripture study! I doubt whether any of his professors ever asked him how a particular passage made him feel. What they wanted was to prepare him to be a real teacher of Scripture. Now how many of us are equipped to do that?

In the early days of our Church, there were people who literally fell in love with God. They fell so deeply in love that they wanted to concentrate totally on him. They went off into the desert and lived in caves so they could have the peace and quiet they needed to speak to him and listen to his voice. It was not that they hated their fellow man – no one who hates his brother really loves God – but it was just like what happens to so many people on their honeymoon. They still love their moms and dads, friends, brothers and sisters – but they want some time to be alone – totally alone with their new spouse, someone they are head-over-heels in love with. To get themselves ready to pray they fasted – eating only just enough to stay alive. They imposed strict penances on themselves. This was all to eliminate distractions, and to gain mastery over the body – so that the body would have no doubt that it was under the control of the mind and soul and not the other way around. Then they would pray – pour out their hearts to God – sometimes for years. And sometimes it was years before they got an answer. Sometimes they would go through dry periods, when it seemed that God was not even listening. They developed what is called "The Divine Office" – a reciting of the psalms and canticles found in the Bible, and they also developed the rosary. They developed various forms of meditation. And they learned how to discipline their minds and hearts – so that their thoughts did not wander, and so that their desires were pure. Now that was prayer!

What strikes me about what my friend the Scripture scholar was doing and what those ancient monks and hermits were doing was that it was hard work!

But all too often we get the idea that what makes us students of the Bible or theology or people of prayer is sitting around and sharing feelings about things. I had priest friend in Lexington who told me about a group of ladies who used to gather in the living room of his rectory for prayer and study every Monday morning. He walked in on them one morning to hear one of the women saying, "Now, ladies, Mindy has been having a terrible time. Her tennis instructor has quit and her BMW is in the garage again. So let's support her in prayer." He burst out laughing – which did not endear him to the group – but I think I would probably have done the same. When he found out that the study portion of the "prayer and study" for this meeting was a discussion of a book called "Habits of the Heart", he stopped laughing and just got depressed.

If you want to be equipped to live, teach, and defend your Catholic Faith in these days when it is under attack from within and without the Church, you have to know it. The old catechism told us that God made us to know him, to love him, and to serve him. We come to love him through prayer, and having come to love him truly, we will naturally want to know him more. And once we love him, and know him, we will delight in serving him. But none of this is easy.

God did not mean for it to be difficult. He created a world for man – a world perfectly suited to his needs, and he spoke directly to his pure heart. But man sinned. In Genesis, we read that Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden and that from that point on, they had to earn their living by the sweat of their brow.

In the world in which we find ourselves, learning about God, learning what he has revealed to us about himself and ourselves through the Bible and through the Church takes effort and time.

How many of you here today can tell me the exact order in which the teams of the National League finished last year? I bet many of you could. Could those of you who know that also tell me what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are – or the ten commandments – or the 5 laws of the Church – or the cardinal virtues – or the ten deadly sins? You know about baseball because you spend a lot of time watching the games, reading the sports pages, listening to the daily run-downs on the news, and talking about these things with your friends. The knowledge in your head about who were chosen as the most valuable players, or who on the Reds has the highest batting average didn't get there by magic. You listened, observed, and read – in other words, you studied! So how do you think you will acquire knowledge of your Faith? Right – study.

Fifty years ago it might have been possible to absorb the basics of Christianity just by osmosis – the way a potato absorbs nutrients just be laying there in the ground. Society was permeated with Christianity. That is no longer the case. Now you have to work at it.

So here is a plan:

1. Pray – pray every day. Don't tell me or yourself that you don't have time. That's a lie, and you know it. Say the rosary on the way to work. Take just three or four minutes from your lunch break to go off someplace quiet and speak and listen to the God who made you and loves you. Come to daily Mass if you can – that should not be hard if you are retired. Purchase a subscription to the Magnificat – that little book you can find in the pews. It is full of inspirational messages, an abbreviated form of the Divine Office, lives of the saints, and even pretty pictures!
2. Make Sunday Mass a mandatory, indispensable part of your family's weekly routine. Participating in Sunday Mass was never optional for Catholics and it certainly is not now. If some trendy priest or relevant nun told you it was, he or she was lying to you. Add them to the list of people you pray for during your prayer time and then get yourself and your family to Mass.
3. Get yourself to Confession. If you want to love God, you can't be finding your joy in sin – not even in little sins. And the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the means Jesus gave us of obtaining forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with the church, and the grace to begin to live again the life of heaven. I am in that confessional every Wednesday – with very, very few exceptions – from 5:30 to 7, and I will gladly hear your confession at any other time if you just give me a call.
4. Make time to study. We are in the process or organizing a parish library. Eddie Trzop and her crew have been working for a couple years up in the old church collecting, cataloguing, and arranging books and tapes which will help you learn. We hope to be able to move that library to the basement of this building as soon as our hall is finished. But you don't have to wait for that. Get yourself a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Read a little bit every day. You will be surprised how much more you will know in a very short time. Read about the history of the Catholic Church. You know that it has been said that no Christian who really knows history could avoid joining the Catholic Church. Find out why that was said. Next week I will have a list of good books and tapes in the bulletin and directions on how you can obtain them. Come to the day of reflection with Scott and Kimberly Hahn – I am sure they will provide you with enough leads for future study to last you for years.
5. Lastly – don't be afraid to talk about your Faith – especially with your children. If nothing else, it will put some pressure on you to actually live it! You won't want to be talking to your children about virtue and at the same time be wallowing in vice. I remember my father telling me stories about the Apostles and my mother singing Marian hymns with me and my brothers and sisters while we helped with dishes after supper. There are all kinds of ways to make it clear to your children that they belong to God and that they are Catholic down to their bones. Holy pictures around the house, holy water fonts in the bedrooms, a crucifix in the home, prayers before meals. All these things help to sanctify a home and to remind your children why they are here and where they are going.

   I hope you have found this second talk in my little series helpful. Please understand and believe that I am telling you these things not to embarrass anyone, but because I am your pastor – you are the little portion of Christ's great flock that has been entrusted to me. And I want every single one of you to find your way home to heaven!