I have been a Catholic officially for 5 years now, and attended regularly for a year before that. Still, there are people that warn me to keep up my Bible reading, as the Catholic Church discourages it.
Baloney!!!
Most Protestant church services have only one Bible reading. We have 4 every Sunday. One is always from a Gospel, which we stand up for, to show how important it is.
Yesterday started Holy Week, and it's Bible reading on steroids. Yesterday's service included a very lenghthy reading from the Gospel of Mark - about 1/2 hour of standing. Then there is a church service Thursday night, and 2 services on Good Friday. Saturday evening is a service called the Easter Vigil that is 3 hours long, and includes an entire hour of Bible reading, essentially describing the history of the universe, starting with Genesis.
The Catholics love the Bible so much, it is bigger than the Protestant Bible. There are 7 Old Testament books, plus parts of 2 others, that are retained by the Catholics, having been removed by the Protestants (for a variety of reasons--perhaps I will go into in another post). And it is historical fact that the Catholic church wrote the New Testament, and they still stand by it.
A person can be a Catholic or not, of course, as one wishes, but I hope it is a decision based on facts, not misinformation. Most non-Catholics seem to get their information on the Catholic church from people who have never been to a Catholic service, and are full of misinformation. It's easy to get the facts about Catholic beliefs. Go to any major bookstore, or Amazon.com, and purchase the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It's all there. There are no secrets. The book is not expensive. Also, why don't you actually visit a Catholic service? I promise they will not nail you to the pew, or make you eat a live chicken. And, you will get to hear the 4 Bible readings for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment