The Bible; A Roman Catholic Viewpoint, The Bible As The Living Word In The Roman Catholic Church

the history of the holy catholic church and her life about discipline and often worship can never be separated from the scriptures the function of the sacred scriptures in the life of god's people it's seen in a decisive early moment in their history after the jews had left egypt under moses' and come to mount sinai and had received from god and the covenant the book of the exodus tells us then moses committed everything the lord had said to writing and when he rose the next morning he'd build an altar close to the spurs of the mountain and twelve memorial stones answering to the twelve tribes of israel and he directed some of the younger is relates to make bread sacrifice there and bring welcome all things to the lord with bullets for their victims after this most is took half of the blood and set it aside involves the other half he poured out on the altar and he took up a book in which the covenant was inscribed and read it

aloud to the people we will do all the lord has given us a day we promise obedience and moses took the blood and sprinkled it over the people crying out here is the blood of the covenant which the lord banks with you in accordance with all these words have hips in the desert of sinai the israelites became finally and fully god's people summoned by the word of god constant you to the holy nation by the word of god and attentive and submissive to the word of god and their acceptance you'll buy sacrifice and by the sprinkling on them of the blood of the covenant a lot of the sacrificial victims was poured first on the water gawd surrogate then on the people uniting god and his people in this symbol of life in the blood of life there in the desert the blood of the covenant was the

symbol of the union between god and his people in god's word that union in the word of god marge the whole life of the catholic church her structure is a discernible in the words of the acts of the apostles where the apostles are at the floor of the vents in the infant church and where among them an unmistakable primacy is according to peter and even though the mustard seed has grown into the huge tree that the lord predicted would overshadow the whole earth there is no mistaking the scriptures testimony that this tree grew from that scene the life of the early church is caught in a transparently beautiful passage in the x they gazed at his detention to the teaching of the apostles and to union to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers a sense of law came on everyone as many wonders and signs were

done by the apostles all the believers were united and held all things in common like the people of israel in sinai these early christian believers were aware of themselves as united in true faith in accepting the word of god as newly proclaimed to them by the apostles their faith was a source of unity and identity it set them off from the other two hours in jerusalem and unite them to one another in union with christ there of faith was grounded on the teaching of the apostles those chosen men to whom jesus has said as the father has sent me i also send you off and he told them that he was sending them to teach he sent them with his own authority he listens to you listened to me and true to the

lord sounding of his church on the rock of peter the act show that the leadership we find peter exercising during our lord's life he continues after the ascension of christ into heaven it is peter who preaches to the crowd on the first pentagon's peter who cures the bagger at the temple they call beautiful peter who instructs the crowd about the meaning of the cure peter who is filled with the spirit and addresses the high praise after he and john have been arrested peter who judges and a niacin safire a guilty of avarice when paul and barnabas found some teachers insisting that the new christians had to submit to the provisions of the old law they returned to jerusalem to the apostles and customers to consult about this question and it is peter who was first recorded as speaking at the meeting in that far off day at the foot of mount sinai the

people of israel had said we will do all that the lord has given us they asserted themselves as god's people by undertaking to follow god's bidding and everything and in a newly founded church in jerusalem the christians were united in their complete devotion to the teaching of the apostles under the leadership of peter and so today the churches preparing for their successors of the apostles the bishops to gather from all over the world to consult on questions fully as perplexing and momentous as those that face the apostles in the new age into which they were catapulted by the force of the spirit these latter day apostles gather at the call of peter successor and they will gather around the chair of peter they gave steadfast attention to the teaching of the

apostles it was this teaching of the apostles that was the source of the sacred scripture of the new testament more than three hundred years after the first thirty cast when the church had not yet determined which new testament books god had inspired one of the criteria that she was using was that the books must be apostol again art the new testament books on the written record of the traditional teaching of the apostles themselves two of the gospels bear the names of apostles the other to those of traveling companions of apostles mart was the interpreter for peter and liu was pulled companion and a lot of physicians the others were letters to the various churches by others of the apostles notably by poole in the first generation after the apostles the church's early followers were already using the scriptures in their writings those writings which

make up a great part of the church's reported tradition in one of the earliest of the bridges that doctrines the teaching of the twelve apostles instructions for worship are counted in the words of maliki the prophet and they echo the words of the x on the lord's day gather and break bread and give thanks after you have confess your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure for this is the lord saying and in every place and time and offering is made in my name and the pure offering for a great king of mine says the lord and my name is feared among the nations many of the writings left us why the farmers are in the form of commentaries on the old and the new testament books arjun hillary basil gregory of nyssa junk resist i'm jerome agustin cyril of

alexandria and more have poured over the word of god to mind in that new treasures for men of their day and of ours and when they turn from the pages of the bible to attend to a question of dog more disciplined their minds were steeped in the sacred word and it pervaded therefore been writing for the church's traditions is a scriptural tradition to the core it is the living mind of the church as she reads the word of god the new testament books committed to writing by apostles of the church is a living understanding which she's ever more deeply and keenly into the revelation which god has given up himself in crimes ever since the close of the revelation with the death of the last apostle the authoritative teaching of the church has been couched in the words of scripture

as the scriptural revelation has been a target from a formula of police attributed to the fathers of the council and i see it in the fourth century to the dogmatic chapters of the vatican council in the nineteenth the war ann wolfe of the console your decorations have been the words of holy scripture the writings of the roman parts from climate of rome in the first century to john the twenty thirteen in the twentieth i've been attuned to their times and the problems of those times yet they had the words of scripture at their base when clement rights to the corinthians about the diversity of orders in the church he seems to paraphrase x reverend but each of us in his own order in good conscience not transgressed to prescribe limits of his ministry what give god thanks and wall earnestness and john writing about the solicitude of the church for the material and social

needs of men sets forth the whole spirit of his letter in the words of scripture in this activity he says the church is carrying out the command of her founder christ who referred to primarily two men's eternal salvation when he says why on the way in the truth and the life and i am the light of the world on other occasions however seeing the hungry crowd he was moved to exclaim i have compassion on the small the june showing that he was also concerned about the earthly needs of men in her government and in her teaching in discipline and dogma the church live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god but her deeply scriptural orientation is seen most clearly in her prayer in the private prayer of her members and in her communal prayer the words of scripture on the very air she

breathes the formulae used in her most widely known private devotion the rosary or the lord's own prayer and the hail mary scriptural in origin and elaborated by the church the meditations of her devout souls are based in great part on the scriptures especially on the life of her founder as seen in the gossip it's easy in her public prayer that the church's most truly herself the public worship of the church centers about the christian mystery that history which paul butler as was hidden from the beginnings of the world but has now made known in the church business treat is of course the unimaginable revelation of the love of god for men that went to the extremes of the cross to accomplish the celebration of men it is this mystery that in her daily divine office the church proclaims and reviewers intones of joy and

gratitude and love from the earliest hours of the morning until late at night at stated times during the day the church sent defies the circle of the day with somebody in praise of the mystery with a reading of the scripture which proclaims some aspect of the mystery for the renewal of her faith and hope and love and with a common prayer repeated at the end of each time of prayer by all those chanting and praying the office throughout the whole church in the course of the day in a week she reads the horse soldier in the year she reads at least portions of all the sacred books she attends to the word of god which declares the mystery and uses the word of god to respond but the church becomes most truly the church when her members gather around the altar to offer the holy

sacrifice of the mess at sinai god's people listen to god's word and promised acceptance and obedience and then had mostly sprinkle them with blood which he said was the blood of the government at the mass god's people renewed their affirmation of their commitment to guard they are summoned to be altered by the word of god spoken in the church they assembled together confident of christ promise there were two or three are gathered in his name there he is in the midst of that and they began by praying the forty third song the prayer of a lonely levi in exile longing for the sanctuary where god worlds and this piece for which is people assembled after a public confession of sins the church sings the entrance arm with an undefined and she prays for the

needs of the church under the general supplication of god's mercy after the church sings the prayer of the day the people listen as there is read to them a selection from one of the letters of the apostles or from one of the old testament books to this blessing of hearing god's word they respond with science in the words of an appropriate song and the joyous hallelujah of the early church then in the next reading christ himself speaks to them through the gospel account of his words and deeds and on days of greater solemnity the people of god affirm again their acceptance of the entirety of god's revelation by chanting the nie seemed creed what words even inspired words fail to express the signs of god's people for all of his blessings and for all of islam like all human words air word stammer in the face of god's grand juror

and the depth of his concern for them these people must do something must give something to god in return they must give a gift and the gift must represent themselves bread and wine they have as a symbol it is a gift with an elegant simplicity but no gift is enough so they do was the lord that over the bread and wine they speak the scriptural words in memory of him this is my body this is my blood and it is the un shaken face of the roman church that's here again the inspired words of scripture are true this is my body this is my blood this they do in memory and offering and i'm glad the league this is the church which goes back beyond the written gospel is the church whose members gave steadfast attention to the

teaching of the apostles to the breaking of bread into the prayers and this is the faith that the apostles taught her it is this church which goes back to the night when the lord sat with the bishops of the future church around the table the church the same church was there and heard him say thank all of you all of this for this is my blood of the new covenant shed for many on to the remission of sense now the blood of the un sponsored victim would not be sprinkled on them but given them for a drink four they are the people of the new law and the new covenant and as jeremiah foretold this law is not according to the covenant made with the israel lights in the desert this law the lord places within them and writes it in their hearts truly here they are the people of god and transformed by god's

word truly in them as he did once in the womb of a maiden the word become flesh