French catechist and theologian, Waltraud Linnig, offers us three doors into reading and teaching the Bible and three keys for opening these doors. Part 1 follows.
three keys in doorIn this article I would like to propose ways of opening the Bible and entering into it. Perhaps you will ask me why I want to do this, because it is so easy to open this book! It’s like all the other books and if you know the language of a book you can read it. This Bible is written in English, so there’s no problem. However…
For many Catholics, the sacred book is a closed book, a sealed book. How can we help them?
For many people, catechists and many other Catholics, it is not easy to read and to understand the Bible. When I was a student, one of my professors in Belgium told us that when he was young they had a wonderful Bible in his house, ranged high on a shelf, but nobody had ever touched nor read it. As a Catholic, at the beginning of the 20th century, it was often the case that, while you had to have a Bible, you should not necessarily read it at home, because you should not imitate Protestants! That's why so many Catholics now are still not used to reading the Bible personally.
This article is from The Sower and may be copied for catechetical purposes only. It may not be reprinted in another published work without the permission of Maryvale Institute. Contact [email protected]