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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

7A

Was the bible part of your life when you were growing up? What do you remember about it?

Do you have your own bible? Is there a story about who gave it to you or where you got it?

Do you manage to read or pray with the bible very often? What do you find helpful?

What other ideas or questions strike you from this part of the film?

 

7B

What are your favourite parts of the bible? Your favourite stories or passages? Why do they mean a lot to you?

Do the readings at Mass ever help you? What can make it hard to focus and really listen?

How could the bible play a bigger part in your life? Have you found any good Catholic resources to help you?

What other ideas or questions strike you from this part of the film?

 

KEY IDEAS FROM THE FILM

The bible is absolutely central to the life of the Church, and it should be at the centre of the life and prayer of every Christian.

How can you use the bible in your personal prayer? How can you let God speak to you through the words of the bible? Here are five methods that you can use, the five most common ways that Christians can pray with the bible.

First, simply listening to the bible as it is read to us. As Catholics, we hear the words of the bible every time we go to Mass. Each Sunday there are four readings, on a cycle, usually from the Old Testament, from the Psalms, from the New Testament, and from one of the Gospels. Over a three-year period, you hear a very large chunk of the bible.

The second method is to set aside a few minutes to read the bible. Not deep study or prayer, but simply reading it, getting to know the stories of the bible, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and especially the life of Jesus in the gospels.

It’s often easier to read a section of the bible that interests you. As a default, if you are stuck, try reading through one of the four gospels: St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke or St John.  Another option is to look at the readings that are coming up at Mass each day, or just to focus on the gospel reading from the Mass.

A third method of using the bible is bible meditation. This is sometimes called “lectio divina”, which means “holy reading”. You choose a short passage and read it more slowly, more prayerfully, thinking about what it means for you, focusing on the words that speak to you in a personal way. You can pray to the Holy Spirit for his guidance. You might read the same passage two or three times, pausing to reflect, listening with your heart, talking to the Lord about what is coming up. How does this apply to your life? What is God saying to you? You might feel moved to change something in your life or do something you hadn’t thought about before. You can finish by thanking God for this time and praying for his help.

A fourth method of praying with the bible is to use the prayers of the bible in your own personal prayer. So many parts of the bible are in the form of prayers to God. The Virgin Mary praises God in the Magnificat; St Zechariah blesses God the Benedictus; Jesus teaches us the Our Father. We can make these prayers our own. Above all, there are the 150 psalms in the Old Testament. Jesus prayed the psalms. Christians in the New Testament prayed the psalms. And for two thousand years the Church has continued this tradition by praying what is called the Divine Office or the Liturgy of the Hours or the Breviary.

A fifth way of getting to know God’s Word in the bible is to do some bible study. Not just reading it yourself but learning what others have said, understanding the background and the history, getting to know the wisdom of the saints and of the Church. It’s so exciting to deepen your understanding of the bible. It’s like discovering buried treasure, or finding a source of life-giving water that never dries up.

Ultimately, the meaning of the bible is not just what it says to me as an individual, but what God is saying to the whole Church. It is the Church that helps us understand the deepest meaning of the bible, through her tradition and teaching. But we can let God’s Word speak to us in these very personal ways: by listening, by reading, by meditating, by praying, and by studying.