{"id":145511,"date":"2024-08-02T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-is-it-enough-to-read-the-bible-and-pray\/"},"modified":"2024-09-17T11:29:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T15:29:26","slug":"ask-a-priest-is-it-enough-to-read-the-bible-and-pray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-is-it-enough-to-read-the-bible-and-pray\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ask a Priest: Is It Enough to Read the Bible and Pray?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Q: All my life I’ve been Christian. However, my family and I never really went to church, nor did I delve much into the Bible. But I started trying to read the Bible and praying more regularly. When will I know that a strong bond with God will be formed or whether I have one already? And is it necessary that people go to church even if they study the Bible and pray to God? \u2013 J.L.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Keep in mind that this will be answered from a Catholic perspective.<\/p>\n

Jesus founded a Church, and he wants those who follow him to worship together. In fact, at the Last Supper he prayed for disciples \u201cthat they may all be one\u201d (John 17:21<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Worship gives glory to God, but it is also meant to unify us here on earth.<\/p>\n

A precept of the Catholic Church is that the faithful have the duty to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.<\/p>\n

The Mass is infinitely valuable because it re-presents Jesus\u2019 death on Calvary, the sacrifice that won our redemption from sin.<\/p>\n

The Mass is also crucial because without that communal and external show of worship it’s easy for a spiritual life to drift into subjectivism; a person can start to make his own rules and judge things by his own standards.<\/p>\n

What begins as a well-intentioned \u201cIt\u2019s just me and Jesus, so who needs a church?\u201d approach to religion can end up as a do-it-yourself belief system with no guardrails and not much content.<\/p>\n

Now, the Catholic Church relies on both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition for its teaching. The Bible, although extremely valuable, isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

The Bible, like any text, needs to be interpreted correctly. That is where Sacred Tradition helps. It comprises the teachings of Jesus and the apostles that were transmitted orally, for not everything we need to know was explicitly mentioned in Scripture.<\/p>\n

The Bible itself indicates as much. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book<\/em> ” (John 20:30). And: \u201cStand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either <\/em>by an oral statement or<\/em> by a letter of ours\u201d (2 Thessalonians 2:15<\/a>). [italics mine]<\/p>\n

In any case, studying the Bible and praying should help us draw closer to God, ideally.<\/p>\n

One way we can tell we are growing in our relationship with God is whether we are growing in virtue. If for the love of God we are more patient, more generous, less self-centered, etc., that is a good sign.<\/p>\n

It might help you to get an overview of the Catholic faith. A helpful source could be the Youth Catechism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I hope some of this helps. Count on my prayers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145511"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=145511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}