This year St Joseph The Worker would like to invite all our members to focus on Faith. This Year of Faith will be an opportunity to grow and give thanks to The Lord for the gift of Faith he bestows on us. Each month we will focus on a particular aspect of our faith and guide you through prayer, videos, books and other resources.
Bible, the, a collection of writings which the Church of God has solemnly recognized as inspired. The name is derived from the Greek expression ta biblia (the books), which came into use in the early centuries of Christianity to designate the whole sacred volume. In the Latin of the Middle Ages, the neuter plural form Biblia (gen. bibliorum) gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun (biblia, gen. bibliae), in which singular form the word has passed into the languages of the Western world. It means “The Book”, by way of eminence, and therefore well sets forth the sacred character of our inspired literature.
“When the Sacred Scriptures are read in the Church, God himself speaks to his people, and Christ, present in his word, proclaims the Gospel” (GIRM, no. 29).
These words from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) set before us a profound truth that we need to ponder and make our own. The words of Sacred Scripture are unlike any other texts we will ever hear, for they not only give us information, they are the vehicle God uses to reveal himself to us, the means by which we come to know the depth of God’s love for us, and the responsibilities entailed by being Christ’s followers, members of his Body. -usccb
Christians around the world have been reading the entire Bible for the very first time with the Bible in a Year podcast and Fr. Mike Schmitz. Hear about why you should start the podcast today from some leaders in the Catholic media space: Chris Stefanick, Dr. Edward Sri, Lisa Cotter, Fr. Chris Alar, Jackie and Bobby Angel, Mari Pablo, Brian Butler, Damon Owens, Fr. Mark-Mary, and Fr. Josh Johnson.
By prayer we acknowledge God‘s power and goodness, our own neediness and dependence. It is therefore an act of the virtue of religion implying the deepest reverence for God and habituating us to look to Him for everything, not merely because the thing asked be good in itself, or advantageous to us, but chiefly because we wish it as a gift of God, and not otherwise, no matter how good or desirable it may seem to us. Prayer presupposes faith in God and hope in His goodness. By both, God, to whom we pray, moves us to prayer. Our knowledge of God by the light of natural reason also inspires us to look to Him for help, but such prayer lacks supernatural inspiration, and though it may avail to keep us from losing our natural knowledge of God and trust in Him, or, to some extent, from offending Him, it cannot positively dispose us to receive His graces.