What Is Sacred Scripture Grade 6: Sessions 1-5

Session 1: The Written Revelation of God

God Reveals Himself in His Word There are different ways in which we can come to know that God exists, such as through nature or through the use of human reason. But in order to know certain things about God — who He is, that He loves us and has a plan for our lives — God has to reveal them to us. We cannot come to know such things on our own by thinking about them or by using science and technology. Thankfully, God does reveal Himself to us. One of the primary ways God does this is through Scripture (the Bible).

Divine Revelation God chose to reveal Himself and make known the mystery of His will. By mystery we do not mean an unsolvable puzzle, but rather, a truth that cannot be discovered by man alone and that cannot be fully known or expressed by man’s finite mind. We can know that God exists on our own, but there are things about God that we cannot know on our own, such as that He loves us and has a plan for our lives. God revealed Himself to invite us into friendship with Him. His gradual revelation of Himself in words and deeds is how God pursued us throughout history to save us. He left a means to ensure that this revelation remains whole and complete for all time. This is often referred to as the “Tripod of Truth” and consists of Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church. A tripod is the most stable of all platforms. Each leg equally supports what is being upheld. However, if one of those legs is removed or is missing, the entire platform falls down. Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are each a “leg” of the “tripod” that upholds the truth of God’s revelation.

Divine Revelation Sacred Tradition refers to the process by which the Catholic Faith has been handed on from the Apostles to their successors, guided by the Holy Spirit. In fact, the word “tradition” comes from the Latin for “handing on.” Jesus told the Apostles to preach to everyone the Gospel message, which they and their successors, the bishops, have done faithfully for the past 2,000 years under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The written record of God’s revelation is called Sacred Scripture. It consists of the Old and the New Testaments that make up the Bible. Sacred Tradition came before Scripture. There was a time in the early Church where there were Christians but there was no New Testament. It had not been written yet. Therefore, it makes sense to say that Tradition existed before there was a Bible.

Divine Revelation The Magisterium is a word that refers to the teaching authority of the Church in Jesus’ name. Therefore, the Magisterium refers to that authority and to those who possess that authority: the Pope alone and all of the world’s bishops together in union with the Pope. Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition have the same source, God Himself. Together they merge to form the Deposit of Faith, which is what we call the whole content of our Christian faith, revealed by God through Jesus Christ, and faithfully guarded and interpreted by the Magisterium, Christ’s Church on earth.

Scripture and the Body of Christ To receive communion is to receive Christ Himself who has offered Himself for us. — CCC 1382 Sacred Scripture The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body. — CCC 103

Session 2: The Purposes of Sacred Scripture

Revelation Theology is the study of God and the things of God. The study of God, however, is different from the study of other things. Coming to know God is more like coming to know a good friend. It involves far more than just memorizing facts about that friend. It means to learn about him, to grow in love for and trust of him, and to build a relationship with him. The same is true with the study of God. It is about more than learning things about Him. It is about growing in relationship with Him. And that involves learning to trust and love Him. But you can’t do that without knowing Him.

Revelation We know about God through divine revelation, God’s revelation of Himself. We find divine revelation in Scripture and in Tradition. The Bible is the written record of divine revelation. It is the Word of God. The Bible and Tradition are the primary sources for the study of God. Put another way, theology is an exploration of divine revelation. We should know the Bible well, both the Old and New Testaments, and how to read and understand it properly. If God reveals Himself through Scripture, then Scripture is not open to just any interpretation. Through it, we meet God Himself.

Revelation God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through Tradition and Scripture. These are our primary sources of divine revelation and the foundation for the study of God, or theology. God, however, goes beyond Scripture and Tradition. As St. John noted in his Gospel, Scripture and Tradition cannot contain all that God is. He is bigger and greater than anything we can know or understand. This does not mean, however, that we cannot know God. We can know God, because He has revealed what is most important for us to know about Him and what He wants for us, which is to be saved. Not only do we meet the Person of Jesus Christ in His Scripture, but we also learn the truth that we need to know for the sake of our salvation.

Uses of Scripture Read Timothy 3:14-17. This passage comes from St. Paul’s second letter to Timothy, who was a trusted companion of St. Paul on his second and third missionary journeys. St. Paul was writing near the end of his ministry and his life to Timothy to encourage him to remain steadfast in his faith. In doing so, St. Paul was reminding Timothy of the purposes and power of Sacred Scripture.

Session 3: The Use of Scripture at Holy Mass

The Liturgy of the Word 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 The Mass has two major parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. It is in the Liturgy of the Word that we primarily hear Scripture proclaimed to us. We also hear parts of Scripture throughout the other prayers of the Mass and in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In fact, most of the prayers of the Mass find their roots in Scripture. The Mass is indeed very biblical!

The Liturgy of the Word During Mass, we encounter Scripture primarily in the Liturgy of the Word, in which we hear three readings: from the Old Testament or the Acts of the Apostles, the New Testament letters, and the Gospels. We also hear or sing a selection from the book of Psalms (which are in the Old Testament). The Church uses a three-year cycle of readings for Sunday liturgies and a two-year cycle of readings for daily liturgies. If a person attended Mass every day over a three-year period, he or she would hear almost 75 percent of the New Testament and 18 percent of the Old Testament (not including the Psalms) proclaimed!

Session 4: Praying with Scripture: Lectio Divina

The Word of God Read Hebrews 4:12. The Word of God It is living and effective. The Word of God is not dead words on a page. Rather, God’s Word is alive, able to cause change in those who hear it.

The Word of God Scripture is described as a double-edged sword because it can be used to “attack,” or proactively to share the Good News with all, and to “defend,” or support what we believe as Christians against those who may mock and attack us or believe otherwise. The Word of God is so powerful that it speaks to our innermost being, to our true thoughts and feelings deep in our hearts. God’s Word has the ability to cut through all the barriers and defenses we erect and reaches our true selves in our heart and soul.

Lectio Divina Church encourages us to pray often with the Scriptures. She understands the power the Word of God holds for our lives. We can allow the Scriptures to speak to the “reflections and thoughts of our hearts” by practicing the ancient way of praying with Scripture called Lectio Divina, which means “divine reading.”

Lesson 5: How to Use the Bible

How to Read the Bible Many people pick a random place in the Bible and start reading, expecting it to make complete sense. Sometimes they even ask the wrong questions about what they are reading, hoping to find an answer where there is none. Ultimately, to read the Bible effectively, we must first know how to read it. That is no easy task. The Bible is unlike any book that has ever been written.

How to Read the Bible With most books, you can simply start at the beginning and read to the end and get the complete story. Not so with the Bible. The Bible is more accurately understood as a library of books rather than a single book to be read from cover to cover. In fact, the word Bible comes from the Latin word biblia which means “a collection of books.” Therefore, in order to find answers to the right questions about the Bible, we have to know how to read it properly.

Abbreviations and Locations in the Bible Example: John 3:16-17. This is the typical way a passage in the Bible is referenced. Using this, we can look up the specific book, chapter, and verses. In the example above, the book is John, the chapter is 3, and the verses are 16-17. Sometimes the name of the book is abbreviated. For example, the Gospel of John is sometimes abbreviated “Jn.” The book of Genesis is sometimes abbreviated“Gn.”