Bible Study Group


After our break for Lent and the start of the Easter Season we will meet again on Tuesday 17th April at 7.30 pm in the church house [unless access to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel becomes available before then]. If there is a Tuesday evening Mass, our meeting will start after it. New people are always welcome. There are often profound moments shared as well as laughter. You do not need to be a scholar or an academic but just have a thirst to break God s Word and share it with others. If you require any further details phone Ken on 01744820654.

WHY?

When 30% of our Mass is made up of readings or words and phrases from the Bible why do we need to have a Bible study group? We are lucky in Portico to have a priest who does a great job of breaking the Word of God with us at Mass, but others aren t so fortunate and someday we might be the `others.` Pope Francis asks Catholics to read the Bible and has even personally distributed copies of the New Testament to Catholics who came to hear him. St. Jerome said, Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. The writer Joyce Hugget said in her book, `Listening to God,`

I had turned from meditating on the shepherding of Jesus to contemplate the Transfiguration. Embedded in Matthew s account of this unique revelation of Jesus glory, lay a command which I had never bumped into before: `There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became a white as the light and a voice from the cloud said, `This is my Son, whom I love; with him am I well pleased. Listen to him! `I looked at this verse long and hard and found it difficult to believe that it does not say, `This is my dear Son, talk to him. `Nor does it read, `This is my dear Son, ask him for things. ` Neither does it encourage, `This is my dear Son, tell him your diagnosis when someone is sick. ` No. It reads, `This is my Son Listen to him.`

To read the scriptures is one way that we can `Listen to him. `To study the scriptures is a way that we can listen to him more attentively, especially if we approach this study with a prayerful heart. When we do this together with others, then surely we can hope to listen to him speak in our midst as he assured us that, ` For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."