Lets start with prayer, just as we should with all important undertakings.
Our Father
Come Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of those here, and kindle in us the fire of Your Divine Love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth. Oh God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructed the hearts of the faithful, Grant, that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
St. Jerome, master of unworldliness and founder of the monasteries, you have a deep love for God’s inspired Word and were a most careful translator of the Sacred Scriptures. Your single-mindedness in seeking God’s glory is a perfect model for all students of your Sacred Word. Inspire us with respect for the sacred text as well as for the Tradition and Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Help us understand all the true meaning of the Word of God.
Hail Mary…
Sign of the Cross
Why do we need a better understanding of our Faith?
Quiz (Yes or No)
1. Vatican II Changed the Church from a monarchy to a democracy.
2. You will definitely go to heaven if you attend Mass and confess your sins.
3. We now know the Bible contains some mistakes.
4. When you get divorced, you are excommunicated and can not receive communion.
5. Your conscious tells you what is right and wrong.
6. Every Catholic must go to confession at least once a year.
7. An annulment is a divorce for Catholics.
8. You sin if you do not believe in Church-approved apparitions of Mary.
9. Purgatory is no longer a required doctrine.
10. Good works help us earn our salvation.[1]
[1] Karl Keating, (1992) What Catholics Really Believe, Setting the Record Straight.
(P. 9)
Quiz (Yes or No)
1. Vatican II Changed the Church from a monarchy to a democracy.
2. You will definitely go to heaven if you attend Mass and confess your sins.
3. We now know the Bible contains some mistakes.
4. When you get divorced, you are excommunicated and can not receive communion.
5. Your conscious tells you what is right and wrong.
6. Every Catholic must go to confession at least once a year.
7. An annulment is a divorce for Catholics.
8. You sin if you do not believe in Church-approved apparitions of Mary.
9. Purgatory is no longer a required doctrine.
10. Good works help us earn our salvation.[1]
[1] Karl Keating, (1992) What Catholics Really Believe, Setting the Record Straight.
(P. 9)
Arguments over what was to be accepted as inspired scripture and what was not, could get very heated at times.
The Canon and the Liturgy
The canon is determined by the authoritative tradition of the Church. A book is canonical because it is divinely inspired; a book is not inspired because it is judged to be canonical (see Inspiration).
The liturgy is the natural environment, so to speak, of the canon. The primary purpose of the canon is to distinguish those books that, because they are inspired, are suitable for public reading in the liturgy, and thus for public instruction in the teachings of the Church.[1]
How Choices Were Made
The process of determining the canon began while the events of Christ’s ministry were still living memory, and the four evangelists “used every possible means to ensure that their readers would come to know the validity of the things they had been taught” (Sancta Mater Ecclesia, 2.3). It was still relatively easy to verify what was true and reject what was false by appealing to eyewitnesses, including the apostles themselves (tradition says that John, for example, lived until about the year 100).
The formation of the NT canon probably began very early. Already 2 Pet 3:15–16 assumes that the audience was familiar with Paul’s letters and counts them with “the other scriptures.” Quotations of the canonical books were also used in the writings of Saint Clement of Rome, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, and the Didache in the late first century and early second century a.d., and in the Shepherd of Hermas in the second century a.d.
Thus the beginnings of a canon of the NT appear already in the first century, and a nucleus of four Gospels and over a dozen Pauline letters is in evidence in the second century.[2]
Western Church Latin Fathers The first council that accepted the present Catholic canon (the Canon of Trent) may have been the Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa (393); the acts of this council, however, are lost. A brief summary of the acts was read at and accepted by the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419.[28] These councils were under the authority of St. Augustine, who regarded the canon as already closed. Pope Damasus I's Council of Rome in 382, if the Decretum Gelasianum is correctly associated with it, issued a biblical canon identical to that mentioned above, or if not, the list is at least a 6th-century compilation. Likewise, Damasus' commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383, was instrumental in the fixation of the canon in the West.
In 405, Pope Innocent I sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop, Exsuperius of Toulouse. When these bishops and councils spoke on the matter, however, they were not defining something new, but instead "were ratifying what had already become the mind of the Church." Thus, from the 4th century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon (as it is today), and by the 5th century the East, with a few exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the matter of the New Testament canon.
[1] Hahn, S. (Ed.). (2009). In Catholic Bible Dictionary (p. 137). New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday.
[2] Hahn, S. (Ed.). (2009). In Catholic Bible Dictionary (pp. 138–139). New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday.
The canon is determined by the authoritative tradition of the Church. A book is canonical because it is divinely inspired; a book is not inspired because it is judged to be canonical (see Inspiration).
The liturgy is the natural environment, so to speak, of the canon. The primary purpose of the canon is to distinguish those books that, because they are inspired, are suitable for public reading in the liturgy, and thus for public instruction in the teachings of the Church.[1]
How Choices Were Made
The process of determining the canon began while the events of Christ’s ministry were still living memory, and the four evangelists “used every possible means to ensure that their readers would come to know the validity of the things they had been taught” (Sancta Mater Ecclesia, 2.3). It was still relatively easy to verify what was true and reject what was false by appealing to eyewitnesses, including the apostles themselves (tradition says that John, for example, lived until about the year 100).
The formation of the NT canon probably began very early. Already 2 Pet 3:15–16 assumes that the audience was familiar with Paul’s letters and counts them with “the other scriptures.” Quotations of the canonical books were also used in the writings of Saint Clement of Rome, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, and the Didache in the late first century and early second century a.d., and in the Shepherd of Hermas in the second century a.d.
Thus the beginnings of a canon of the NT appear already in the first century, and a nucleus of four Gospels and over a dozen Pauline letters is in evidence in the second century.[2]
Western Church Latin Fathers The first council that accepted the present Catholic canon (the Canon of Trent) may have been the Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa (393); the acts of this council, however, are lost. A brief summary of the acts was read at and accepted by the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419.[28] These councils were under the authority of St. Augustine, who regarded the canon as already closed. Pope Damasus I's Council of Rome in 382, if the Decretum Gelasianum is correctly associated with it, issued a biblical canon identical to that mentioned above, or if not, the list is at least a 6th-century compilation. Likewise, Damasus' commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383, was instrumental in the fixation of the canon in the West.
In 405, Pope Innocent I sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop, Exsuperius of Toulouse. When these bishops and councils spoke on the matter, however, they were not defining something new, but instead "were ratifying what had already become the mind of the Church." Thus, from the 4th century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon (as it is today), and by the 5th century the East, with a few exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the matter of the New Testament canon.
[1] Hahn, S. (Ed.). (2009). In Catholic Bible Dictionary (p. 137). New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday.
[2] Hahn, S. (Ed.). (2009). In Catholic Bible Dictionary (pp. 138–139). New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday.
Pre-patriarchal Period
Creation and the Fall
Cain kills Abel
Eve gives birth to Seth(Ge 4:25, Ge 5:3)
Noah’s Life
Noah is born(Ge 5:28–29)
The flood
Noah becomes drunk in his tent(Ge 9:18–27)
Story of Babel
The tower of Babel is built(Ge 11:1–9)
Patriarchal Period
Life of Abraham
God fulfills promises made to Abraham
Abram is called
Terah settles in Haran(Ge 11:31–32, Jos 24:2, Ac 7:4)
God calls Abram(Ge 12:1–5, Jos 24:3, Ne 9:7, Ac 7:2–4, Ga 3:8, Heb 11:8–9)
God appears to Abram at Shechem(Ge 12:6–7, Ne 9:8, Ac 7:5)
Abram travels
God makes a covenant with Abram(Ge 15:1–21, Ne 9:8, Ac 7:6–7, Ro 4:18)
Hagar gives birth to Ishmael
The covenant of circumcision is established
Isaac is born(Ge 21:1–7, Jos 24:3, 1 Ch 1:34, Mt 1:2, Lk 3:34, Ac 7:8, Ga 4:22, Heb 11:11)
Abraham’s later life
Creation and the Fall
Cain kills Abel
Eve gives birth to Seth(Ge 4:25, Ge 5:3)
Noah’s Life
Noah is born(Ge 5:28–29)
The flood
Noah becomes drunk in his tent(Ge 9:18–27)
Story of Babel
The tower of Babel is built(Ge 11:1–9)
Patriarchal Period
Life of Abraham
God fulfills promises made to Abraham
Abram is called
Terah settles in Haran(Ge 11:31–32, Jos 24:2, Ac 7:4)
God calls Abram(Ge 12:1–5, Jos 24:3, Ne 9:7, Ac 7:2–4, Ga 3:8, Heb 11:8–9)
God appears to Abram at Shechem(Ge 12:6–7, Ne 9:8, Ac 7:5)
Abram travels
God makes a covenant with Abram(Ge 15:1–21, Ne 9:8, Ac 7:6–7, Ro 4:18)
Hagar gives birth to Ishmael
The covenant of circumcision is established
Isaac is born(Ge 21:1–7, Jos 24:3, 1 Ch 1:34, Mt 1:2, Lk 3:34, Ac 7:8, Ga 4:22, Heb 11:11)
Abraham’s later life