October 15, 2025

Fr. John Riccardo

Beloved: Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching (2 Timothy 3:14-4:2).

Every Sunday morning, a notice pops up on my phone. It probably does on yours too.“You averaged X hours of screen time a day last week,” it proclaims. Some weeks the amount of time is downright alarming.

Imagine, instead, what would happen if a notice popped up that said, “You averaged X hours of time in the Word of God a day last week”? Think our lives would be different — less anxious, calmer, more peaceful, less stressed out and overwhelmed, more hopeful?

Paul tells his younger brother in the faith this coming week that the Scriptures are capable of giving us wisdom, that they’re useful for refutation, training and correction. One of the words Paul uses means something like rebuilding the foundation of a city that’s in need of repair, or a limb that’s become lame that is being reset. What great images for our minds, constantly under assault in this age that God has chosen for us to live.

Frank Sheed, a great Catholic author and speaker from the last century, reportedly said to a gathering of regular Church goers that if we’re honest, we’ll admit that most of us have mostly worldly minds with a few Catholic patches. I readily admit that’s true for me, and I don’t even have a TV. The world, to use Paul’s words from Romans 12:2 is constantly trying to squeeze us into its way of thinking.

What’s the remedy for this? There are several, but perhaps the one that’s simplest for most of us is to commit to reading Scripture every day. Read, not scan, the way many of us probably have become accustomed to going over text in this modern age. Scripture is “inspired by God,” Paul says. That means not only that the Lord “breathed” into the sacred authors as they wrote, but that He “breathes” out on us when we soak in it. As this happens, He refreshes us, calms us, speaks truth into our hearts and minds, and so much more.

As a priest, I often hear people ask where to begin if reading Scripture is not an acquired habit. Given that, and Paul’s words to us this week, combined with that annoying pop-up message on many of our phones, let me offer a few concrete suggestions.

A first place to begin might be Dei Verbum, a document from Vatican II on revelation. It’s quite short, easy to read, and maybe the most concise presentation of how to read Scripture as a Catholic. I’d also highly recommend Peter Kreeft’s wonderful book How To Read the Bible. It’s a great introduction to Scripture in general and each book found therein. For those wanting to understand the Old Testament better, Brant Pitre and John Bergsma put together a phenomenal resource called A Catholic Introduction to the Bible, Volume I: Old Testament. If you want to dig more deeply into the New Testament, the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series is simply extraordinary. I might suggest starting with Mary Healy’s incredible volume on the Gospel of Mark. Finally, to my mind, the single best commentary I’ve ever come across is the four volume series on the Gospel of Matthew by Erasmo-Leiva Merikakis, entitled Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word.

Pope Benedict once suggested that if we one day learned that there was a book somewhere in which God, the Creator of all that is, the author of human history, speaks to us, we would undoubtedly run to pick it up. Well, He has! Let’s commit to soak in it daily!

What’s Your Divine Data Usage?

Stand!