Use the tools God gives us to grow close to Him

I look forward each month to receiving Liguorian Magazine. It’s a Redemptorist pastoral publication that rarely has an article I find difficult to read or understand and it is never contrary to Magisterial teaching. What I really like are the short fiction stories with a message, the crossword puzzle, and of course the Bible Quiz. The Bible Quiz is a quiz with short clues on the left of the page, with the correlating answers on the right side in random order. The object is to match the answer with the clue.



The first dozen or so quizzes I took I failed miserably. I got hardly any answers correct. As I have become more familiar with the Bible through daily readings, my scores have increased. I am so excited! Today, I scored 100%! A couple of the questions were tricky, but I worked through them using a process of eliminating the alternate answers with other questions. This is no small feat. Pick up a copy (or better yet, subscribe!) and try the quizzes yourself—but get prepared by reading just a little bit of the Bible each day.


I’ve heard some of my friends say, “I tried reading the Bible, but it’s soooo long!” Or, “I was really getting interested until the Book of Numbers. What’s up with that? That’s boring!” My advice is to read the Good News, or the Gospels, first. Then read the Old Testaments or the Epistles next. I found that even Numbers made sense when read in the context of salvation history.


If you still don’t want to READ the Gospels, PRAY them! You’ll probably find, as I do, that as you meditate on the life of Christ through the mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, you develop a burning desire to “imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise through Christ.”

O Lord, you have probed me and you know me. (Psalm 139:1)


Today's responsorial psalm, reminds me that we have an authentic self and how well God knows us.


We are so clever about defending our intentions and behavior that it is little wonder that we may at times be confused and confusing. God, on the other hand, knows us as we are, for good and for bad.


May we then rely on God to give us information that can really help us, like: "Go to confession," or "Did you really gain anything of importance today by all that time spent surfing on the web?" or "I called you to prayer, but you didn't answer." And most important, "I love you; you are mine."