The Holy Scriptures I think it was St. Jerome who once said "ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ." The conventional wisdom among many evangelicals I know is that Roman Catholics don't believe the Bible or that they hold the Bible in low repute. However, hearing a reading from the Roman catechism on the Scriptures planted a seed in my heart to explore Catholicism. My love and high view of Scripture may have started my journey to Rome. What an ironic twist on conventional wisdom! I want to share some of those readings from the catechism now. Even if you have no inclination to become Roman Catholic, I still think these passages will bless you. On meeting God in the Scriptures: In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God". "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them." On the inspiration of the Bible: The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures." On the Word of God: Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book". Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, "not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living". If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures." On the role of Scriptures in the Church: "And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigour, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life." Hence "access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful." That last part is particularly telling. There is no Roman Catholic plot to keep the Scriptures out of the hands of the laity. In fact, I can't think of any document I've ever read, Protestant or otherwise, that spells out the role of the Bible in our lives more cogently or sublimely. As a good friend put it, the catechism is a "masterpiece."