Phil at Brandywine Books has a post on ways to read the Bible, and asks, “How do you read the Bible?” This reminded me of something I’d read recently that I’m trying to put into practice, and that I’ve been meaning to write about anyway.

Pope Benedict meets with many groups, and gets asked many questions. Our Sunday Visitor recently collated quite a few of these into a short book, the aptly named Questions and Answers, which was edited by Amy Welborn’s husband Michael Dubrueil. In one session, a 21-year-old chemical engineering student asks how he can read the Bible and understand it. The Pope answers that there are three ways for the believer to read the Bible, all of which are necessary. He begins,

It must first of all be said that one must not read Sacred Scripture as one reads any kind of historical book, such as, for example, Homer, Ovid, or Horace; it is necessary to truly read it as the Word of God—that is, by entering into a conversation with God…. One should not read Scripture in an academic way, but with prayer, saying to the Lord, “Help me to understand your Word, what it is you want to tell me in this passage.”

A great way to do this is the aptly named practice of lectio divina, which is a slightly more formal technique for doing the above; it involves reading the passage several times, chewing on and meditating on the words, and generally giving the Spirit the opportunity to point things out and make them plain.

So that’s the first way: to understand Scripture with the Lord, in this passage, in this moment. But what about trying to get an appreciation for the Bible as a whole, or to come to understanding of how the Old Testament relates to the New Testament? Benedict goes on,

Sacred Scripture introduces one into communion with the family of God. Thus, one should not read Sacred Scripture on one’s one. Of course, it is always important to read the Bible in a very personal way, in a personal conversation with God; but at the same time it is important to read it in the company of people with whom one can advance, letting oneself be helped by the great masters of lectio divina…. These teachers help us to understand better, and also how to interpret Sacred Scripture properly. Moreover, it is appropriate in general to read it in the company of friends who are journeying with me, who are seeking, together with me, how to live in Christ, to find what life the Word of God brings us.

In short, understanding the Bible is hard: we should rely on good teachers to bring us to understanding.

And then, the third way is read the Bible with the Church as a whole, in the Liturgy. Benedict concludes,

I think we should learn to do three things: To read it in a personal colloquium with the Lord; to read it with the guidance of teachers who have the experience of faith, who have penetrated Sacred Scripture; and to read it in the great company of the Church, in whose liturgy these events never cease to become present anew and in which the Lord speaks with us today.

I find that in my life I’m doing quite a bit of the third, through Sunday mass, and the Liturgy of the Hours every day; and quite a bit of the second, through the various books I’ve been studying, mostly recently Scott Hahn’s A Father Who Keeps His Promises (which I need to review Real Soon Now); the first I’ve been doing much less of, and I’m trying to change that.