Category: Bible Study

“Those who trust in Him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with Him in love.” –Wisdom 3:9 Today the Church calls us to pray for the dead, since we believe death does not necessarily mean immediate entry into heaven or hell. The Bible indicates this when it mentions that providing sacrifices for the dead is considered “excellent and noble” (2 Mc 12:43). Even so, most people are confused or at least doubtful about praying for the dead, and therefore we pray only sporadically for the dead, if at all. The Lord would have us be “clear about those...

“See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God! Yet that is what we are.” —1 John 3:1 When my son was a seminarian, he had major knee surgery on All Saints Day morning. As we returned to his dorm room from the hospital, I was privileged to see the “communion of saints” in action. A group of seminarians visited him for the purpose of making him laugh. Two others stopped by to pray the Divine Office with him in the evening. Another seminarian dropped in to pray a rosary with him....

“I have full confidence that now as always Christ will be exalted through me, whether I live or die.” —Philippians 1:20. When St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was on death row and very happily awaiting his execution. He was looking forward to dying and being with Christ (Phil 1:23). If, however, Paul would be spared death and/or released from prison, that would mean “productive toil” for the Gospel (Phil 1:22), and this would be good too. Paul was in a great mood because no matter what could happen to him, it would be good. If we sat on...

“My prayer is that your love may more and more abound, both in understanding and wealth of experience, so that with a clear conscience and blameless conduct you may learn to value the things that really matter, up to the very day of Christ.” —Philippians 1:9-10 Paul prayed that the Philippians would “learn to value the things that really matter.” He wanted their relationship with Christ to shine a light on their priorities, surpass them in importance, and cause them to reappraise all as loss (Phil 3:7-8). Once the Philippians forfeited everything because of their love for Jesus and accounted...

“Stand firm against the tactics of the devil.” —Ephesians 6:11 “Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pt 5:8). The devil hates us. He wants to use us to show his hatred of Jesus. His plan is to deceive, enslave, use, abuse, degrade, kill, and damn us. Therefore, “our battle is not against human forces but against the principalities and powers, the rulers of this world of darkness, the evil spirits in regions above” (Eph 6:12). We are in extreme danger, but we need not be afraid...