From ZENIT News:

A Web site launched by the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy allows researchers to access Bible verses with exegesis from doctors of the Church or cross reference liturgical texts with commentaries from Church Fathers.

The site at www.bibliaclerus.org offers six categories in nine languages. It also gives the option of downloading the site's content.

The nine translations of the Bible, including Hebrew and Greek, can be read side-by-side, as can the Eastern and Latin Codes of Canon Law.

This is sure going to be a treasure for anyone studying the bible. So many reasouces! I'm very excited about this one

The link to the site

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Today is the first day of June, which means that my New Testament reading cycle gets reset! We are back at the beginning!

I try to read The New Testament twice every year, in six months cycles. Each day there is a reading from the Gospels as well as from the other books of The New Testament. Today I start Gospel of Matthew and The Book of Acts.

I will also be following the Navarre Bible study for the Book of Acts. I love Navarre commentaries, they are filled with passages from church documents as well as the church fathers. I strongly recommend getting them. Soon I will have the complete New Testament set.

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The bus is an interesting place. I often find that when I'm reading a Christian book, people notice me and sometimes start talking to me. One time I've been reading "Salvation is from the Jews" by Roy H. Schoeman and several people started talking to me and asking me questions about the book and its contents.

I often get asked if I am a Christian and what my book is about. Sometimes people tell me to watch what I'm reading, they do this as they hand me a little pamphlet which tells me what to do to be a good Christian. It's interesting to see what these pamphlets contain. Each denomination has its own idea of what is required to be "saved". I sometimes wonder what would happen if two Christians of different denominations met on a bus and exchanged each other's pamphlets. Which one is right? Will they both point to the same bible and try to argue their case?

The question of authority has always been an important one for me in my faith journey. Very early on I realized that the doctrine of "bible alone" does not make any sense at all, and is in fact not found anywhere in the bible. The bible doesn't tell us what books belong in it. (Not counting the index, of course, since that is not part of the bible. heh.) Why do we include books like Gospel of St. John and not Gospel of St. Thomas? Questions like that cannot be truly answered by any "bible only" Christian. The answer, however, is very simple and biblical. It is not the bible that is the pillar and foundation of truth is it the Church of God, just like St. Paul says in 1 Tim. 3:15.

It was the Church which is guided by the Holy Spirit who decided which books of the bible are inspired and which are not. This is an extremely important point, because if anyone accepts the authority of the bible, they must accept the authority of the Church, and to accept that is to stop being a "bible only" Christian. The Church was entrusted the mission to evangelize the entire world. It does this by its sacraments and its teachings found both in the bible and its living Tradition (2 Thess. 2:15, 1 Cor. 11:2).

Perhaps next time I'm handed a little pamphlet I will in return give the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is a bit bigger, it has more content, all of it food for the soul. The biggest reason why I am Catholic is because it is the only Church who has the authority from Christ. Authority I believe before I believe anything in the bible. With St. Augustine I say If you should find someone who does not yet believe in the gospel, what would you [Mani] answer him when he says, ‘I do not believe’? Indeed, I would not believe in the gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so

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