Running On Empty

One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

I remember once a buddy and I were on our way somewhere and as it happens sometimes the vehicle we were in showed that it needed for us to add some fuel if we expected to make it to our destination.  We were in the middle of nowhere, cornfields on one side of the road and soybeans on the other side. We pulled our car into something called Far, Co-Op Gas and we filled our tank and got back on the road among the cornfields and soybean fields.  It wasn't but a few mile down the road that the car suddenly began to lose power. My buddy had to keep his foot all the way to the floor to keep the engine going.  The gas gauge which had been all the way over on the full side was marching rapidly back to the empty side.  He kept the pedal to the metal and the car roared with displeasure.  It finally sputtered and died just as we pulled up to a name brand gas station pump.  It appeared that we had pumped the dregs of gasoline out the co-op tank which besides a bit of gasoline, contained a whole bunch of water

So, man does not live by bread alone but by the Word of God.  We Cattholics must be careful where it is we get our Word of God.  The Word we study should be approved by the Church so that we are sure that the Bible we are reading contains footnotes that go along with Catholic Doctrine.  We have many things in common with our Protestant brothers and sisters and a lot with even the most vocal of the fundementalists but not everything that we believe matches what they believe and some of the differences are striking.  The footnotes in the Bibles of both Catholics and Protestants are made from the particular view of the denomination(s) that publish them.  So make sure when you are studying that you are using Catholic resources so you don't get off the path the Church wasnts us to be on.  Always make sure that books that are discussing doctrine have the  "Nihl Obstat" which means that the work has been reviewed and that it contains nothing that would be against faith or morals as the Catholic Church defines them.  Caution, you must still use your good sense because the Nihil Obstat does NOT mean thata everything that you read is true.  Very often the author is giving his thoughts on a matter which may differ from Church teaching, but still may fall into the range of that you can believe.  A Catholic Bible with the Hihil Obstat can be trusted implicitly and you should reada and form your conscience using bothe a Bible with this mark and you should be guided by footnotes which have beeen checked. 

The Imprimatur is recognition by the Church that indeed the work is free of moral and doctinal errors and literally means "Let it be printed."  No theological work used to instruct the faithful can be used unless it has athe Nihl Obstat and Imprimatur of the Church.  Consider it a guarantee of authenticity.