The Essentials—Catholic Bible & Catechism

Essential to every Creative Catholic Library is a Catholic Bible and a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

When reading Scripture to my own children, I tend to read out of my Catholic Notetaking Bible or from the daily readings in my St. Paul Daily Missal.

For our little ones, we are intentional about having daily Bible "storytime." We simply read through our children's storybook Bible in order (or we sometimes match up the Gospel reading for the day with a story in their Bible). Once we have read it start to finish, we read from a different storybook Bible or start again. Children benefit from repeated reading, especially when the story being read is the story of Salvation History!

For recommendations regarding children's storybook Bibles, we invite you to head over to Into the Deep's blog for a great overview of how to select Catholic children's Bibles for your family (we don't believe in reinventing the wheel when great information is already readily available).

Olivia, founder of Into the Deep, mentions this briefly in her post, but if you have been gifted children's Bibles that are not Catholic, pay close attention to the way the story of the Last Supper is written. More often than not, you will need to edit the words so that they say what we believe to be true—“This is my Body, which will be given up for you” and "This is the cup of my Blood, the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant; it will be shed for you and for all, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” I usually even use a pen to cross out the words and write in, "This is my Body. This is my Blood," so that my children will read what we believe if they sit down to read it on their own.

It is also important to have a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on hand as a reference and guide. We have a few copies, but I prefer to read from the beautiful Ascension Press edition, and I also love using the Youth Catechism (known as the YouCat).

The Word of God is the foundation of every Creative Catholic Library, so be sure to keep your Bibles in a place set apart and readily available for daily reading!