Take a pilgrimage with Steve and Janet Ray!

Fed Ex just left with final edit of my Commentary on Genesis – Excited!

December 9, 2022 No Comments

After five years of work and research and writing, the final edit on my Catholic Commentary on Genesis is on its way back to Ignatius Press.

The plan is that the book will be printed in January and published and ready for sale by April. They say the supply line may slow it down, but in any case, I am very excited. This has been a huge project that my wife and I have worked on for many years.

I don’t think there are any current, recent Catholic commentaries on the book of Genesis, the 2nd longest book of the Bible.

This book is full of biblical background, quotes from the Fathers of the Church, Jewish rabbis and scholars, and full of apologetics and typology. Jesus said the whole Law and the Prophets was about him, and Genesis is rich with prefigurations of Christ and the Church.

So I hope, and pray that the Lord uses this book for his glory.

Are our Bibles Reliable?

December 6, 2022 No Comments

I was recently asked a question about the reliability of scripture, and I provided a simple answer.

Hi Steve,

I have someone who has questioned how we can believe that what is written in the Bible today (obviously Catholic Bible), is the true copy of the sacred scriptures that was written 2,000 years ago? How do we know that after 2,000 years, we don’t have something now that is unreliable and is not what was actually written by the original writers of the New Testament (and even the Old Testament).

I explained how Christ gave His word that basically the Church would never lead anyone into error or false teachings/beliefs and that Church (the Catholic Church) declares to the word that it is the Word of God and nothing less, because Christ said so.

But I need some historical evidence that shows that the Douay – Rheims or Revised RSV is as close to the original Greek as possible and show how we can know that the Bible didn’t get changed at all.

Do you have any sources or books that shows any of this? I know the actual original copies that the original writers wrote are lost.

Thank you very much and may God Bless!

Happy Advent!!

Dear Friend. Steve Ray here …

Yes, the Holy Spirit has protected scripture through the ages. But we do not need to depend upon that only because the translation and copying and preservation of scripture is also very scientific.

Once at my Bible study, we put a poem up on the wall and we made the group copy the poem, but they had to make at least two mistakes. We had a translating committee at five people in another room, who never saw the original poem. We gave them the 45 flawed copies, and after they studied and analyzed them, they did their best to reconstruct what the original Palm said from all of the 45 flawed copies.

When they came out with the poem and showed it to the group, it was 100% accurate.

This is how Scripture has been handed down. We do not have the original manuscripts of Matthew, Mark Luke, but we do have thousands of fragments and copies in our possession. The documents of scripture, all the New Testament and the Old, are better arrested to than any other ancient writings.

When the translators look at all of those ancient documents from the first centuries, and compare them all, just like a poem that was flawed, they can restructure what the new testament was with 99.99% accuracy.

Anyone who doubts the accuracy of the New Testament, and that includes the old as well, has never studied the issue and is just parroting things they’ve heard from others.. very foolish and ignorant indeed.

Pray for my grandson Damian who may be losing his eyesight

December 6, 2022 No Comments

Damian is a marvelous and very holy young man considering the priesthood. You will never find a more lovely, talented, fun, caring, athletic and thoroughly Catholic young man.

From my daughter Cindy

Please pray for my son Damian. He has a blind spot in the center of his vision in his left eye. This is the novena that we are asking people to pray for Damian’s eyes, for the return of his full central vision in his left eye, and for a clear diagnosis and wisdom for all the doctors, we will be seeing this week.

If you start the novena today then it will end on the Feast of St. Lucy (patroness of vision), and also my birthday! https://novenaprayer.com/2021/12/04/st-lucy-novena-prayer/

Thank you so much for praying with us!

~Cindy

If you haven’t heard any details yet, here is a short summary:

Damian had trouble with internal bleeding and inflammation in his left eye back in August, as many of you know, and they thought they knew the issue, but last Tuesday he noticed a partial loss of vision (which he didn’t tell us about until late that night), and we got him in as soon as possible last week on Wednesday. They can now see that the problem is progressing, so it’s not fundamentally trauma-caused after all (though there may be that, too).

They’re pretty sure it’s a rare condition (serpiginous choroiditis) that is either caused by TB or is auto-immune. They ran a whole panoply of tests last Sept, and the TB test was negative, so it looks like this is the auto-immune version. The doctors are pretty concerned because the inflammation is encroaching on the center of his vision area (fovea).

They gave him a steroid injection into his eye, and he’s on oral steroids now, too. We are meeting with an auto-immune specialist on Friday and with a couple of other doctors as well. This condition may progress and cause damage to his vision in both eyes, so we are praying hard that that doesn’t happen!

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20 Minute Pilgrimage Overview: the Why, the Meaning, the Effect and the Doing

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Find out How I Study the Bible

November 22, 2022 No Comments

FOR THOSE WHO MISSED THE WEBINAR — click link below to watch recorded webinar and still receive the 35% discount https://amber.faithlife.com/shares/o16OMYYqT3NeXdvF Use Promo Code V10STEVERAY1122