Living and Active in the Word of God | Unleashed

March 25, 2022

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Summary

“Our Baptism calls us to spread the Gospel. You have to know it first!” Patty Klecha shares how studying and praying with Scripture transformed her faith and her life.

Unleash the Gospel Marker 3.2 says, God’s word is “living and active” (Heb 4:12); it renews our minds and changes us. The more grounded we are in Scripture, the more we are able to understand God’s marvelous plan and to see the events in our lives with the eyes of faith. Through Scripture we learn to hear God speaking to us personally: “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them.” As God’s word is dynamic, so must our response be: we take the word to heart and apply it to our lives.

Transcript

Patty Klecha: Scripture is my source. It’s the grace that gets me through the day and it feeds me. It nourishes me. I have a verse for everything and they give me hope and encouragement and I’m allowed to use those to help others.

My name is Patty Klecha. I am a cradle Catholic and that’s where my faith stayed. That’s where my knowledge stayed, it was pretty much at a childish level. My Baptist neighbor invited me to a Bible study. I’d always been curious about the Bible and so I went, and I was hooked. That was it. All of a sudden my faith came alive and I got things, but I needed to learn more.

I started taking classes at the seminary, just for my own edification. I needed that nourishment that comes with instruction. I started getting people together, gathered people to say, “We need to learn about the Bible.” Because of how Scripture challenged me and allowed me to grow and mature in my faith, I wanted to help others on that same journey.

Marianne Rinke: The Catholic biblical school had come to St. Christopher’s. I just wasn’t sure if I should take it. Patty really encouraged me to go ahead and do it because she knew I’d like it.

I love how, when I now hear the scripture read at church, it has more meaning to it. It’s definitely deepened my faith. I’ve learned a lot.

Patty: I have been leading Bible studies for the last 15 or 20 years. And just again, it started out as a small group and grew by the participants. They invited somebody because they were growing and being nourished, and gaining a new understanding. And they were the ones who invited new people.

One of the gals got so excited, she went to work and she talked about her faith. One of girls that she talked to got so excited, she couldn’t come to the class, but she ordered the books herself. And now she’s gonna enroll in RCIA. What, what can I say? That’s just, that’s the beauty of the Bible, that’s the beauty of the word. And once people get into it, they see how living, and nourishing, and worthwhile it actually is.

The Word is living, in that it pertains to us every day. It’s like the Word of God is growing with me. It has applied to me in my circumstances. It is a living document. And that understanding will light a fire in this Archdiocese and their faith, because the faith is truly written in Scripture. Our Baptism calls us to spread the Gospel. You have to know it first.