Editing Catholic Reading List (section)

== Biblical commentary ==
The Catholic record, being but 2,000 years old, is vast, deep, and voluminous. Consequently, concise, accessible -- English language -- Catholic commentary is hard to find. Serious thinkers such as Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas are hard to understand and are so studied that commentary on their commentary is purely academic and thus overly focused.  

Personally, I have encountered accessible Protestant commentaries more readily -- but they are Protestant commentaries and thus lose themselves on fundamental understandings, such as Woodward and Zuck's "[https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Knowledge-Commentary-Set/dp/089693800X The Bible Knowledge Commentary]" and its commentary on John: 6:22-59 and the "Bread of Life Discourse" in which the absence of the Eucharist practically screams off the page, "HE WASN'T SAYING EAT MY BODY LITERALLY!!"  Oh, no, dear brothers in Christ, that's exactly what he was sayin.  Anyway, the Woodward & Zuck series is quite easy to use but be wary of its perspective and consequent errors and limitations.

=== Annotated Bibles ===
As noted above, my NABRE from St. Benedict Press has extensive footnotes -- but, like the below USCCB online version of the NABRE, you may find yourself frequently wanting more. Before I bought my NABRE, I used the [[wikipedia:Oxford_Annotated_Bible|The New Oxford Annotated Bible]] (link to Wikipedia entry), which I did then and still do find inadequate. 

=== USCCB Books of the Bible ===
For ongoing Biblical commentary, the easiest and most reliable source is the UCSSB's online [https://bible.usccb.org/bible Books of the Bible]  The interface and navigation are easy and intuitive -- and trustworthy. I find the commentary at times limited, and it is, for formatting and concision, but it is ALWAYS a perfect place to start.

=== Net Bible ===
For additional online access to various Bible translations and commentary, as recommended to me by a seminarian whose professor uses this resource, I find [https://netbible.org/bible NetBible] quite useful. Each translation has a running set of notes, starting with "Net Notes," which focuses on the Greek word origins, "Constable's Notes," a protestant commentary, and "My Notes," which is for users to log their own (requires login). Constable's notes, he, previously a long-time teacher at the Dallas Theological Seminary, are again, are limited by his protestant perspective. If find that Constable's notes do occasionally acknowledge Catholic perspectives, but usually refute them. 

That said, it's a great and easy source for getting into the original Greek meanings. Whereas Constable's notes focus on the Bread of Life Discourse as metaphorical and entirely ignores Jesus' literal instructions to eat the Bread of Life, we can learn from the Net Notes, that the English "eats" at verse [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/6?56 6:56] in Greek is "chews" (the USCCB Bible offers a brief comment -- see footnote at [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/6?54 John 6:54]).  Good source - with caution.

=== Catechism of the Catholic Church ===
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) has its own heading here, but I add it under the heading of Biblical commentary because it's a great source for learning about Scripture and identifying trustworthy commentary.

I recommend that you use the CCC's "[https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/690/ Index of Citations]," a long and comprehensive, and fantastic, index that references the Catechism's text to its Scriptural and Church source.  So rather than looking up a source within a paragraph, using the index you can look up the paragraphs related to the source. The sources include, Sacred Scripture, Professions of Faith, Ecumenical Councils, Particular Councils and Synods, Pontifical Documents, Ecclesiastical Documents, Canon Law, Liturgy, and Ecclesiastical Writings (here you will find Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Thomas, etc.) 

=== Saint Augustine ===
Are you ready the latest English translation of all of Augustine's works? That'll be 132 of them, thank you, in 45 published books (with 101 works) and counting, each  volume about $80.  This is not for you and me. 

I own one, [https://www.focolaremedia.com/bookstore/homilies-gospel-john-1-40 Homilies on the Gospel of John, 1-40]. I bought it out of enthusiasm, and have set it aside out of ignorance. Let's just say that this 604 page book covers Augustine's homilies on John 1-8:30.  Yikes!  And they are DENSE. I'm getting up the courage, but I'm not there yet, and my reading list has other reading priorities that remind me daily of their need.