Download the Bible and the Catechism
Don't like dragging around heavy, bulky print copies of the Bible and/or the Catechism?
No more excuses! (I found a solution.)
For those of you who lug around a laptop already, and don't like the idea of having to drag around print copies of the Bible and the Catechism as well, I feel your pain. I looked at least three or four times for both (literally for hours each time) and finally found downloadable, complete copies of them (much to my surprise and many others I asked who said "sorry, they simply don't exist"). They may take a while to download (as they are somewhat large files), so be patient:
- New American Bible (PDF, click the little disk icon that shows up below the Address Bar in your browser, then aave as a PDF, 7.1 MB)
- Catechism of the Catholic Church (British English translation) (allow this to completely load, then do a "File-->Save as" within your browser and save it as an HTM or HTML file on your hard drive, 4.1 MB)
I did a spurious check to assure that the online versions match the print versions word-for-word. Nonetheless, if you find any discrepencies in the online and print versions, please leave a comment in the comments section for this post (at http://download.tomreagan.com). Also, please note the introductions and caveats for these online versions.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.
posted by Tom Reagan at 11:23 PM
But I like carrying my gigantic Catechism with me to class!
Kinda like wearing a jacket and tie for you? :)
(Sadly, I'm laughing at my own inside joke here.)
Is there an online Catholic Bible dictionary? I need one ;)
Terri,
It's not really a dictionary, but there is a good encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org.
What I'd probably suggest is that if you're reading something in the Bible and unsure of a term, you might either look directly in the encyclopedia above, or alternatively find the Bible passage in NewAdvent's (Douay-Rheims version) Bible which cross references directly to terms through hyperlinks.
However, this isn't a downloadable solution (but it is online as you asked for). Further, I'm not sure if this is a good enough answer or not as a whole. If it's not, please clarify with an example, and I'll try to give you a better link. (I sincerely mean this, so don't hesitate to ask.)
Tom
Tom Thank you I think I found one too!
http://www.therealpresence.org/dictionary/adict.htm Check this out and tell me what you think!
Terri,
You're welcome, and thanks, in turn.
As for the therealpresence.org link, it looks good to me at first glance. It seems as though the explanations of terms are much briefer than those of newadvent.org, which could be good or bad depending on how much detail is desired.
This gives me an opportunity to point out that I have been impressed with the web site reviews at CatholicCulture.org which is led by Dr. Jeffrey A. Mirus, who co-founded Christendom College (which I considered strongly for grad school) and "established EWTN Online Services for Mother Angelica," among other things. In other words, I trust his judgment. If you look under the "Worth Checking Out" right panel at TomReagan.com, you can link directly to his reviews under "Catholic Web Site Reviews." (Remind me: I should probably post something to this effect.)
As for therealpresence.org, I'll point you to his team's review, which is highly favorable.
Tom
Don't be jealous of the coat and tie! ;-)
This is the coolest thing ever. Nice job.
Except I don't have a laptop.
But they will be hyperuseful for research at home (where I do not have the internet). I often wish I had all my books on my hard drive, just so I could do a Google search on them and then use that to refer back to my hard copies.
Darn its too bad I cant suscribe to responces to the posts I make ! Yes this is great! I usually go for the simplest explanations and go deeper if I am not satisfied with the answers. So all information is good!
Epiphany Artist,
I would say "simplest explanations and go deeper" would be directly in line with the way the Magisterium (and various popes) have directed Catholic to read the Bible. Believe it or not, that's very uncommon with Biblical scholars today, so keep it up!
Tom
PS--I'm sure Danny and Jon who have already commented here can point you to a few encyclicals to this effect. I'm in a hurry or I'd do it myself right now. :)
Okay, re-reading this post several months later...Epiphany Artist, for the best selection of Magisterial teaching and encyclicals (as I referred to toward the end of this originally), see Bechard's The Scripture Documents. It has only the parts that are pertinent to Scripture reading in the Catholic Tradition.
My son is just starting catholic school (we are baptist). He is dyslexic, so learning the catechism is going to be hard. Does this download "speak" the words, or just put them on the screen? If not, any sugggestions??