Sola Journal. Half the story.

Many ask why the Catholic faith is not based on sola scriptura - that is, the Bible alone. For Catholics, there is more to it than that. When we consider the Bible alone, it's a wonderful place to start...Here's a great source to understand a little more. 

My Great-Grandma Maggie kept journals during her married life. They're a wonderful look into the history of our family. They were a struggling family living in the hills of Southern California, where my Grandpa Weaver was a parole officer and my Grandma Maggie was a homemaker. They had four kids and a house. The journals document much of their daily life, and a little bit of the tragedy and joy they experienced as a family. But as informative as those journals may be, they don't give us much of a glimpse at the author at all.

Grandma Maggie was this loud, boisterous, silly, fun, kind, opinionated, loving, cuddly, apron-wearing, smart-as-a-whip, witty gal who lived a big life. She was uncontainable. Grandpa Weaver spent most of his life watching her live. He thought she was the most enchanting and amusing person in the world, and she probably was.

But you'd never know it from the journals. The journals tell a story of a family who worked their hands to the bone, who tried to make ends meet, who sacrificed for each other, who prayed to make it through the tough times. Depressing, right? The journals speak of small birthdays, small rooms, broken appliances and deaths and illnesses of friends and family. They help us to place the times and events of the things that made us who we are.

And yet, our family doesn't remember much of that. We have MORE than the journals. We have boxes of letters, pictures, menus, itineraries, receipts, Christmas cards and heirlooms. We've added to our rich history as we've gone along, and are the better for it. We have the things Grandma Maggie touched and wore (relics, anyone?), the things she used in her own home, the traditions that glued her own family together as they grew. We remember the noise and laughter of family reunions, the stories passed down from past generations, the love of a family at Christmas, the richness of the success Grandma and Grandpa shared at the end of their lives, the legacy their children and grandchildren live today.

There is so much more to the story than what's written, and there is so much more to the code of living than just working hard and making it through. Without the tradition of our own family, we'd have so much less with which to tell our story.

The Bible is the place we start and SHOULD be the standard we hold ourselves to. But as the family of the Body of Christ, we rely on so much more to add to the richness of our faith. The examples of the men and women who've gone before us, the writings of Popes, saints and holy people, the relics of the people we believe to be with the Lord now, these are the things that make us richer and wiser.