How often do you read the Bible?

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I read the daily readings for the Mass every morning. I am re-reading the OT for the 3rd time. The first was in a Bible Study class in HS, but the teacher was protestant. The second was during my early 20s. This time I used the Great Adventure for the Historical books. Now I am filling in the rest. I have read the NT multiple times. I have lost count.

I have the Jerusalem Bible given to me at my confirmation. I have my NAB given to me in my early 20s. I now am using the RSV-CE.

There is a blessing in reading the scriptures through the lens of the daily Liturgy. I see it as reading the scriptures as the Church reads them.
 
bcuster said:
I read the daily readings for the Mass every morning. I am re-reading the OT for the 3rd time. The first was in a Bible Study class in HS, but the teacher was protestant. The second was during my early 20s. This time I used the Great Adventure for the Historical books. Now I am filling in the rest. I have read the NT multiple times. I have lost count.

I have the Jerusalem Bible given to me at my confirmation. I have my NAB given to me in my early 20s. I now am using the RSV-CE.

There is a blessing in reading the scriptures through the lens of the daily Liturgy. I see it as reading the scriptures as the Church reads them.
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That’s a real good point my friend. There is so much more we can know about our most holy faith from reading the Bible. So many times it seems that verses or passages will sort of jump of the page at us and we get one of those “AH HA” epiphanies that tend to stay with us the rest of our lives.
 
I have read the Bible cover to cover once. Man, that was painful.

Currently, I read the Bible daily using a plan I developed to go through the entire NT every four weeks. I also read The Word Among Us as a daily devotional and I go through all the daily mass readings using that.

I own lots of Bibles.

NIV, KJV, RSV(CE), New American.

NIV is my preference…because a Catholic priest directed me to the Thompson Chain Reference when I was first getting serious about scripture study 30 years ago. The downside is that it’s a lousy, biased translation. The upside is that I know how to quote verses in the words Protestants are familiar with! However, I’m currently reading the RSV to learn it.

I don’t carry a Bible to Church because the pastor isn’t going to ask me to open one during his homily. 😛

I don’t think about indulgences because I’m not keeping score.

I need to read the Bible more.
 
Okay, so I wasn’t completely honest. I’m still working my way through the Bible. But in 2 weeks, I’ll have read the entire thing… I’ve been reading it daily since the start of July, with a goal of finishing in 60 days. (Yes, I know that’s insane. Someone had the idea on Catholic Memes. I merely went along with it) After this, I plan on going at a much more leisurely pace of twice a year (or maybe even only once a year). But no matter what speed I go at, I think I’ll try to read it perpetually.

Preferred translation: RSV-CE or RSV-2CE
The copy I own: NAB that everyone gets in religious ed at my church. I mean to get a new copy (RSV-2CE) some time.

As for reading it before Mass: I sing in the choir, so I’m always somewhat distracted during the readings getting ready for the Psalm/Alleluia. I just read them in the missalette before Mass starts to make up 😊.
 
*Puts on his best Ferris Bueller’s Day Off" voice and asks, *

"Anyone else?

Anyone?

Anyone?"
 
Well, I was raised as a Baptist, so I was pretty well versed in the bible. (Of course I realize now that we Catholics are as well.) The problem is that, because of this upbringing and my familiarity with bible “stories”, it’s been difficult to convince myself that I need to read scripture.
However, I recently started a plan from coming home network to read the bible and catechism in a year. I was thinking of following another plan I discovered developed by a protestant professor named Grant Horner. He has 10 list of books in the bible (that comprise all 66 books in the protestant bible) from which you read ine chapter each day. You end up reading some portions far more often than others (which is good I think), and you het great variety in what you’re reading. You also begin to contextualize very quickly. I’d just need to modify the plan to include the deuterocanonical books.
For now, as I said, I’m following the coming home network plan. May change my mind though.
 
buzzoff1031 said:
Well, I was raised as a Baptist, so I was pretty well versed in the bible. (Of course I realize now that we Catholics are as well.) The problem is that, because of this upbringing and my familiarity with bible “stories”, it’s been difficult to convince myself that I need to read scripture.
However, I recently started a plan from coming home network to read the bible and catechism in a year. I was thinking of following another plan I discovered developed by a protestant professor named Grant Horner. He has 10 list of books in the bible (that comprise all 66 books in the protestant bible) from which you read ine chapter each day. You end up reading some portions far more often than others (which is good I think), and you het great variety in what you’re reading. You also begin to contextualize very quickly. I’d just need to modify the plan to include the deuterocanonical books.
For now, as I said, I’m following the coming home network plan. May change my mind though.
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👍 I started the CH network plan for Bible and Catechism on August 1st. I have kept up on it every day. This will be the second time on this plan; it is very manageable, in my opinion. I think, however, that this time I am going to read my study bibles instead of just the verses. Last time I just read the text and I felt I had a good understanding, but I like to get the insight of biblical commentary too. So, for my New Testament reading I’ll be using the Igatius Study Bible and for the Old Testament reading I will be using the Navarre Bibles. I have most of them anyway.

PS. I just downloaded that new DRV by John Litteral (posts here as Copland3, I think). Most of us who hang on this forum know that he has been working on updating the spellings for the 1609 DRV. I LOVE this translation for a DRV. Great, great work, in my opinion. I’m not super keen on the kindle formatting-- I don’t think that is his fault, but it is just not my cup of tea. I can’t wait until it is published as a complete Bible. I hope that he can partner with a good publisher because this will probably become my go-to Bible if the binding and pages are good.

*John, if you see this post, you have done a fantastic work for the Lord. I know your intention is to get this to many people as inexpensively as possible, but might I kindly suggest making the hard copy complete Bible as durable as possible (leather or imitation leather?) because I think some of us will be really using this Bible A LOT!! 👍
 
Prayer_Warrior said:
👍 I started the CH network plan for Bible and Catechism on August 1st. I have kept up on it every day. This will be the second time on this plan; it is very manageable, in my opinion. I think, however, that this time I am going to read my study bibles instead of just the verses. Last time I just read the text and I felt I had a good understanding, but I like to get the insight of biblical commentary too. So, for my New Testament reading I’ll be using the Igatius Study Bible and for the Old Testament reading I will be using the Navarre Bibles. I have most of them anyway.
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Once I’m done with my current and insane 60-day readthrough (which is actually based on the CHN plan), I think I’ll go through again, but at a much slower pace of only 1 year (possibly 6 months). It’d be based off the same plan, but I might try to work it out so there’s 4 tracks: Genesis–2 Maccabees, Job–Sirach, Isaiah–Malachi, New Testament.
 
Razanir said:
Once I’m done with my current and insane 60-day readthrough (which is actually based on the CHN plan), I think I’ll go through again, but at a much slower pace of only 1 year (possibly 6 months). It’d be based off the same plan, but I might try to work it out so there’s 4 tracks: Genesis–2 Maccabees, Job–Sirach, Isaiah–Malachi, New Testament.
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If you work that out, let us know! 🙂
 
buzzoff1031 said:
If you work that out, let us know! 🙂
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It’d be easy-ish to make if I went off verse count. Catch is, those aren’t very balanced. Compare Lam 1 and Lam 5 for an example. More difficult is trying to analyze the CHN plan and use that as a guide to rebalance everything.

My motivation behind the new version, if anyone’s wondering: As I’ve discovered in my 60-day challenge, the Pentateuch and Historical Books are very different to read than the Prophets. So I got the idea that they could work well on separate tracks. (I’m still on the fence about where to place Job. Technically it’s one of the Wisdom Books, but it could just as easily fit in style-wise with the Prophets, in which case I could salvage one track from the CHN) Then I’d just reorder the New Testament track while I’m at it so the Epistles are actually in order (with the Gospels still interspersed). I’ll also move Acts to be after Luke instead of Matthew, to match the authorship.
 
Razanir said:
It’d be easy-ish to make if I went off verse count. Catch is, those aren’t very balanced. Compare Lam 1 and Lam 5 for an example. More difficult is trying to analyze the CHN plan and use that as a guide to rebalance everything.

My motivation behind the new version, if anyone’s wondering: As I’ve discovered in my 60-day challenge, the Pentateuch and Historical Books are very different to read than the Prophets. So I got the idea that they could work well on separate tracks. (I’m still on the fence about where to place Job. Technically it’s one of the Wisdom Books, but it could just as easily fit in style-wise with the Prophets, in which case I could salvage one track from the CHN) Then I’d just reorder the New Testament track while I’m at it so the Epistles are actually in order (with the Gospels still interspersed). I’ll also move Acts to be after Luke instead of Matthew, to match the authorship.
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What would you think of modifying the professor Horner plan to include the entire canon? Your mind seems better suited to that than mine. Would you be willing to add the deuterocanonicals to his 10 lists and post them here? I think that would be great! Maybe I’m asking too much though…
 
Razanir said:
It’d be easy-ish to make if I went off verse count. Catch is, those aren’t very balanced. Compare Lam 1 and Lam 5 for an example. More difficult is trying to analyze the CHN plan and use that as a guide to rebalance everything.

My motivation behind the new version, if anyone’s wondering: As I’ve discovered in my 60-day challenge, the Pentateuch and Historical Books are very different to read than the Prophets. So I got the idea that they could work well on separate tracks. (I’m still on the fence about where to place Job. Technically it’s one of the Wisdom Books, but it could just as easily fit in style-wise with the Prophets, in which case I could salvage one track from the CHN) Then I’d just reorder the New Testament track while I’m at it so the Epistles are actually in order (with the Gospels still interspersed). I’ll also move Acts to be after Luke instead of Matthew, to match the authorship.
Click to expand...
What would you think of modifying the professor Horner plan to include the entire canon? Your mind seems better suited to that than mine. Would you be willing to add the deuterocanonicals to his 10 lists and post them here? I think that would be great! Maybe I’m asking too much though…
 
buzzoff1031 said:
What would you think of modifying the professor Horner plan to include the entire canon? Your mind seems better suited to that than mine. Would you be willing to add the deuterocanonicals to his 10 lists and post them here? I think that would be great! Maybe I’m asking too much though…
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List 1 (117 days)– Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts

Comment: Acts is a weird book. It’s not a Gospel, but it’s not an epistle either. I’d actually consider reading it in the same list as the Gospels, myself. Also, it frees up a list for me to further divide the Historical Books (Joshua–2 Maccabees)

List 2 (211 days)– Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua

Comment: I moved Joshua here, so I could make a cleaner cut in the Historical Books later. Now they’ll be split Judges–2 Chronicles (everything that happens in the Promised Land) and Ezra–2 Maccabees (Babylonian Exile and on)

List 3 (78 days)– Romans, 1/2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philemon, Colossians, Hebrews
List 4 (65 days)– 1/2 Thessalonians, 1/2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, James, 1/2 Peter, 1/2/3 John, Jude, Revelation
List 5 (76 days)– Tobit, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
List 6 (150 days)– Psalms
List 7 (101 days)– Proverbs, Wisdom, Sirach
List 8 (192 days)– Judges, Ruth, 1/2 Samuel, 1/2 Kings, 1/2 Chronicles
List 9 (258 days)– Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
List 10 (66 days)– Ezra, Nehemiah, Judith, Esther, 1/2 Maccabees
Changelog:

List 1: Add Acts
List 2: Add Joshua
List 5: Add Tobit
List 7: Add Wisdom and Sirach
List 8: Remove Joshua, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther
List 10: Create a new list with Ezra, Nehemiah, Judith, Esther and 1/2 Maccabees
Random fact: If you perpetually read this plan, it would take 35,852,910,350,400 days to reach a day with the exact same readings. That’s about 98,159,900,000 years– Longer than the expected lifetime of the Sun
 
You are awesome! Thanks so much!! This will be my reading plan.
 
I know there has to be more Catholics reading the Bible than just us few! C’mon! Where are you all?

If you aren’t reading the Bible, then tell me why and let’s talk about that because I personally don’t want you to miss out on all the good things I’ve found in it.👍
 
I have a Greek NT, a Latin Bible, and a fairly large number of English bibles bought over the years. The ones I use most are the Greek NT, the New Catholic Bible (which matches the liturgy here) and the NAB (which we’ve been using in our parish bible studies). I read from scripture daily, possibly not as systematically as I ought, and I spend some time writing about the bible and biblical passages.

I responded to the poll, but I found myself ticking all the boxes :eek:
 
I read the Bible daily-a little portion before I pray.

The Bibles that I have are the RSV-CE, the DR, the Confraternity NT, and a parallel Bible.
 
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