I’ve used that schedule 1 ten times and it’s served me well, particularly since it’s loosely linked with the liturgical year.īut people have been asking me for years how to start reading the Bible, and my trusty old schedule wasn’t it. Plus the readings were associated with dates, so I couldn’t afford to get behind. When I switched to a yearly Bible schedule, I had a few chapters of Numbers each day but also a Psalm and half a chapter of a Gospel to keep me motivated. The problem with my cover-to-cover approach (among others) was that I’d get bogged down in Leviticus or Ezekiel and it was hard to motivate myself to keep going. Every subsequent time, I’ve managed it in a year. The first time I read through the whole Bible, I started at Genesis and read till Revelation. The only way that’s going to happen is if I’m in the Word every day. I need to replace the Beyoncé in my head with some Baruch and the Frozen (much though I love that movie) with Philippians. And I need to know it all–not just so I can argue with it but so that I can live and breathe and love it. For me, it’s not enough just to read the books that I enjoy or the readings offered me by the liturgy–I need to wrestle with the hard stuff and find meaning in the boring stuff. I’m always finding new insights, being shown new connections, and falling more in love with the Lord as I come to know him better. Even having read the Bible 12 times, I still have to read with a pencil in hand. Aside from daily Mass and a commitment to silent prayer, the most important spiritual practice I’ve adopted as a Christian has been spending time in Scripture every day.
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