Two talks on spiritual reading. First, on daily Scripture reading - both ideas of how to pray with Scripture in daily devotional reading, and also how to study and systematically read the Bible daily.
The second talk is on spiritual reading from the writings of the saints - again, both how to study the faith through the writings of the saints, and also how to use their writings in our daily mental prayer and meditation.
Listen online [here], On Scripture Reading!
Listen online [here], On Reading the Saints' Writings!
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Handout for the talks!
Pre-Advent
Reflections, On Spiritual Reading
1) On the regular reading of
Scripture: Advice on how to prayerfully read the Bible daily and also Lectio
Divina. Also the study of Scripture and Bible Commentaries as well as books of
the Life of Christ.
2) The writings of the saints and
catechisms: The study of the faith
through catechisms, saints writings on the spiritual life, and lives of the
saints. As well as books of daily meditations, meditations on the Rosary and
the Stations of the Cross, and spiritual reflections of the saints (poems,
hymns, sermons).
I. Some thoughts on daily Bible
reading and praying with Scripture
I recommend the daily readings of
the Novus Ordo Mass as a way of having a small bit of daily Bible reading. The
continuous reading of the text as well as the variety of Old or New Testament
reading, Gospel, and Psalm is helpful.
For a bit more daily Bible
reading, the “first reading” from Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the
Hours is often related to the Liturgical season and covers a lot of both the
Old and New Testaments.
The daily Mass reading (Novus
Ordo) and the readings from the Office of Readings are available for free with
the iBreviary app or the DivineOffice app.
Lectio Divina, or “divine
reading” is a spiritual meditation on the Scripture. There are four stages in
which the Bible passage is read four times: lectio/reading of the text with
attention, meditatio/meditation reflecting on the text, oratio/prayerful response
to God from the heart, contemplatio/contemplation resting in the presence of
God.
For more on Lectio Divina, look
to the article “Lectio Divina” on FishEaters.com. Also, Formed has a great
series on prayer which centers on Lectio Divina – Lectio: Prayer by Dr Tim
Gray.
II. Some thoughts on the study of
the Scriptures and the systematic reading of the Bible
Which translation to use? In may
ways, I like the Douay-Rheims as the most traditional translation, but I
believe that the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) Catholic Edition is the
easiest to read while still keeping faithful to the original text.
When reading the Gospels, it is
very helpful to have a simple Bible commentary.
My first recommendation is the “Catena Aurea” or “Golden Chain” of St
Thomas Aquinas, in which he compiles the commentaries of the Church Fathers on
each verse of the four Gospels. This
four volume work can be purchased for around $160 online (sometimes it can be
found for only $110 at Preserving Christian Publications, which has many other
traditional Catholic books as well); however, it is readily available for free
on many websites and apps. As this is mainly used as a reference work for
questions that come up when reading the Gospels, I’d recommend downloading the
iPieta App which has this work as well as over 100 others. Also, the commentary
is fully available at various websites: eCatholic2000 and many others.
What commentary should I use for
the rest of the Bible? The Haydock
Commentary by Fr George Leo Haydock is a popular option for a fairly succinct
English language commentary on the whole Bible. This is also available online
for purchase as a commentary with the Douay-Rheims translation for around $150
through Loreto Publications, but is also readily found online for free (again
at eCatholic2000 or HaydockCommentary.com, etc) and also is in the iPieta app.
Another helpful tool for
understanding the Scriptures better is to read the “Introductions” to the
various books found in the Douay-Rheims Bible or in the Haydock Commentary as
well as the articles from the old Catholic Encyclopedia (published in 1913) on
each of the books and/or on the main biblical characters. The Catholic
Encyclopedia is found online easily (for example, at New Advent or Catholic
Answers) and also is on the iPieta app.
Another very helpful resource for
Bible study are the various books of the “Life of Christ” and also the mystical
revelations of Jesus’ life given to the saints through the ages.
I especially recommend: The Life of Christ, by Fulton Sheen. The
Lord, by Romano Guardini. The Life of Christ by Giuseppe Ricciotti. The Life of
Christ by Ludolph of Saxony.
For revelations of the life of
Christ to the mystics: The Mystical City of God, by Ven. Mary of Agreda. The
revelations given to Bl. Anne Catherin Emmerich. The revelations given to St.
Bridget of Sweden. (these are all available for free online)
Also, take advantage of solid
Catholic Bible study courses which are available on Formed, also many which
Father Ryan has done and posted to the parish site (Kings of the Old Testament,
Revelation, John, St Paul’s Letters). Father is currently teaching a series
between the Sunday Masses going through the entire Bible (does this every five
years). Also, many homilies cover the themes of the various books and also
discuss various figures of the Scriptures.
III. Ideas of how to read the
entire Bible:
Personally, I think it can be
difficult to start with the first five books of the Bible, especially with many
of the hard to understand stories in Genesis as well as many of the legal
precepts and laws given through Moses.
1st option: Starting with the four Gospels, then Acts. Then
go back to the Old Testament with 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, Jeremiah, Daniel, 1-2 Maccabees.
Then back to New Testament with all the Letters. Then back to the Old Testament
with all the prophets not yet read and also the books of Wisdom literature (Job
through Sirach). Then to the New Testament with Revelation. Then back to Old
Testament with Genesis and read through picking up all the books not yet
read. Conclude by re-reading the
Gospels.
2nd Option: Start with 1-2 Samuel,
then 1-2 Kings, Jeremiah, Daniel, 1-2 Maccabees. Then to the New Testament with
all the Gospels and Acts. Then back to Old Testament with all the prophetic
books not yet read. Then back to New Testament with all the Letters. Then back
to the Old Testament with all the books of Wisdom Literature (Job through
Sirach). Then forward to New Testament for the book of Revelation. Then back to
Old Testament with Genesis through Deuteronomy, and read all other books not
yet read. Conclude by re-reading the Gospels.
3rd Option: Start with Genesis,
Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, Jeremiah, Daniel, 1-2 Maccabees,
Luke, Acts, Revelation. Then back to Psalms and Proverbs. Then forward to the
New Testament Letters. Then back to the prophetic books not yet read. Then the
Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Then all
the Old Testament books not yet read. Then the Gospel of John.
Basic outline of how Fr Mike
Schmitz goes through the Bible in a year:
Fr Mike reads through the
Scriptures following mostly the historical chronology, with short jumps forward
to the Gospels throughout. Short readings of Psalms and Proverbs conclude each
day.
Genesis through 1 Samuel, John’s
Gospel, 2 Samuel through 2 Kings along with 1 and 2 Chronicles and some minor
prophets, Mark’s Gospel, Major prophets, Matthew’s Gospel, Ezra/Nehemiah and
Maccabees with Wisdom literature and minor prophets, Luke’s Gospel, Acts,
Letters, Revelation.
This was how St Jerome
recommended reading through the Bible (with some slight modifications):
The Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom and
Sirach, Ecclesiastes, Job, the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the New Testament
Letters, all the Prophets, the Heptateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges), Ruth, 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra
and Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1-2 Maccabees, Song of Songs, Revelation.
IV. For the future reading of the
Bible, yearly readings after having read every book at least once.
After getting through the entire
Bible once, in a systematic way (whether in one year or in three years); I
recommend continuing with regular systematic Bible reading, even if not so much
focused on reading each and every book again – certainly, there are some books
which should be read every year or at least every other year, while others may
be sufficiently read only once every five or even every ten years.
Here are some recommendations for
those who have already read through the entire Bible at least once:
The “Biblical Narrative” – these
14 books contain the basic story of the Bible and should be read every year.
Genesis (50 chapters), Exodus (40
chapters), Numbers (36 chapters), Joshua (24 chapters), Judges (21 chapters), 1
Samuel (31 chapters), 2 Samuel (24 chapters), 1 Kings (22 chapters), 2 Kings
(25 chapters), Ezra (10 chapters), Nehemiah (13 chapters), 1 Maccabees (16
chapters), Luke (24 chapters), Acts (28 chapters)
total: 364 chapters
Reading at a normal/relaxed
speed, one can easily read ten chapters per hour (though the number of verses
per chapter does vary). Five to six minutes per chapter is a pretty healthy
pace.
On average, one could read the
“biblical narrative” or the “story of the Bible” in much less than forty hours.
If the goal is to read the narrative story of the Bible in a year, that is
significantly less than one hour per week! Less than 10 minutes a day! (no one is going to tattle on you if you skip
over some of the genealogies in the Old Testament, or some of the parts with
lots of laws or numberings of tribes etc)
In addition, some other books –
these could be read every year or so:
Deuteronomy (34 chapters), Tobit
(14 chapters), Job, chapters 1-3 and 38-42 (8 chapters)
Ecclesiastes (12 chapters), Song
of Songs (8 chapters), Isaiah (66 chapters) or Jeremiah (52 chapters) or
Ezekiel (48 chapters), Two or three of the twelve “minor prophets” – Hosea,
Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi (from 1 to 14 chapters, each), Matthew (28 chapters), Mark
(16 chapters), John (21 chapters), Romans (16 chapters), Three other letters of
St. Paul or of the other New Testament Letters (about 22 chapters, for 3
letters together), Hebrews (13 chapters), 1 John (5 chapters), Revelation (22
chapters)
total: 285 chapters
Thus, to read both the “story of
the Bible” and also a selection of the additional books of special importance
in a year would almost certainly take less than 70 hours, for about 649
chapters. That is still less than an hour and a half per week, and less than 14
minutes a day! Combine with the daily
readings from the Novus Ordo Mass, and you will be covering a lot of Scripture
every year!
It may be helpful to keep track
of how often you read some of the less-read books (for example, Ruth, Sirach,
or Esther, or the Letter of St James or of St Jude), and be sure to re-read
them at least once every five years.
Many sources online indicate that
indeed the entire Bible could be read by the average person in less than 80
hours – this gives us quite a perspective!
That’s less than 15 minutes per day!
I also recommend, especially for
women, looking into the Bible reading plans and resources provided by Sarah
Christmyer who has many solid resources at comeintotheword.com
I would also encourage studying the
faith through reading the Catechism. Again, Fr Mike has “Catechism in a Year”
which is helpful to many people.
Talk on reading the writings of
the saints
Some recommendations for
spiritual reading, from Fr. Ryan
I.
Books that give a good overview of the spiritual
life:
If you want a good introduction
to the spiritual life in general, consider: Introduction to the Devout
Life, by St. Francis de Sales who becomes your personal spiritual director
as you read.
St Teresa of Avila, Interior
Castle, gives a blueprint of the whole of the spiritual life – from the
soul only recently converted from mortal sin, to the soul in the highest union
with God possible upon earth. In these 7
mansions, St Teresa leads you through the process of spiritual growth.
Other must-read classics by St
Teresa of Avila are The Way of Perfection
II.
Books that give a more personal look at the
spiritual life:
If you are looking for a
child-like spirituality, consider: Story of a Soul, by St. Thérèse
of Lisieux.
The autobiography of she whom Pope
St. Pius X has called the greatest saint of modern times.
Certainly, St Teresa of Avila’s, The
Life of Teresa of Avila – her autobiography.
If you want a book that can be
read in 10 minute segments in the midst of a busy life, consider: The
Way, Furrow, and The Forge by St. Josemaría Escriva.
The founder of Opus Dei offers
a spirituality most especially suited to the life of working people. He
understands how busy modern life can be and he will help you to live out your
vocation as a lay person, active in the world.
“The Way, Furrow, The Forge” is
available in a single volume edition from Scepter Publishers.
III.
Books on how to pray well:
If you want to learn how to speak
with God throughout the day, consider: How to Converse Continually and
Familiarly with God, by St. Alphonsus Liguori.
If you want a book that can help
you to pray the Rosary better, consider: The Secret of the Rosary,
by St. Louis Marie DeMontfort who is widely recognized as the Church’s greatest
promoter of Marian devotion. Also, consider: The Secret of Mary and True
Devotion to Mary.
Soul of the Apostolate by
Jean-Baptiste Chautard, Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre
de Caussade, and Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence by St Claude de
la Combiere and Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure – are all good examples of the great
French spiritual writers.
Also, The Ways of Mental
Prayer by Vitalis Lehodey.
IV.
Books of meditations which may be used in mental
prayer:
If you want help with making
daily meditations, consider: The Way of Salvation and Perfection,
by St. Alphonsus Liguori.
St. Alphonsus also offers meditations
for every day of the year. He guides you into the depths of the spiritual
life and will bring you to a closer union with our Savior. This book is meant
to be used as a step by step guide-book during times of prayer. This can be
found online at Sensus Fidelium, https://sensusfidelium.com/meditations/st-alphonsus/st-alphonsus-daily-meditations/.
Also, these are available through
a print-on-demand site in 7 volumes: Lulu.com (search for Alphonsus Liguori
Meditations). If you would like to
purchase all 7 volumes through the parish and perhaps save on shipping as well
as ensure that you get the correct books, sign up on the form in the gathering
area – total cost for all 7 volumes is $65.
Additional books of meditation by
St Alphonsus include Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and his Stations
of the Cross.
Another great book with
meditations for every day of the year is Divine Intimacy by Father
Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen.
If you like poetry, consider the
poems of St. John of the Cross. The poetry of St. John of the Cross is
the fruit of his mystical union with God. The poems themselves are relatively
easy to read, and they are not very long. The Saint offers a more systematic
explanation of the spiritual life in Ascent of Mount Carmel and Dark
Night of the Soul. “The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross” is
published by ICS Publications and includes both the poems and the theological
works.
Although Thomas a Kempus is not a
saint, his Imitation of Christ is universally recommended by all the
saints since it’s publication. This is
the most often read and printed book other than the Bible!
V.
Other spiritual classics that everyone should
read:
Also, all the writings of St
Augustine, especially Confessions and City of God, are classic
works.
St Thomas Aquinas’ spiritual reading
throughout his life was the Conferences by John Cassian.
The Spiritual Combat by
Lorenzo Scupoli was one of St Francis de Sales’ favorite books to read.
From a more theological/academic
approach, I recommend any of the writings of Fr Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange (Our
Savior and his Love for Us, The Mother of the Savior, Life Everlasting, The
Three Ages of the Interior Life, etc).
The list goes on and on! To these works, we add the Lives of the
Saints, especially the short reflections for the saint of the day easily found
online or in Butler’s Lives of the Saints.
Nearly all of these books can be
found online for free, with a little effort. Many of them are available on the
iPieta app! This app also has The
Liturgical Year by Gueranger which is superb!
Another helpful resource for daily spiritual reading is the “Second Reading” from Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours. Again, this is available for free with either the iBreviary app or the DivineOffice app.
