Lent has just started, so if you haven’t already done so, it is probably a good time to start thinking about what you are going to do for Lent. Most of us will “give something up” for Lent – maybe coffee, or chocolate, or for the really brave television. Giving something up is an example of one of the three traditional penitential practices that Jesus taught, in this case fasting. Fasting is a type of sacrifice, which is always meant to restore us to a proper relationship with God. Last week, my guest writer, Barbara Szyszkiewicz, talked about “Meatless Fridays” as another example of fasting.
The other two traditional penitential practices taught by Jesus are almsgiving and prayer. Two weeks ago, when we kicked off the Annual Catholic Appeal, my column was about almsgiving.
That leaves prayer, and I want to reflect on one particular kind of prayer: Bible Study. Some might remember the old days when “Catholics weren’t suppose to read the Bible.” First, that was never really true. Oh, I am sure that many people heard that because that was easier to teach than the Church’s true teaching. From about the 14thcentury, the Church has officially encourage all the Faithful to study the Sacred Scriptures, but it did make one caution, which was to avoid any private interpretation of the Scriptures. This is actually from Scripture; “Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God” (2 Peter 1:20-21). As Faithful Catholics we should always read the Bible with the Church. This means we should have a good Catholic translation of the Bible, which has good notes. We can also pick up a good, Catholic commentary on the Bible.
I could go on and on about the different translations and what I think are good commentaries (in a nutshell, translation – NABRE, New American Bible Revised Edition which is what we use at Mass, and I think the Catholic Commentary of Sacred Scripture is the best, but this is a multi-volume work). Rather, I want to talk about having a plan for reading the Bible. Yes, we should have a plan. You could just start in the beginning, with Genesis and read a chapter or two every day, but you can also find other plans online. I am using a 2-year reading plan that I found in a booklet, “How to Read the Bible Everyday: A Guide for Catholics” by Carmen Rojas.
Next, you should have a method for how to read the Bible. At the start of the year I started to use a Bible Journal which has a method that I think is very good: SOAP. The “S” is for you to write down the Scripture passage that you are studying. If you are reading a chapter or two each day, pick a verse that particularly struck you. The “O” is really O/I, “observation and interpretation.” This is where the notes and commentaries can help, but the real key is to get to the literal sense of the passage: who is speaking and to whom are they talking to? Where are they? What happened before, and what happens after? What are they doing, and what did that mean in the culture at the time? The interpretation might include what the Church Fathers said about the passage, and how the Church has understood it and used it in formulating doctrine. The “A” is how does this passage apply to your own life? What about the passage struck you and attracted your attention? Finally, the Bible is God’s Word to us, the “P” is for Prayer, our response to God’s Word. Write out a prayer, speaking to God your praise, your petition, your pain, your joy.
Lent is a time of recalling the 40 years that the Israelites spent in the desert after the Lord saved them from slavery in Egypt. While we often think of the desert as a not nice place to be, for Israel it was their honeymoon with God – God led them, provided for them, and they came to rely on Him and love Him as He loved them. By taking time each day during Lent to spend time reading the Bible with a plan, we too can experience a honeymoon with God.