Reading the Bible

Finding an effective way to read the Bible can be daunting.  Do you read it from start to finish?  Do you pick a book that sounds good to you and read it through? Do you open it to a random page, hoping for some type of Divine Intervention?

I’ve done all of these and more.  

A while back I came upon a way that ended up being simple, has worked for me and maybe it can for you as well.

Just look up the daily readings for mass, using those as your readings as well. The daily readings are easily found on several Catholic web sites, such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) site.  As an alternative you can also get the daily readings from magazines such as Magnificat.

Within each day's readings you get Old Testament and New Testament readings and they always relate to each other in one, many times, in several ways.

Now does this mean that doing this you will end up reading the entire bible?  Researching the subject yields a varied range of answers and opinions. The consensus seems to be that if you read the daily (not just the Sunday) reading, you will cover a pretty good portion of the Bible in a 2-3 year period.  

I think reading the Bible in this way has many benefits, among which are:

1. You follow along with the Liturgical year of the Church.
2. You have a consistent, daily way to read the Bible.
3. Because the daily readings relate to each other, you will find yourself understanding your readings deeper.
4. You might find that you end up reading more than you thought you ever would.