Read the Bible with Me! Day 1

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'll be reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. 

It's always a good idea to pray before reading the Scripture, to open our mind and heart to the same Holy Spirit who inspired the writing of the Bible. This prayer, which will be our consistent prayer throughout the first five books of the Bible (called Torah by the Jews, and Pentateuch by many scholars), is based on a prayer by Blessed James Alberione. Let us pray:

I praise you, my God, with all people.
May they thank and adore you!
You have written your greatness in creation,
your Law in consciences,
your eternal promises in the Bible.
You are eternally faithful and always lovable!
As I read Sacred Scripture today, open my mind to hear your voice and understand your loving message.
Amen.

Today being Sunday, we start with two Psalms. Psalm 1 is especially fitting for beginning a project that will bring us into daily contact with the Word of God:

Blessed is the man who does not walkin the counsel of the wicked,Nor stand in the way of sinners,nor sit in company with scoffers.
Rather, the law of the LORD is his joy;and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a treeplanted near streams of water,that yields its fruit in season;Its leaves never wither;whatever he does prospers.
But not so are the wicked, not so!They are like chaff driven by the wind.
Therefore the wicked will not arise at the judgment,nor will sinners in the assembly of the just.
Because the LORD knows the way of the just,but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

Today's three chapters are Genesis 1-3 (Genesis 1 starts here)  and then (because today is Sunday) Psalm 2. It is next to impossible to express how rich these ancient passages are in terms of the depth of revelation they contain. There is an ancient rabbinic tradition of interpretation, and building on that in the light of Jesus' coming, another two thousand years of Christian tradition. It was not by accident that the Gospel of John opens with the very same words: "In the beginning..."

I have personally been particularly blessed by Pope John Paul II's reflections on these chapters as found in the first section of his Theology of the Body. 

If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by Brant Pitre and John Bergsma. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts.