Read the Bible with Me: A Pauline Year of the Bible

60 years ago, Blessed James Alberione and the Pauline Family observed a year in honor of the Bible. The Founder preached even more insistently than usual about the need to read the Bible as a precious letter received from one's father, whose every word would be cherished and read over and over. Retreats focused on the role of the Bible in the spiritual life. Events were sponsored to encourage families to enthrone the Bible in the home and read from it daily (something Pope Francis has expressly asked for). 

Well, starting on November 26, the Memorial of Blessed James Alberione, the worldwide Pauline Family is observing another Year of the Bible, with the theme "That the Word of the Lord may speed forward." This special year will end next November 26, the 50th anniversary of Alberione's death.

In my own spiritual reading, it just happens that I have actually been reading Alberione's sermons from 1961, with his many exhortations to read the Bible from cover to cover. I did that during novitiate, and must admit that there were some sections of Numbers and Ezekiel where, after having slogged through, I felt I had paid my lifetime dues. 

Mostly I have focused on the Liturgy as the source of my biblical reading. But now it probably is fitting to take the Good Book up from cover to cover once again. Even Numbers and Ezekiel. 

It's possible to read the entire Bible in a year if you parcel it out in just over 3 chapters a day. So I'd like to invite you to read the Bible with me, starting on the First Sunday of Advent. (That's this Sunday.) Every day I'll post a link to the first of the three daily chapters (you're on your honor to click to the next two!). On Sundays, we'll add two Psalms. And throughout Lent, we'll add a Psalm a day. That should see us through to the end of 2021 and the last pages of the Bible. 

A 17th century edition of the Bible in an Italian dialect;
open to the book of the prophet Isaiah. We will be using
the New American Bible (Revised Edition)!

Here and there, I'll add comments, notes, links, book recommendations and so forth, but on a random basis so that I do not end up intimidating myself by promising too much. And I welcome your questions: they can spark insight, interest and conversation. People have been talking about these passages for thousands of years: I sincerely doubt that any one of us here will be the first person to ask a particular question. (The rabbis probably already have a question with which to answer your question!) 

So are you up for it? Ready to read the Bible with me? Just subscribe to this blog (use form in the sidebar), and you'll get the daily post in your morning email.