Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, 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's three chapters are Leviticus 2-4.

We're in the midst of a series of ceremonial rubrics from a very different culture than our own. That can make for difficult reading. What does any of this have to do with us? Maybe we can think of it as a kind of sacramental system (lowercase "s"!) in which everyday things become carriers of profound meaning as they are dedicated to God under specific circumstances. God is teaching the people to become reflective: to receive the good things of the earth as gifts of God; to acknowledge even their secret guilt; to admit inadvertent failings with integrity. Little by little they might, as St Ignatius put it, "find God in all things."

Start reading here.

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.