nunblog: Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We've reached the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray:

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this, until Jesus comes again in glory.

Open my mind today to the gift of life and truth your Word offers me through the Church. By your Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom and strength to put this Word into practice and to become, myself, a presence of Jesus for people who are looking for you.

Jesus, eternal Word and Son of the Father, live in me with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Today's chapters are Matthew 10-12 and (because it is Sunday) Psalms 128 and 129.

After reading the Old Testament at three chapters a day, we are positively racing through the New Testament, even though practically every verse is a fulfillment of multiple passages of our earlier reading. The prophets had written that the twelve tribes would be restored, even the "lost" tribes of the Northern Kingdom. In Chapter 10 of Matthew, we find Jesus reconstituting the tribes of Israel in his choice of twelve apostles. Here as in all the lists of the apostles, Simon "Peter" is listed first. Matthew's Gospel will make much of Peter's role in Chapter 16.

Notice what happens when the Twelve return to Jesus after their first "mission." Jesus glorifies the Heavenly Father with unforgettable praise, and then issues an invitation to the whole world. "Come to me, all of you who are weary..."

Psalm 128 is a picture of domestic bliss: the happiness in a family centered on "fear of the Lord." It has an amazing set of parallels: the language of fearing the Lord and happiness; of eating and the table; of vine and olive plants (both of which require intense cultivation but which provide the most precious fruits). That domestic happiness radiates outward to all of Jerusalem in the form of the blessing of peace.

Psalm 129 is practically the opposite of Psalm 128! Instead of the blessings granted to those who "fear the Lord," the long-suffering Psalmist anticipates a failed harvest for his enemies.

Start readi ng here and the Psalms here.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and I will give you rest."

Did anyone put those words into music in a more expressive way than Handel?

For additional background

On Matthew

We have barely a week and a half with the Gospel of Matthew, and there's just too much wealth there for me to even hint at in my little introductions (to three chapters a day!). So Dr Edward Sri's companion to the Gospel of Matthew is a good study guide: it even has reflection questions and space for you to write your answers!

For all Four Gospels

I am happy to recommend this volume of The Four Gospels in an edition directed to young readers and their parents. The text of all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in the New Revised Standard Translation is accompanied by FAQs that a middle-school reader might ask (or, to be honest, anybody reading the Gospels for the first time). The footnotes were prepared by a team of Scripture scholars for parents and guardians, making the book ideal for family Bible reading.