Reading the Bible Every Day

calendar-543862Now, here is a thing. Here is a wondrous thing.

Reading the Bible is an integral part of knowing about God, being a Christian, wanting to know more about the Christian faith and generally living the good life. However, most people haven’t a clue where to start with it.

Fortunately, the church in its wisdom publishes a list of suggested bible readings for every day of the year. Unfortunately, they are in a format that does not help people look things up very easily. You have to know which year of the two year cycle we are on, you have to know what season we are in and you have to know whether today’s readings have been budged out of the way by a festival. Then you have to look it all up in a spiral bound book which is falling to bits. (Trust me on this, it is falling to bits).

Anyway. As a further offering in my quest to make the spirituality of the church more accessible to everyone rather than just professionals, I thought I would produce a wee bookie with all the readings in for 2009.

So here it is – a Daily Prayer Calendar of Bible Readings.

So now you have your new year resolutions all sewn up. You can read the Bible every day using the same readings that are used in St Mary’s and in the wider Scottish Episcopal Church at Daily Prayer services. You can fit them into prayers if you want them or just do then at a time of day to suit you. Unless there is something more specific given, we do the Old Testament and Gospel at morning prayer in St Mary’s. The theory is, if we said Evening Prayer in public it would be the Epistle and Gospel.

What do you mean you don’t have a Bible? Go and get one. You want an Anglicised NRSV with Apocrypha. Stop making excuses.

I’ve also tagged onto the Daily Calendar a table of what colours we use on different days in church because people are always interested and I’ve included a list of the biblical abbreviations that are used in the tables.

Enough to get you started?

Any questions?

Comments

30 responses to “Reading the Bible Every Day”

  1. Kimberly Avatar

    I suspect some of your readers want a plain old NRSV with Apocrypha. The American version has the advantage of being in a nicer font, and saves trees for lack of all those extra ‘u’s.

    I wish too that we would move to using the C of E lectionary for daily prayer. Now, I don’t advocate adapting to the C of E, but it gives a full set of readings for morning and evening prayer, with multiple psalms for each day. Scotland’s ‘three readings, one psalm’ spreads itself very thin over the course of two services.

  2. kelvin Avatar

    Oh Mother lead not thy people into error.

    I’m not going to argue about American vs British Spelling, but I do know that the people of Cowal and the People of the West End of Glasgow are united in their desire for Bibles in their ain tongue, which in these parts must surely be the Anglicized or even the Anglicised version.

    As to the Church of England, I fear you will be wishing bad things upon us all. It will be announcements like, “It is Lent, so we use the form of prayer for Friday” and other such atrocities before we know where we are.

    The trouble is, it starts with a “u” missing from the description of our Blessed Lord as Saviour of Us All. It seems innocent enough. Surely we tell ourselves, eternal damnation cannot depend upon the spelling of a single word. But should we allow it, it ends badly, with the appearance of the Wrong Coloured Candles on the Advent Wreath.

    Do not lead your people into such foolish ways, I implore you.

  3. Stewart Avatar

    Maybe not in the offical SEC list, but I am sure you could be persuaded.

    …and as for Pink, I had not thought of that.

    When would you use a Pink set?

    Anything about the order Copes are worn on Easter Day? – before, during, after, outside……

  4. Kimberly Avatar

    I think you will find, Kelvin, that I would choose the Anglicized version for public worship, but would let the ex-pats read in their native tongue should they wish.

    I have no desire to advocate things English. But until Scotland offers a fuller daily lectionary, I fear I must look South. In any case, we should have a common daily prayer lectionary and end this parochialism.

  5. Stewart Avatar

    I always found the Lectionary in the 1929 Prayer Book comprehensive, and mourn its passing.

  6. ryan Avatar
    ryan

    guadete and the fourth sunday in lent, stewart! We were appropriately pink at st.silas when celebrating the former recently.

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