The canon and tradition
I wanted to share a recent post from Soul Device on the canon of the Bible and the subject of tradition:
Tag: Bible
Lectionary Statistics
When talking about the Bible, we Catholics inevitably end up talking about the Liturgy of the Word at Mass. I had always wondered how much of the Bible we hear proclaimed in the Liturgy. The other day I got a little curious and tracked done some statistics…
Catholic Bible Boot Camp
Baptism Matters: Part 1 (Scripture)
Over the last six months, many of my non-Catholic Christian friends have given birth to their first child. This was brought about, presumably, through the combination of an extremely poor TV lineup last summer and an abundance of free time on their part.
With this wonderful addition to their family, several of these new parents are now facing a dilemma: should they baptize their newborn child?
You see, in many cases, one spouse comes from a denomination where infant baptism isn’t performed (Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, non-denominationals) and the other has come from a denomination where it is standard practice (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist). The parents typically make the choice to either baptize their child or to have some kind of dedication ceremony.
This is an important issue to me. I was once a member of Protestant congregation where they did infant baptisms, but they also carried out child dedications, depending upon the wishes of the parents. This inconsistency was an important catalyst in my study of the ancient Christian faith and my eventual reversion to the Catholic Church.
So, in the next few posts I would like to present the basic case in favour of infant baptism…
Some more “life verses”…
Yesterday I wrote a post in which I suggested some possible life verses. Today I thought I’d do a quick follow-up with a few more…
Lazy Students
Most people choose life verses which are inspiring, which call them forth to greatness and holiness…but what if that’s not what you really want? What about if you’re happy and comfortable with failure and laziness? Well, in that case, this is the life verse for you…
Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
– Ecclesiastes 12:12
The recently-shaved
I go bearded from time-to-time. After I shave it off, I always think of this passage:
When it was told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return.” – 2 Samuel 10:5
Housemates
I live in a house with three other guys. I’m going to recommend one of them in particular to adopt the following passage as his life verse:
He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it will be counted a curse to him. – Proverbs 27:14
Garlic Lovers
If you overindulge in smelly foods, then this is the life verse for you..
“My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers. – Job 19:17
Resolutions for 2014
After the debacle of my 2013 resolutions, I’m going to keep things simple this year:
1. Read the Entire Bible
I mentioned earlier that I was going to do this. I don’t really know what percentage of the Bible I’ve read. I’ve certainly covered all of the New Testament, but I’m sure there are large swathes of the Old Testament (the minor prophets in particular) which I haven’t read. It’s time that changed.
2. Get back into martial arts
If you knew me prior to the age of twenty, you’d know that back then I was martial arts crazy. Good grief, I even named my four pet gerbils “Bruce”, “Lee”, “Jackie” and “Chan”.
It’s probably because I’m getting old, but I feel a real urge to get back in contact with my teenage self. Maybe that, or I just want to hit people. Either way, I’ve enrolled at a local kung fu school and I had my first lesson on Saturday.
3. Run a marathon
I knew I’d eventually have to do this. After all, what’s a half marathon, other than 50% of a real marathon? It. Is. Time.
Obviously, I have other things I’d like to achieve this year, but these are the three on which I’m going to focus and I’ve already made some concrete steps to towards each of them.
2014? Bring it on.
Reading the Bible in a Year
After doing so badly on my New Year Resolutions this year, I’ve decided to keep it simple next year. That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy though! I’ve decided that in 2014 I am going to read the entirety of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.
I’ve spent the last hour or so looking at different reading plans online. Many that I’ve found have been Protestant and have unfortunately therefore lacked the Deuterocanon. If I were to use any of those I would have to squeeze in the extra books (Tobit, Wisdom, Maccabees, etc.) at some point in the year. Moving on…
Some reading plans, such as YouVersion, don’t actually cover the entire Bible and instead just cover the majority of the text. While practical, that also seems a bit “meh”. Moving on…
I also found one plan which has quite a mix of daily readings. Each day there there are two Old Testament readings, a Psalm and a New Testament reading. That is contrasted with the plans from Presentation Ministry and Catholic Doors, both of which assign one book at a time.
As far as I can tell, the most popular plan is one which is put out by the Coming Home Network, which is available in PDF here and which some nice person converted into hypertext format here. It has an Old Testament reading, New Testament reading and then something from the Wisdom literature, such as Psalms or Proverbs. I think this is the plan for me. It even has the option of reading through the Catechism too…but maybe I’ll think about that for 2015!
If anyone else has the same goal for 2014, please leave a message below 🙂
St. Jerome, pray for me!
UPDATE 05/20/14: Meg Hunter-Kilmer has added an article on this subject and presents an alternative reading plan.