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 🙂

JeromeSt. Jerome, pray for me!

 UPDATE 05/20/14: Meg Hunter-Kilmer has added an article on this subject and presents an alternative reading plan.

Parallel Consequences

Unanswered Questions

Yesterday I outlined the various parallels which can be found between Jesus’ Passion and Polycarp’s Martyrdom. I ended the entry by asking:

“But what does this all mean? Why are there these similarities between the deaths of Jesus and Polycarp?”

The martyrdom account itself ascribes these similarities to the providence of God:

“By almost every step that led up to Polycarp’s martyrdom, the Lord intended to show us anew the type of martyrdom narrated in the Gospel…” – Mart. Pol., 1.1

But that then raises the question: why might God wish to present to His Church a death like that of Christ?

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Bishop Flores RIP

As those of you who live in San Diego will doubtless know by now, a few days ago, Bishop Flores passed away. A few months ago he suffered a stroke and we heard recently that his condition had seriously deteriorated.

Bishop Flores

I was a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council around the time Bishop Flores took over the care of San Diego Diocese from Bishop Brom. Through these Council meetings, as well as through various diocesan events, I got to know this shepherd of Christ reasonably well. He was kind and had a great sense of joy, as well as certainly having some fire in his bones! He was extremely supportive of the Young Adult Catholic Community here in San Diego.

At 7:30pm the Young Adult Community in San Diego will be praying a rosary for Bishop Flores. Please join us in prayer, even if you can’t make it to the church.

My favourite memory of the Bishop was at the Rite of Election this year. My roommate Nathan was entering the Church and I was (for my sins) his sponsor. As we stood with the other candidates and catechumens having a group photograph, Nathan whispered to me “I want to high five the bishop”. As Nathan is always a bad influence on me, I whispered back “Do it!”. Nathan quickly made his way down to the bishop. Oh, it was the highest of fives… 🙂

Now that Bishop Flores has gone to be with the Lord, I can’t help but think of the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the young Bishop Polycarp at the beginning of the Second Century:

The times call for you, as pilots do for the winds, and as one tossed with tempest seeks
for the haven, so that both you and those under your care may attain to God. Be sober
as God’s athlete: the prize set before you is immortality and eternal life
– St. Ignatius of Antioch to St. Polycarp

You have run your race, Bishop Flores. May you rest in peace.

PWJ: S4E60 – TSL 30 – “Under Pressure”

The patient is about to be in a high-stress situation and Screwtape wants his nephew to exploit this. Richaél from the Clumsy Theosis podcast joins David to unpack this devilish advice.

S4E60: “Under Pressure” (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunesGoogle Play, AmazonPodbeanStitcherTuneIn and Overcast), as well as on YouTube. The roadmap for Season 4 is available here.

More information about us can be found on our website, PintsWithJack.com. If you’d like to support us and get fantastic gifts, please join us on Patreon.

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PWJ: S4E89 – AH – “After Hours” with Hal Poe (Part 2)

In both episodes this week, Matt interviews Dr. Harry Lee Poe about the two biographical books he wrote about C.S. Lewis. In today’s episode, he discusses his second book, The Making of C.S. Lewis.

S4E89: “After Hours” with Dr. Hal Poe (Part 2) (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunesGoogle Play, AmazonPodbeanStitcherTuneIn and Overcast), as well as on YouTube. The roadmap for Season 4 is available here.

More information about us can be found on our website, PintsWithJack.com. If you’d like to support us and get fantastic gifts, please join us on Patreon.

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Catholic View of Salvation

Quite some time ago I remember reading an article at Called To Communion where I was presented with the positive case for Catholic salvation and I had my mind blown. I hadn’t realized quite how many non-Catholic concepts had crept into my brain.

During this past Lenten season I sent an email to Nick over at Nick’s Catholic Blog. Nick writes a lot on the subject of justification so I asked him to write a post putting forward the positive case for the Catholic view of salvation. The Protestant identity is often a negative one i.e. Not Catholic” and I didn’t want to see Catholic soteriology go in the same direction i.e. Not Sola Fide”. Here’s what he wrote:

Nick

If you’d like to understand more about the Protestant Reformed view of salvation and Penal Substitution, Joe recently did an article on this subject over at Shameless Popery.

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