For 2021, I am going to attempt to undertake a Bible-in-a-year reading/study plan. This is fairly ambitious for me, considering how much I have on my plate in a typical day and that I’ll need to read anywhere from three to five chapters a day, along with other changes to my daily routine I’m attempting to make. I’ll try to add my notes here one week at a time, and feel free to join me in reading along or sharing your thoughts about the week’s readings. Please don’t worry about keeping up; that’s something I’m personally working on – not worrying about keeping up. I already know I won’t keep to the schedule at some point, but we’ll do the best we can and keep trying.
Update (June 2021): There were some technical difficulties to start the year off, so I am quite a bit behind schedule for the daily readings (roughly two months behind), but I’ve also found that it works better for me to listen to the podcasts as I drive and not worry too much about when I get around to re-reading the actual text. The good news with that method (for me) is that I can catch up and keep up easier. The bad news (if there is any?) is that I can’t keep up as well with my own personal notes. Fortunately, one of the other participants who is much more faithful to the daily schedule posts extensive notes from multiple sources on this website: https://www.thebibleinayearstudyguide.com/ There are a ton of extra great resources on that site also!
This study is for anyone and everyone who wishes to participate; you don’t have to be of a certain faith tradition or background – you don’t have to believe anything in particular. We will be using the 73-book Catholic version of the Bible (multiple translations, more likely than not*), but the notes and commentary will come from a variety of sources and viewpoints. The basis for my plan (my timeline, reading order) is the Ascension Press sponsored plan that has received a lot of recent hype in Catholic circles. If you’re familiar with the work of Father Mike Schmitz, you don’t need to wonder why this is such a “hot” thing right now; if you’re not familiar with Fr. Mike, he has a powerful way of presenting scripture – and again, not just for Catholic audiences.
The reading plan from Ascension Press, links to Fr. Mike’s daily podcast for this study, and my own personal notes are available in my OneNote notebook, which you can access here. You can also join me on YouVersion (the Bible app for your phone/tablet), as that’s where most of my reading and initial note-taking will occur before I further develop my ideas into the notebook; you’ll just need to be signed in to your own free account there first before you can add me as a friend.
Let me know if you have any questions about how this will go – or feel free to just pop in now and then to see what’s happening and share some of your thoughts.
* Whenever I read the Bible, I usually use the 66-book New King James Version as my go-to standard because it’s the hard-copy Bible that I’ve used as long as I can remember; it’s the one I used to carry to Sunday School as a kid. However, I also reference others; I have on my shelf at home the 66-book King James (the “old” or regular one everyone thinks of with the “thees” and “thous”), New International Version, New American Bible (the “official” Catholic Bible of the U.S.), The Message (one of those ‘scripture as a narrative story in plain English’ kinds), the Revised Standard Version (2nd edition or “new”), a 76-book [Eastern] Orthodox Study Bible using the St. Athanasius version of the Septuagint (in English), and Dios Habla Hoy (one of the officially approved translations for Spain). With digital tools, other versions and sources are also available and are used as they become helpful.