We’re now less than two weeks away from Ash Wednesday, and it’s a good time to start nailing down ideas for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during Lent. This post is a sounding board to share ideas. Are you planning to incorporate scripture study or praying with scripture as part of your lenten observance this year? Have you done anything in past years that helped you deepen your prayer and connection with God?
During Lent I have a personal tradition of studying a gospel and a book of the old testament using my first Bible, an RSV. This year the gospel will be Luke’s and the OT selection will be the book of Job. I try to go in without any intention except to let the scripture take me where it will. These usually become my most fruitful scripture studies of the year. I am looking forward to hearing from you all about your personal traditions and approaches to Lent.
My Lenten tradition is to listen to a full audio Bible during Lent. Every year, I choose a new translation to listen to. This year, it is going to be the NIV read by David Suchet. Unfortunately, the only Catholic Bibles I have ever found an audio edition of are the NABRE (a massive 134 hours long because the narrator doesn’t just read the 73 Biblical books, but he also reads the full introduction to every book) and the Douay Rheims, with the Jerusalem, New Jerusalem, RSV CE, and NRSV CE are unavailable in audio form, I can only listen to various Protestant translations. There are a lot of audio Bibles, in many translations, so I can keep this going more or less indefinitely.
You can listen to Douay Rheims New Testament for free using https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/ or purchase the entire BIble here http://www.douayrheimsaudiobible.org/ .
A different version of New Testament DR audio is also avalaible for free at librivox https://librivox.org/the-bible-douay-rheims-new-testament-by-douay-rheims-version/.
You can also purchase a dramatized version of NT RSVCE2 here https://www.truthandlifeapp.com/.
You can purchase, if you like this translation, the complete NRSVCE at http://www.biblebible.com/catholic-audio-bible-nrsv-for-mp3-android-iphone-ipad/.
I like both of those ideas, Tate and BC. I’m especially intrigued by listening to the full audio bible. Last year for lent, I set aside time to work my way through part of N.T. Wright’s Christian Origins and the Question of God series. I learned a tremendous amount about the historical background of the New Testament. His writing style in those books is incredibly dense and technical, so I wouldn’t recommend them for a general audience, but if you don’t mind academic reading, those books are truly excellent.