Day 1: In the Beginning

 For today's reading: Genesis 1 & 2; Psalm 19

In the first two chapters of Genesis, we are given the story of Creation. This is not intended to be a scientific textbook, but rather a basic account of Who God Is and how Creation came about. We see what has always struck me as different from all the other stories of that time: a single God creates us ex nihilo simply by His word alone: "God said". Not from violence, jealousy, or domination, but because of His goodness.

In the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, we see this in the footnotes about creation stories from Near East paganism:

According to the pagan myths, a pantheon of deities existed in the beginning; the gods were embodied in nature and had humanlike needs and imperfections; the world was born out of a struggle between the gods; and man was created only to be exploited by the gods. (p. 57)

Yet, we find something completely different in the Bible. As the BIY Companion, Vol 1 notes: 

Unlike other creation stories, Genesis shows that God did not create human beings to be his slaves or entertainment - he created us to share in his own life. No religion or worldview apart from the Judeo-Christian believes that human beings have been created in God's image and likeness. (p. 6)

Our primordial parents, Adam & Eve, are introduced. With that, today's reading from Genesis ends. 

In Psalm 19, we find the psalmist rejoicing in "telling the glory of God" in what He did by  creation; the will of God as revealed in the Law; and the mercy of God to forgive transgressions against His law (Ignatius, p. 845). 

The last is summed up in this last verse:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of

        my heart

    be acceptable in your sight,

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Ps 14)

The Sundered Road Rejoined: Introduction to the Early World

Today ends the introductions to the Bible in a Year podcast series with this third, and last,  installment! Fr. Mike Schmitz talks with Jeff Cavins about the early world as it is described in Genesis.

We will see figures like Adam & Eve and their children, along with the Great Deceiver, the Serpent. The Fall of our primordial parents brings sin into the world, and everything changes. We will become estranged from God and Creation by sin. Death also begins to stalk humanity, claiming each one of us at some point in our lives. Growing strife erupts as sin takes hold in the world after Adam & Eve, on up to the days of Noah.

The BIY Companion, Vol I, tells what happens:

The entire world is destroyed by the Flood. Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives are saved in the Ark, which is a type (or, figure) of the Church - a place of protection and life-sustaining provision. Finally, due to sin, one language becomes many at the Tower of Babel. (p. 5)

And it all starts tomorrow on Day 1. The Tolkienesque titles will stop, I promise! I couldn't resist for these intro days...

The Fellowship Reforged: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey

Today is the second of three(!!!) introductions to this Bible in a Year podcast series. This one is an additional introduction he added a year after the initial one, incorporating tips he learned along the way. It's pretty good. I like the explanation of how the Bible in a Year reading plan was inspired by the work of Jeff Cavins. I liked his work in how it leveraged our cultural preference for narrative in reading. Smart of him to take this from Cavins and apply it to reading the whole Bible. Fr. Schmitz also gives good advice on knowing our motivations for doing this, as well as establishing a daily habit.

One other thing Fr. Schmitz spoke about in this video are the BIY companion books. I've purchased all 3, based on how useful I found the ones for the Catechism when I did that. I'm eager to use them when I start Day One for this journey. This is the first one:

That's it for the prep intros. Tomorrow is the Introduction to the Early World, or the world that existed for the earliest books of the Bible, and then finally on to Day One!

The Journey Continued: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics

Today I'm going to start the Bible in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz. I don't know yet how much I'll blog about this, but I do know that I may not blog every day, as I'm currently also doing St. Augustine's Confessions with Catholic Classics. Then there are the normal events that life brings that one cannot necessarily predict. So basically, I'm trying to say in my usual meandering way that I doubt I'll finish this on December 31, 2026.

While I go through this podcast series, the same as I said at the beginning of the Catechism in a Year series will also apply here:

For this journey, I will be open and free with my thoughts, not dwelling on making apologetics or scholarly points, but simply taking the [Bible] on its own at face value. I'm using this blog mainly to record those thoughts, not to convince anyone of anything, and Twitter/X is too limiting for that.

That, of course, does not mean I won't make "apologetics or scholarly points" when something catches my interest or if I think it's warranted, but only that this won't be my primary focus.

You can use any Catholic Bible for this second journey, but I have chosen the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. With all due respect to Ascension Press for their Great Adventure Catholic Bible, which I also own, I've been eager to use this one from Ignatius Press more in-depth for the footnotes and commentary alone! They both utilize the RSV2CE translation, so that's not an issue. I do like the indexing tabs from Ascension and have those on my Ignatius Study Bible. All in all, though, I would say whichever version you fancy more, use it.

Here is a pretty good review of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible:

You can also find a pretty good review for the Great Adventure Catholic Bible here, if you prefer that version. I rather like the note-taking features the new edition has (I have the older one), but I'm still going to go with Ignatius for this.

Ok, with all that said, let's start with the first of three(!!!) introductions to the series:

I'm really glad to see Jeff Cavins in this, because I first got turned on to his stuff about 20 years ago and really enjoyed it! I'll be using the 365 Day BIY Reading Plan inspired by the work of Cavins for this series. 

Day 366: The End of the Journey?

The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love. [Roman Catechism, Pref 10] CCC 25

As I sit down to close this journey through the Catechism in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz, the paragraph quoted above keeps coming back to me.

Everything I’ve read, prayed, and reflected on this year has pointed to that: love. Not abstract ideas, not rules for the sake of rules, but love. The love of God and the love we are called to share with others.

It reminds me of what St. Paul wrote:

"So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor 13:13)

I love God, wretched sinner I may be. I see His love in the sacraments, in Scripture, in the moral teachings, in prayer, and in the life of the Church. Even on the (many) days I felt distant, distracted, or weak, God’s love never left me. Those struggles themselves have been part of His grace, teaching me patience, humility, and trust.

I began this journey at the end of June 2024 and, despite some bumps and hiccups along the way, have now reached an end of sorts. For those who have read or followed this online journal, please forgive my sometimes incoherent rambling, as well as my occasional lack of understanding. I am a simple man who loves God, with a finite mind attempting to touch the Divine the best I can. If you find anything useful here for your own journey, that pleases me. I stand by the recommendations I made back in January for anyone else on this journey, except I'd add Vol III as well.

As I finish this journey, my prayer is simple: let love be what I see, what I say, and what I do. Let it guide my thoughts, my actions, my heart. May everything I have learned become not just knowledge, but my life as a Catholic.

Amen.

Something more I'd like to add is my deepest gratitude to Fr. Mike Schmitz and the Ascension Press team. Their work, building on what St. John Paul II and his team began, has made this second go-round very rewarding.

Finally, what's next? The journey is never really over, as I will go back to the Catechism to mine it for more insights and expand into other readings. I probably won't blog daily on this, but next on my list is re-reading St. Augustine's Confessions using the Catholic Classics podcast with Frs. Gregory Pine and Jacob Bertrand Janczyk, followed by Bible in a Year podcast and then Rosary in a Year. After all these, who knows?

God bless.

Day 365: So Be It

By the final "Amen," we express our "fiat" concerning the seven petitions: "So be it". CCC 2865

In this final day's readings from the Catechism, it most appropriately finishes this journey with an In Brief reviewing what has been covered on the Seven Petitions of the Lord's Prayer over the past few days. 

The Catechism Compendium uses a good quote from that saintly Doctor of the Church, Cyril of Jerusalem, to finish out:

“At the end of the prayer, you say ‘Amen’ and thus you ratify by this word that means ‘so be it’ all that is contained in this prayer that God has taught us.” (St.  Cyril of Jerusalem) (#598)

The Catechism Companion Vol III has a final good commentary on this:

We pray these petitions out of a desire for God's name to be known, loved, and adored... By asking for what we need, we show a childlike trust in God as a Father who provides what is good for us. In praying "Amen," we are assenting to the plan of God to save us from sin. Studying the Catechism is meant to bring about a conversion in how we see God, worship him, live out our faith, and pray. We do not study the Catechism for information but for transformation. We have to apply its wisdom to our lives for it to have a meaningful impact... The transformative journey of faith is a response to the understanding that we matter to God. We each have profound worth and importance in the eyes of God. (p. 246)

And thus, the official program with Fr. Mike Schmitz comes to an end. I will be wrapping up my final thoughts on this journey tomorrow. God bless.

Day 364: Deliver Us From Evil

When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's return By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." CCC 2854

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses the final petitions of the Lord's Prayer in asking God to spare us from the evils of Satan, the Great Deceiver. In this, we ask for the grace to resist evil and persevere, for "God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one" (Jas 1:13).

The Catechism Compendium summarizes what “Lead us not into temptation” means and why we conclude by asking “But deliver us from evil”:

We ask God our Father not to leave us alone and in the power of temptation. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us know how to discern, on the one hand, between a trial that makes us grow in goodness and a temptation that leads to sin and death, and, on the other hand, between being tempted and consenting to temptation. This petition unites us to Jesus, who overcame temptation by his prayer. It requests the grace of vigilance and of final perseverance. “Evil” indicates the person of Satan who opposes God and is “the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9). Victory over the devil has already been won by Christ. We pray, however, that the human family be freed from Satan and his works. We also ask for the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance as we wait for the coming of Christ, who will free us definitively from the Evil One. (#596-97)

The Catechism Companion Vol III has some good commentary on this:

This petition seeks the Spirit of discernment and strength. If we are not challenged, we cannot grow. We have to face some kind of opposition in order to become stronger... God wants us to freely choose the good... It is good to pray daily for the grace of final perseverance - the grace to say yes to God with our last breath. The petition "Deliver us from evil" refers not only to avoiding temptation but also to being delivered from the Evil One, Satan. Jesus defeated the Devil when he died and rose again. (p. 244)

Tomorrow is the last day in this program. I'm going to add one more day after that for my final thoughts on this journey.