March 30, 2025
My dear Kirkland Catholics,
In my nine months here, I have frequently stressed the importance of reading and praying with Scripture as a prayer life “best practice.” Since I have stated this several times at both campuses but cannot keep track of what specific suggestions I have made at each campus, I wanted to capture here a compendium of different options and suggestions.
First: a principle that goes for all devotional/personal prayer Scripture reading or listening. You are reading or listening for the sake of hearing what God might be saying to YOU. It is not Bible study where you are stiving to figure out exactly the context or what the human author was intending to say universally. That being said – here are the suggested sources for daily Scripture reading/listening.
- The Hallow App is the #1 Christian app, it is Catholic and has a ton of different ways one can approach Scripture. It has audio recording of the daily readings each day (from daily Mass), it contains Fr. Mike Schmitz’s “Bible in a Year” podcast; (which for a time when it was newly released was the top podcast in the world); it has a daily audio meditative “lectio divina” of the day’s Gospel (with four different narrator options!); it has a daily reflection video from Jeff Cavins on the day’s readings; and even Top Bible Stories for going to sleep audio. That’s just some of the Scripture options, there are tons of other audio and otherwise guided prayers.
- At the United States Bishop’s website (usccb.org) you can subscribe and have the daily readings emailed to you each morning, with links to both the text and an audio lectored version.
- My most common suggestion is reading one chapter of the Gospels per day, and one psalm (or part of a psalm if it is a very LONG one) each day.
- Although priest and religious are obligated, lay people are highly encouraged to pray the Liturgy of the Hours which is mostly straight Scripture. Download the ibreviary app for text, or the DivineOffice app for both audio and text.
- Frankie Cicero’s app “Life Starts Here,” contains an excellent public domain bible narrated by Max McLean. This bible is also available without an app online at Bible Hub (recommend the NIV version as easiest to comprehend while listening). This narrated version of the Bible is my “go to” when I am tired reading would be tough.
I hope this is helpful!
With love in Christ,
Fr. Brad