Another thought about Mass readings

I've been thinking about the new goodie I added on yesterday, near the top of the right hand side of the page -- that cute little Daily Mass Readings widget. I luuuuuuuuurrve that widget.

So anyway, did you know that if you follow the Mass readings every day -- which shouldn't be hard because they're very short, except for the ones during Holy Week -- you can read the entire Bible in three years, minus all the genealogy stuff? Plus, the Church in her wisdom has generally organized them in a three-year cycle of related topics so that you will have a general idea of how Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled by New Testament events. The readings follow the liturgical calendar of the year, which makes things really click.

For example, I have a Catholic Bible-in-One-Year and that is a nice thing to have, and you start it on January 1 and start reading the assigned snippets, or, if you're like me, you start on some random day during the year: this is kind of a straight-through way to appraoch Bible reading, with Genesis and Matthew being right there for you on the first day. What this doesn't allow you to do is read all the beautiful prophesies of the coming Messiah during Advent, or read the Gospel Christmas stories at Christmas or read about Our Lord's Passion during Holy Week, etc. Following the Lectionary makes everything flow together so nicely.

And down there below the Monstrance...

If you are a lector at your parish, I've also added a link to LectorPrep.org farther on down on the right side. LectorPrep.org is a fantastic resource for learning the history and context of your assigned reading, even telling you how to emphasize words and phrases. More to the point, it also gives a pronunciation guide for those fuh-reaky hard Old Testament people and place names. Many's the lector whose tongue has become tied in front of the congregation, or worse yet, you give it your best shot and then find out later that you said it all wrong. Eeek.

I've also added a link to the online Adoration site called Savior.org, which is run by the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It's a beautiful thing - not the same as actually being at Adoration, but if you're like me and have uncertain transportation, or if you're a mom at home with little ones, or if you're having a good or bad kind of day and just want to check in and see the miracle of Jesus's very personal offering to us, click and go!