July 12, 2026
Dear St. Rita Parishioners,
One of the anti-Catholic tropes that Protestants used to throw against Catholics (and maybe still do) is that we do not know the Scriptures. The general Catholic response is that we hear more Scripture at Mass than they do at their services, even if we don’t spend time memorizing chapter and verse. And, while it’s sometimes tempting to throw barbs and jabs at each other, on the one hand it can lack charity, and on the other, it’s not really helpful in the end. The goal isn’t so much to win an argument. The goal is Jesus. And so, a better response to the accusation that this or that Catholic doesn’t know Scripture is, “Are they right?”[i]
When you read the Fathers of the Church and many saints, Scripture seems to be interspersed throughout their writings and homilies, paraphrased and quoted, indicating a deep familiarity with the Word of God that should leave us wondering why we can’t have the same. Some of them, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, are said to have memorized the entire Bible. St. Dominic memorized the entire Gospel of Matthew to use it better in his preaching. And while intentionally memorizing the Bible or a book or books of the Bible is a fantastic goal, it may not be practical for many or most people. What is practical, however, is reading Scripture every day.
All it takes is 5 or 10 minutes daily. If, with persistence, you read Scripture every single day, you will be amazed how much ground you cover. And if you do it over and over and over again, soon enough, you find yourself immersed in the Scripture and remembering things you didn’t know you remembered. Once you begin reading Scripture attentively, you give the Word of God permission and space to take root within you. With all of the media that we are forced to consume daily, it is very good that we consume content which is wholesome and holy and actually useful for my life and for my eternity.
Some people ask, “If I go to Mass every day, won’t I hear the entire Bible?” The simple answer is, “No.” The longer answer is that Scripture texts for Mass are chosen with liturgical purpose, and the liturgy revolves around the Mysteries of the Life of Christ that we celebrate over the course of the liturgical year. And, while there is a long period of time (mainly between Pentecost and Advent, about half the year) that is not dedicated to a particular Mystery, the main purpose of Scripture in the liturgy is not familiarization, but to help us enter into the Mysteries and to apply them to our prayer and to our lives. In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, this application is more pronounced, and so the Scripture texts are more limited. In the Ordinary Form, the desire to expose the faithful to more Scripture is expressed in a much wider range of texts (3-year cycle of readings for Sundays and a 2-year cycle for weekdays), but it does not cover the entirety of Scripture. Regardless, most people are not going to go to Mass every day (trust me, I am there!), and while a good introduction to Scripture can be praying with the daily Mass readings, there is much more to be had, and the cycle of readings jumps around often enough that it can seem disjointed.
So, what to do? 5 or 10 minutes a day a great, but the Bible is not small (73 books), and you may not know where to start. Starting from the beginning is never a bad move, but many people find themselves struggling mightily when they get to book #3, Leviticus. And then Numbers and Deuteronomy follow, and reading the Pentateuch (the first 5 books) beings to feel like you’re living the Pentateuch and the Israelites’ 40 years in the desert! I recommend, then, a reading plan. There are, fortunately, lots of options out there, and while many of them are Dec 1 to Nov 30 or Jan 1 to Dec 31, technically, you can start anywhere you want. So here are a few choices for you:
1) A Catholic’s Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year
2) Dr. Mary Healy Reading Plan (PDF Download)
3) Fr. Mike Schmitz Bible in a Year Podcast (very popular!)
4) Coming Home Network Reading Plan (older version, PDF download)
5) Coming Home Network Reading Plan (newer version with signup)
6) Online Reading Plan (with links!)
Full disclosure – the one-year reading plans require 20-30 minutes daily, so you should decide what your goal is. Reading the whole Bible is a great goal, and we should all do it at least once, but regular deepening of our familiarization with Scripture is also important, and for that, you can focus on the New Testament, especially the Gospels. The Confraternity Edition of the New Testament even provides dates for you to read the entire New Testament in 6 months or 1 year.
Remember, though, that the point of all of this is not simply to match the Protestants in their knowledge of Scripture, because they know many passages, but they are missing the reality of the Church Herself. The goal is to know Christ more deeply, to contemplate that which God in His Love for us desired to say to us and to do for us. St. Jerome famously said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ,” and if Christ is the Face of the Merciful God, the Image of the Invisible God (Col 1:15), then God is truly revealed to us in the Scripture. Spend time with His Word, then, and spend time with Him. He has had much to say to you.
In Christ,
Fr. Christensen
[i] This is, of course, prescinding from the question of whether Catholics in general know enough Scripture and whether our liturgical or catechetical focus should be more Scripture based. Catholics have a goldmine in the Sacraments which were instituted by Christ (the Word of God) Himself, and the most precious of all is the Holy Eucharist, His True Presence. Combine that with a deep knowledge of Scripture (the Word of God), and now we’re firing on all cylinders!