Reading Scripture every day is awesome!

Detail from St. Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch by Ann Chapin

When we decided that “Every Book is Catholic” would be our catchphrase, we didn’t mean it as a one-and-done declaration. “Every Book is Catholic” isn’t a pronouncement, it’s a vow of intent. It’s our commitment to a lifelong journey of seeking to understand all art through the eyes of Jesus Christ. Over time, Jesus promises us that this intention moves us into increasing conformity to his heart and mind. We learn to think, perceive, feel, and respond like him. Our rational capacities and emotional maturity elevate towards him. This is what it means to become holy—to become a saint in imitation of Christ.

The Catholic doctrine of salvation holds that this is the entire point of moving through time in this earthly life. Imitation isn’t just a one-time event. It’s a process. The Catholic view is better described as “one-and-begun.” To be a Christian is to commit to a lifelong journey of letting the Lord heal and change us, to let Him change our minds and hearts until they are identical to the Son. While the Blessed Virgin Mary is the only human who could ever be capable of completely achieving this, the rest of us all have the capacity to become completely committed to this transformation.

If our goal is to become fully conformed to Jesus Christ—how he thinks, feels, loves, and more—then we need to spend time with him. We do this through the sacraments. We kneel in the Real Presence, and receive his body and blood. We go to confession and the priest acts in the person of Christ, so we can directly talk to him and share our hearts. We go to Adoration and spend time just sitting with Jesus. This literal, physical time with him is indispensable to growing the relationship. The Church’s advice is that we should try to get as much of this physical time as possible in our daily life.

But another avenue of growing the relationship—one that sometimes gets the short stick in Catholic attention—is spending time reading Scripture. We have God’s own words, including the words of His Word Jesus Christ, right in front of us. Being immersed in Scripture every day is also indispensable. It’s an easy, readily available means to know how God thinks and feels, to get this direct communication, pretty much any time.

When I became Catholic, I made a decision to go to Mass, confession, and Adoration as often as I could. And I also made a decision to read the daily readings from the lectionary every morning. Since I came to the Church, I’ve had times that I couldn’t make it to the physical presence of Christ as often as I’d like. But I have managed to consistently read the Scriptures every day. It’s been a fundamental lifeline of my faith and closeness to the Lord.

Especially when it comes to interpreting art through the eyes of Jesus Christ, I need his actual words and verbal point of view. I read the entirety of the Scriptures through his voice, including the Old Testament, to understand him better. The more I immerse myself in the Word, the more easily the Lord can call relevant passages and verses to my mind when I consume art. Every book I read or movie I watch becomes an active conversation with God, because the Scriptures are His living Word. You don’t just read the Bible—you end up having an ongoing discussion with God Himself as you go through your day. The Word comes alive in you, and you can hardly listen to a song or have an interaction where the Lord isn’t a part of it. It’s absolutely beautiful to cultivate this active presence with the Lord.

But now it’s important to say that “beautiful” definitely does not mean easy. This isn’t something that just happens overnight. For me it has been entirely dependent on consistency, frequent use of the sacraments, and using a lot of help to understand the Bible. Scripture isn’t exactly a casual read. Plus I didn’t grow up Christian—I have exactly zero experience with anything Bible-related before I converted. Early reading efforts were a slog, in many ways. The language was jarringly foreign to me. Also my worldview was unable to wrap around the concepts, some of which were extremely challenging for me to even be willing to consider.

I went through a lot of trial and error in finding study guides, study Bibles, and all the rest. As of today I have some very good go-to sources, including the Magnificat. And of all the daily reflections I’ve tried, my absolute favorite is Presence Publishing, a Substack written by my colleague and friend, John Caliguire.

For the record, everything I am about to say below about Presence Publishing is completely unsolicited and uncompensated. This is entirely my voluntary, joyful recommendation based on how much enrichment I’ve gotten from these reflections.

The Presence Publishing daily reflections are non-commercialized, humble, educational, and extremely well written. John has a genuine love for Scripture that shines through every word. It feels like I’m talking about the reading with a genuine, faithful person at a Bible study. I’ve read daily reflections from larger corporate entities, and it’s hard to describe the almost hollow feeling they’ve given me—too workshopped, sometimes designed to be as commercially appealing as possible. But Presence Publishing work is just an extremely thoughtful, highly educated man putting out his love of Scripture into the world with the goal of helping others fall in love with it. This is the kind of writing that comes from a fellow Christian who loves growing that constant relationship with Our Lord. And because of that, it’s real. It’s real the way that Jesus Christ meant for us to be real with him and with each other.

By now I hope I’ve made a compelling case for why “Every Book is Catholic” works by reading Scripture every day, and also why it helps so much to read it along with a really solid, encouraging daily reflection. The right reflection reading brings Scripture alive and helps you keep thinking about it, and keep talking to Jesus Christ about what he is communicating, and what he thinks of whatever it is that you are doing, thinking, or experiencing. And I highly encourage anyone and everyone to subscribe to Presence Publishing, so you can get an email every morning with a beautiful reflection of the daily readings (and convenient encouragement to read the daily Scripture).

I can’t wait to keep growing in Christ as we move through our book list!

Subscribe to Presence Publishing here!