Spiritual Life
Praying with the Word of God Daily
Spiritual reading · The common practice of the whole Church tradition
Taking the Scriptures of the day — the readings of the Mass — as the daily food of prayer, so that a Catholic's personal prayer is fed by the same Word the whole Church is hearing.
Instructions
Use the Church's own lectionary rather than choosing passages by mood: pray with the readings the Mass will use that day, or with the Sunday readings across the week before Sunday. Do it at a fixed hour. Read the passage twice, the second time slowly and aloud if you can. Then stay with the single verse or phrase that holds you, and repeat it. Ask the plain questions — what does this say, what does it ask of me, what do I want to say back to God about it — and then say it back to him in your own words. End with a moment of silence and one sentence you will carry through the day; write it down. On Sunday, read the coming week's Gospel with your household before Mass. Keep a Bible with the Church's approved translation and a sound commentary or the Catechism's cross-references to hand for what puzzles you, and take real difficulties to a priest rather than settling them alone. Pope Francis instituted the Sunday of the Word of God to press this practice on the whole Church; Verbum Domini asks that Scripture become the soul of every Catholic's prayer and not the preserve of scholars.
Background
Dei Verbum urges all the faithful to frequent reading of the Scriptures and reminds them that prayer should accompany the reading, so that a conversation takes place between God and the reader. Verbum Domini (2010) develops this at length, and Aperuit Illis (2019) established the Sunday of the Word of God.
Practice kind
Spiritual reading
Tradition
The common practice of the whole Church
Duration
About 20 minutes
Frequency
Daily
Content subtype
spiritual_reading