My Bible in a Year Study Space

Where I'm at with the Bible in a Year Study 

I spent all of November focusing on the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge.  Which did not leave a lot of time for my Bible in a Year study.  I also had to cut back on a few other things - including this blog.  

Right now I'm trying to re-establish a reasonable balance between my faith, home, writing, shop and media.  I'm not quite there yet but I already feel so much better.  Particularly because of the faith piece.  But getting my home back in some semblance of order is helping too.

It's nice picking up where I left off.  Almost like reconnecting with an old friend!

Yesterday I watched my first Trent Horn video in over a month.  Today I started stripping the last bit of trim in the front hall - and wrote this post.  Tomorrow I am going to revisit my neglected apologetics books.  Next week I'm going start back up with my Bible in a Year Bible study.  On the weekend I hope to possibly make a YouTube video, second blog post and / or hop back on Etsy and work on my shop.

There is a lot more to say about all of that.  But today I want to focus on Bible study.  It is hard to add a new activity to my daily routine but I really do feel called to do it.  So, to me, it was no coincidence that our parish priest, Fr. Elston, began to talk about lectio divina and the importance of Scripture in his homilies just as I was starting the study.  

Father has even started putting a reflection verse and guide to lectio divina in the weekly bulletin.  I hope to talk more about lectio divina in another post.  In this one, I want to share the Bible in a Year Study space I set up before things got so crazy.

Creating a Spiritual Space in My Home

During lockdown I made my living room into a mini chapel. 

I set up an altar and started collecting holy statues.  Then wall mounted a flatscreen TV (that had gone unused in my bedroom) so I could watch Sunday Mass when it was livestreamed from our local parish.  

I am back at Mass now but I still like having the space to say my Rosary and watch some of my favorite Catholic priests on YouTube.  

Recently I decided it would ALSO be nice to set up a Bible study space in the same room.  This space is just a corner of a room and you do NOT to have a dedicated chapel-room to do it.  If space is an issue for you (like it was for me, prior to the last move) you can always set up a space in your room or a shared area.  If you use a shared area it may help to create private time by getting up early.

My Bible In a Year Study Corner

You can see my Bible in a Year study corner in the picture above.

The rocking chair once belonged to my maternal grandmother as did the china cabinet. I know a china cabinet doesn't really belong in a living room but I had to move it out of the kitchen anyway to make room for the coal stove and I like the idea of putting my prayer books, Bibles, prayer cards and rosaries behind glass.  They are holy items and I think it's nice to put them somewhere special.

In the pictures below you can see my Bible in a Year study tools both in the cabinet and out.

You may notice that my Bible in a Year notebook is spiral bound.  It did not come this way!  But because I wanted it to lay flat I took it to Staples and had it rebound.  The spiral binding and plastic cover (clear in front, navy blue in the back) costs under $5 and to me it's worth it if I'm going to be using a book a lot. ( I'm actually going to be doing the same thing with Fr. Ripperger's prayer book later this week.)

The Our Lovely World book you see in the bottom picture is my favorite book from childhood and one of two I've kept.  It is about a crow looking for the creator of the beautiful world that surrounds him.  It touched me as a child and I am even more impressed by its message now.

I hope to review the study materials in a future post but will say here that I am very happy with my Great Adventure Bible and Bible in a Year notebook.

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To listen to Fr. Jos. Elston's inspiring homily on lectio divina and the importance of Scripture, please see the following post:  Homily on the Importance of Scripture

You can buy the Great Adventure Bible on amazon.  The hardcover (affiliate link) pictured above is out of print right now on the editor's website (where I got it) and pricey on amazon  but the paper copy is still available on amazon (affiliate link) and the editor's website, as of this writing.

You can buy Fr. Ripperger's Deliverance prayer book on amazon (affiliate link) in both kindle and paperback or from his website.