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PT

New Testament Reading

5 min

A few minutes of the New Testament. Open it where you left off and read a short passage once for what it says; then read it again from inside — you are one more of the people standing there.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

Lóquere, Dómine, quia audit servus tuus.

I advised you to read the New Testament for some minutes every day, and to enter into each scene and take part in it, as one more of the characters. (Furrow §672)

Stay in the scene a moment longer. Where are you standing? What do you see of His face? What would you have said to Him — and what keeps you from saying it now?

Take one thing out of it. Only one.

About this prayer

A few minutes of the New Testament itself, day after day — distinct from the spiritual book. Read on from where you left off and place yourself inside the scene as one more of the people present.

History

In the plan of life the New Testament is read as its own norm, not folded into spiritual reading. The spiritual book forms the mind; this puts you in front of Christ Himself, in the text the Church has always read aloud at her altars.

St. Josemaría's counsel was concrete about *how*: *I advised you to read the New Testament for some minutes every day, and to enter into each scene and take part in it, as one more of the characters* (*Furrow* §672). The reading is short on purpose — a few verses, so that no day becomes a study session. It is the raw material the morning's mental prayer keeps returning to.

How to pray it

Five minutes, at a fixed hour. Open the New Testament where you left off and read a short passage slowly, once.

Then read it again and put yourself in it. Not as a reader — as one of the people standing there. Where are you in the room? What can you see of His face? What would you have said, and what stops you saying it?

Don't study. Don't look for three applications. Take one thing out of it and carry it into the day; if it is worth more, bring it back to the morning's mental prayer tomorrow.

Read at your own pace, in your own Bible or in the app's. If you miss days, pick up where you left off — the point is continuity, not the calendar.

St. Josemaría Escrivá, *Furrow* §672.

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