Listening is a vital skill—I would argue a necessary spiritual discipline for God’s people. To hear the Word of God spoken by another human being reminds us that we are fellow bearers of God’s image, brought together in the Church by the blood of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Over the centuries the Church has developed rhythms and practices that help us to align our lives with the Word of God in a shared life with the Holy Spirit so that we may worship God together. Tools for spiritual formation such as the church calendar and lectionaries come out of this.

So, my elder daugher Jodie and I have a podcast where we read the Bible for you. We are following the reading schedule of the Revised Standard Lectionary, which you can see and even download daily readings to your own calendar thanks to the Divinity Library at Vanderbilt University. The actual readings are from the Christian Standard Bible. The name of the podcast is both a play on “daily bread” and a reference to the diet of the desert monks of the fourth century, which John Cassian—my monastic mentor from across the centuries—described as “one or two biscuits.”

I pray that a daily thematic journey into the Word of God helps you to hear the large unifying themes of Scripture and consider them deeply for a season, to stay with them for days and even weeks on end so that they stay with you and shape you. These themes teach us a lot about what God cares about—and teach us a lot about ourselves that we otherwise might not be inclined to notice or receive. I hope that hearing Scripture this way blesses you.