Catholic Ragemonkey

Bible Study Beginnings

I would have titled this post "Bible Study Genesis," but that's a bit too precious.

I would appreciate your prayers for the beginning of two Bible Studies that will be kicking off this week, assuming the ice doesn't return. At Sacred Heart, the parish will do the Great Adventure series available from St. Joseph Communications. Recently, Jeff Cavins, who created the program, moved the program to Ascension Press, probably to increase the number of associated products, e.g. maps, that could be published in conjunction. While it is more elaborate, a more elaborate price accompanies, hence I'm not using it. Right now, there are 13 signed up. This is the second time to run this program at Sacred Heart (my personal third time through it), and I am anxious to see what the reaction will be.

At St. Cornelius, they are being subjected to a program of our own creation. Allow me to explain. This group has already done the Great Adventure and then I took them through the entire New Testament calling it "Continuing the Adventure." After that, I decided to throw the material decision to the participants. I had a bad experience once with this, but because they all now had a better foothold in the Bible, it seemed a good idea. I prepared a ballot for each participant. It looked something like this:

Question 1: Which part of the Bible would you like to study? (Choose Only ONE)
Old Testament New Testament

Question 2: Would you like to study just one book or a selection of books? (Choose Only ONE)
Just One Book A Selection of Books

Question 3: Which selection of Books would like to study?
(Choose Only ONE from the group you selected in Question 1)

Old Testament Choices
Pentateuch [Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy]
Historical Books, Part 1 [Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings]
Historical Books, Part 2 [I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, I and II Maccabees]
Wisdom [Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus]
The Major Prophets [Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel]
The Minor Prophets [Baruch, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi]

New Testament Choices
The Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The Acts of the Apostles]
Letters of St. Paul [Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Timothy, Titus, Philemon]
The Catholic Letters [Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, I, II, and III John, Jude]

Question 4: Which book would you like to study?
(Choose any THREE from the List on the Back of the Ballot from the group selected in Question One)

The vote came back that they wanted to cover the Historical Books, Part Two. While Fr. H gave me a hard time for leaving it up to the participants, mainly because he heard my whining about how it is not helpful for planning when people say, "Oh, we don't care, Father. Do whatever you want," I like the strategy because it allows me to stretch myself and study in detail a group of books I haven't looked closely at. There are 5 taking part.

I will keep you posted on what the outcomes are, if any notable ones.