5 Reasons Lifelong Catholics Are Finally Finding Their Way Around the Bible

1It gives you the background nobody gave you

Getting lost in the Bible has nothing to do with being clever. You open a book, and nobody has told you who wrote it, when, or what was going on at the time. So you guess. And when it won’t stay in your head, you blame yourself.

Think of what we were taught. The prayers. The Mass. The Rosary. The sacraments. All of it good. But nobody sat us down and said: this book is a letter, that one is a book of laws, and this one was written for people far from home.

The Catholic Bible Map gives you that background first. So when you open your Bible, you know where you are.

2One page for each book. About four minutes.

No thick commentary. No footnotes in tiny print. No course to sign up for.

Each of the 73 books has its own page, and every page answers the same questions: who wrote it, when, what was happening at the time, why it was written, and what the Church has always taught. It also tells you what to look for as you read, and where you hear that book at Mass.

You read the page. Then you open your own Bible at that book. First the map, then your Bible. That is all there is to it.

A real page from the guide, as it looks on a phone.

3All 73 books, the seven included

A Catholic Bible has 73 books. Many other Bibles have 66, and many Bible guides follow that shorter list.

The seven are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. They have always been part of our Bible. Parts of them are read at Mass and at funerals. Yet few of us were ever told what they are or where they came from.

This guide covers all 73, in order, each with its own page. Turn to 2 Maccabees, for example, and you will see where the Bible speaks of praying for the dead (chapter 12).

4It gets you past the wall at Leviticus

Nearly everyone who starts the Bible at page one stops in the same place. Genesis is a story. Exodus is a story. Then Leviticus arrives and the story stops. Sacrifices. Clean and unclean. Rules for priests, page after page.

You are reading as well as you ever did. The book changed, and nobody warned you. Leviticus isn’t a story. It is a handbook for the priests of the tribe of Levi.

Know that before you begin, and Leviticus is no longer a wall. Its page even says you need not read it all, and names two chapters to try first: 16 and 19.

It is the same with every book that ever lost you. One page tells you what kind of book you are holding.

5The readings at Mass start to mean something

The reader says, “A reading from the prophet Baruch.” This time it isn’t just a name. You know it is a book for people far from home: exiles in Babylon, hoping to be gathered again.

Every page has a line called “Where you hear it at Mass”. For Baruch it says: at the Easter Vigil, and on the Second Sunday of Advent in Year C.

On Sunday afternoon, look up the book that morning’s reading came from. It takes about four minutes. The next time you hear it, you will know what it is.