This doesn't relate to anything, but it is driving me crazy. I just bought "My Daily Catholic Bible" from Our Sunday Visitor over the internet. I like the idea of a plan for reading the Bible in a year, but the books are not in order. The January 1 reading starts with Genesis and Mark. All books seem to be accounted for, but it still makes me a little crazy. Does anyone know why the books are not in order? Am I overreacting?
If it's driving you crazy, you need St. Dymphna, the patron saint of crazy people.
I don't know why the author chose the order he chose, but he seems to have been borrowing from the readings at Mass, where over the course of time, we read the entire Bible in little segments. I believe it takes three years to read the whole Bible at Mass, so he couldn't just copy the Mass readings and call it a book if he wanted to get it done in a year. Perhaps if you read the book jacket blurb, someone will explain the chosen order.
Here is what is driving me crazy: if you want to read the whole Bible by reading pieces of it for twenty minutes a day and it's driving you crazy that it's not in order, why don't you just pick up the Bible and read it for twenty minutes a day? It will be in order, unless you're dying to find out how it ends and skip to the back of the book.
You will need a special device to get through it. 
Save the money you would spend on the book and buy a really fancy one.
St. Dymphna, by the way, was not crazy. Her father was crazy. She is the patron saint of crazy people because she had to deal with a crazy person.St. Dymphna looked just like her beautiful mother and when her mother died, her father snapped and decided Dymphna should just step into her mother's......shoes. Dymphna fled with the help of the parish priest, but her crazy father found her and killed her and the parish priest.
She is also the patron saint of sleep walkers, because sleep walkers used to be considered to be crazy people. I'm not sure if she qualifies to be the patron saint of people who take that drug, Ambien, and then eat everything in the refrigerator in their sleep or go for a drive. I think at that point, the sleepwalker should switch over to St. Cosmos and St. Damian, the patron saints of twins and doctor (because they were twin doctors) and let the heavenly physicians help find a new medical practitioner.
9 comments:
Thanks Sister! And you're absolutely right, of course. I'll skip the Daily Bible and invest in a really good bookmark. St. Dymphna and I are already good friends!
Jennie
Sister Mary Martha, I love your blog! I found it while searching for a saint's name - I'm a catechumen being baptized and confirmed as a new Catholic at Easter this year. I'm a healthy-living, running grandmother who works with words for a living, (still) married to a Jew for almost 35 years - which saint do you think would be an inspiration for me?
I love your blog. *AND* I love those BOOKMARKERS!! Where can I buy one of those!?
Dear Sister Mary Martha,
Can you tell me why there is no patron saint for people with lupus? Lupus is not a new disease -- Hippocrates wrote about it -- so you'd think we'd have our own patron saint.
The best I can come up with is St. Alphonsus Liguori, patron for arthritis sufferers, since arthritis is one of the things lupus causes.
Also, Blessed Junipero Serra was beatified on the basis of a miraculous cure of a woman with lupus. So maybe he's the go-to guy for us lupies?
Or is there a patron saint for lupus that's as difficult to find as lupus is hard to diagnose?
Thanks, Sister, I love your blog.
I have My Daily Catholic Bible as well. The book is broken up so that you read one passage from the old testament, one from the new testament, and one short quote from a saint each day. I actually like this very much. I have attempted to read the bible from Genesis to Revelations in the past and failed miserably once reaching Leviticus! Reading the old testament passage in the morning and the new testament passage in the evening works for me.
A hefty task, to read the entire Bible in a year....and yet, one that I aspire to undertake every year. Yet to do so...but I am digging out my handy bookmark, and will try again!
Sister Mary Martha, your blog and daily mass are the spiritual food I need to make it through my weeks. As a young college student, I'm looking for the patron saint of procrastinators. Even right now at 12:22AM I'm avoiding my research paper that's due in a few hours! Is there any saint who can help me rid my terrible habit?
Hi Sister, I am a Protestant minister, and a reader of your Blog, which I love. I do want to point out your comment about the lectionary, and the readings from the bible. The three year lectionary does leave out sections of the bible, which I point out to people who want to read the whole thing.
Thanks for your blog.
I'm not sure who's Feast Day it is, but since Saint Jude is helping me today, I'm going with him. Sister, I love your comments about my other friend, Saint Dymphna. I'm not crazy, just bipolar, but that probably counts. Her day, as I recall, is May 15. I just caught your blog and I love it. May God bless you and all of your efforts.
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