Bible Study Update - 6/16/2026

Hello friends. I'm here approaching a Bible study crossroad. I'm 3/4 through the Gospel of St. Mark. I can't tell you how meaningful and enriching I'm finding this time spent diving into God's Word.

I spent about a month and a half studying the Gospel of St. Matthew. With life's interruptions, especially our amazing trip to Italy, it's going to take a full 2 months to complete Mark, which is about 1/3 shorter, in terms of chapters and pages, than Matthew. That's okay.

A typical run through includes first, reading one chapter of the Gospel in my Ascension Press Great Adventure Note Taking Bible. Things that strike my heart or mind or just plain old curiosity will sometimes cause me to highlight a passage or snippet of one. Or, it might make me flip to some other book in the Bible to see how the passage I'm reading interrelates with that other book or passage. Usually, when I do this, I make notes in the margin in one place or in the other.

Once I finish a chapter, I take out my Ignatius Press Catholic Study Bible. The Ignatius and the Ascension Press are both in the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition, which I've seen abbreviated RSV2CE. The texts are the same, but the similarity ends there, because the Ignatius often has as much footnoting and explanation as it does biblical text. The notes to me are such a blessing. There, in one place is a deeper explanation about the interrelationship between the text and other books in the Bible, along with an explanation of context, especially what symbology meant in terms of biblical times when these events occurred. I am often, much more so than at first reading, liable to add highlights and notes in my Ascension Press Bible as I learn more. It's kind of comical, because both these Bibles are huge, and I wind up juggling floppy 15 pound dumbbells back and forth on my desk. By the time I finish the chapter, I have a good grasp of it, for the most part.

Then I open my Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. The volume on Mark is 335 pages, so there's about 20 pages per chapter. Oftentimes, the notes and explanations focus on different aspects of the text, which further enriches my understanding. As when I study Ignatius, I'm back into the Ascension to make more notes and highlights. Both the CCSS and Ignatius have me flipping to the Old Testament, Acts, or Letters of the New Testament fairly often. More notes. More highlights. More flipping from CCSS to the Ascension Press and back.

Stuff I highlighted and noted in Mark Chapter 8.

In the photo I took from my Ascension Press Great Adventure Note Taking Bible, here are just a few examples of things I'm either learning from my study, or that I just find interesting:

• Mk 8:27 - 10:52 is often called the "Travel Narrative," as it traces Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. When He arrives all the momentous events occur, including the Last Supper, and His Passion and Resurrection.
• In the study of verse 27, I learned that "The Way" was the earliest name for Christianity. Very cool. The way to Heaven? I suppose so.
• Verse 31, Jesus as "The Son of Man" and how it was used in the Book of Daniel in the OT.
• Verse 35: Where Jesus used the word "Gospel," it made me curious, where else, and how often did He or anyone else use the word?
• Verse 38: Jesus use of the words, "the Father," for the first time in Mark. 

Maybe that stuff is only of interest to me, but it is, and coming away better attuned to the message in God's word helps me to feel closer to Him.

Interestingly, I confess that I consistently found myself making more highlights and notes while studying Matthew than I do with Mark. I suspect, firstly, that having completed this process for Matthew beforehand, some of the same interests and curiosities have already been explored, but second, Matthew seemed to go to great lengths to ensure the connections to the Old Testament are spelled out in ways that a Jewish audience in the first century would be sure to understand. Mark's audience, likely in Rome, would have been far less inclined to find those same connections compelling. I admit, I could be wrong on this, but I suspect this to be the case.

In this way, a chapter takes me 4-5 days to study thoroughly. With 16 Chapters in Mark, you can do the math. It's not a fast process.

I'm going to change things up after I conclude with Mark in a couple of weeks.

First, I want to finish my reading of the Catechism. I'm 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through it, and I want to finish it before I start my next Gospel. Doing two things at once is something I'm finding inefficient.

The Gospel of St. John is next. "John," you ask? Yes, John. Simply because I hope to finish it in time for Advent (after Thanksgiving), and begin Luke then. As Luke has the only in-depth Nativity narrative, I want to be deep into Luke during that beautiful part of the Liturgical year, leading into Christmas. 

That's some unsolicited, and I know maybe boring to many of you, insight into my Bible study.

May God bless us all.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.