I’m currently reading Tim Muldoon’s Ignatian Workout which seems to be a modern interpretation or application of Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. The centrepiece seems to be a practice called ’examen'
I don’t have a good grasp in the concepts, purposes or practice of examen; but it strikes me that there are similarities between it (focussing on prayer) and lectio divina (focussing on Bible reading).
The connection and interrelationship is something that I’d like to consider (albeit briefly) in the near future.
It’s five years today since my Mum died. In the same way as with Dad, sometimes it seems like only a few years. On other occasions it feels like decades.
Our house has a few things that were Mum’s - some cutlery, crockery or glassware; paintings that Mum and Dad bought over the years. But some of these paintings can be seen in our children’s places. Having a few of these types of items around is OK, but you (well, I) don’t want to be burdened by it.
My total for November was a paltry 274.
I finished Spiritual Warfare for the End Times and have been reading ten-or-so pages each day from volume 1 of Iain Murray’s biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, 1899-1939.
My total pages read for October were 822.
My completions for October were Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness.
I commenced Derek Prince’s Spiritual Warfare for the End Times and volume 1 of Iain Murray’s biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, 1899-1939.
I also read the first dozen-or-so pages of Hans-Johann Glock’s What is Analytic Philosophy.
My total for September was 835.
I finished The Monogram Murders which is a Hercule Poirot mystery in the style of Agatha Christie. I also finished the first book in The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer
I started rereading R.Kent Hughes Disciplines of a Godly Man but put it away after a few chapters. I may come back to it in the new year.
I also commenced rereading Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness.
Back in mid-January I wrote about my intentions for Bible reading in 2024.
The basic plan was to read three chapters of the Old Testament a day and one chapter from the New Testament. At that pace I would finish the OT in mid-October and the New Testament in latish September. Furthermore, the plan was to read the Bible in a different order to how it appears in modern western Bibles. Lastly, I was going to read from the Revised Standard Version.
My total for August was 1,553.
The primary works were finishing Frank Peretti’s The Oath, reading the first 25 pages of Robert Stone’s Damascus Gate (before deciding to not read further), and reading two further works by Peretti: The Visitation and Monster.
I also commenced reading The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer.
After an early and fast start to the day, Eliza May arrived.
Well done Emma and Ben.
Thank you Lord!
Total pages read in July were 1,187. This included finishing George Bennett’s The Heart of Healing; Donald Whitney’s Praying the Bible; The Prayers of Kierkegaard by Soren Kierkegaard and Perry Lefevre; Prophet by Frank Peretti and the first half (or so) of Peretti’s The Oath.
I’ve been reflecting a little on the different Bible versions I’ve bought, tried, used, read, given away or filed away over the years.
The first Bible I ever had or was given was the Gideon’s red public high school edition I received in my first year in high school in the mid-1970s. It was, I believe, the Revised Berkeley Edition. I still have this Bible.
The second Bible I got was a Good News for Modern Man New Testament received, again from memory, for being the ‘prayer monitor’ in my year 8/second form Scripture class. I guess I had to read or recite a prayer at the beginning or end of each weekly Scripture class. I have since disposed on this Bible, but did keep the commemorative insert.