[Mr Rogers]

For my part, I’ll gladly cheer anyone encouraging folks to read the Scriptures...even if his version has more books than mine!

;>)

[Mad Dawg]

Well, just to keep my Catholic street cred, I want to say that the BEST place for up close and personal immersion in the Scriptures is in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. The Word in the Presence of the Word! It doesn't get a lot better than that, this side of the Kingdom.

For example, since mid-September and until the beginning of Advent, I am just savoring Ephesians. Sometimes it's explicitly devotional reading, but sometimes it's more scholarly in focus. But I'm enjoying a nice relationship with that letter.

Alex, what I've heard which is, I think, pretty true, is that attentive Catholics end up with a LOT of scripture kind of sneaking into their consciousness. They haven't done enough formal study (though I think more do these days than did before Vatican II) but a lot is sort of clanging around in there.

Perhaps because I'm in a Dominican parish, there is almost always a brief homily at every Mass, and often they are a brief exposition du texte, though sometimes the homilist will draw a moral or a piece of spiritual advice.

[Mad Dawg]

I guess maybe it’s an acquired taste, but I really, really love it. I wish more people had a sense of what a kick it is to read the Bible.

[A.A. Cunningham]

I encourage you to read all of Scripture not just the heavily abridged and edited copy you possess.