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The Bible Book(s)/Chapter(s) to read each day this week: Sunday, January 26 to Saturday, February 1, 2025.
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January 24, 2025
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Here are the Bible Book(s)/Chapter(s) to read each day this week. Note that the readings are based on the New American Bible.
Ezekiel Chapters 1-4
Most of us are not artists of professional calibre, but try doing this exercise. Interesting insights come to us when we use our creative energies.
Take a pencil or pen and some paper. Then, start sketching as many of the details as you are inspired to draw from the vision described in Ezekiel 1:4 to 1:28.
Ask God to help us to enter more deeply into Scripture by using our hearts and minds in ways that are meaningful to us.
Is there any particular detail that you most enjoyed drawing? Was there a part of the drawing that disturbed you? Why do you suppose your attention rested on any particular details?
Ezekiel Chapters 5-8
Read Ezekiel 8:3-6 again. This passage includes mention of a statue or image that provoked jealousy on the part of the Lord.
Ask God to help us to pay enough attention to Him so that we’ll be better able to pay enough attention to all the people and responsibilities in our lives.
Imagine a statue of jealousy representing what the Lord might be jealous about in your life. Is there someone, or something, that you are treasuring more than you treasure God?
Ezekiel Chapters 9-12
Read Ezekiel 10:1-3 again, a few times, slowly, imagining that you are Ezekiel in these verses.
Ask God to deepen our experience of reading Scripture, by engaging all our senses in prayerful meditation.
What details do you notice about the man who appears to you in the fire? When he shows you a vision, what is it that you see, hear, smell, taste and feel?
Ezekiel Chapters 13-16
Read Ezekiel 16:4-5 again.
These verses talk symbolically about a newborn child who was thrown away at birth. As we see in our world today, there really are unwanted unborn and newborn children who are thrown away.
Ask God to guide the Church, parents and schools to teach responsibility in relationships to young people, so that every child conceived will be a wanted child, and to let all children know that God treasures them, even if their parents didn’t.
In your family or community, are young people left to learn about being responsible in relationships on their own? Is there any guidance that you yourself can provide to them?
Ezekiel Chapters 17-20
Read Ezekiel 17:1-8 again.
These verses talk about using a riddle to tell a story about the breaking of a covenant.
In the Gospels also, Jesus often spoke using stories with meanings that were not always easily understood by His listeners.
Ask God to inspire us to look at any challenges in reading the Bible and in our lives generally as opportunities to grow and not as reasons to give up. How do you deal with information that you find difficult to understand?
Ezekiel Chapters 21-24
Read Ezekiel 21:1 again.
How do you imagine that the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel? Notice the many long chapters in which Ezekiel described a great deal of information coming to him. Do you think that Ezekiel would have ever believed that he could take in, remember and present so much information?
Read Psalm 139:13-16, and ask God to help us to see our potential as God sees it.
How do you see your own potential to learn and to teach others?
Ezekiel Chapters 25-28
Read Ezekiel 25:1-7 again.
Now read Ezekiel 18:32 and Romans 12:19-21. What do these verses suggest about how to treat enemies?
Ask God to help us not to harm people who have harmed us, and, when we’ve been healed enough, to pray that our enemies be blessed with every good thing that we would want for ourselves.
In our culture, when an enemy fails or suffers, how do people normally react? How much does our culture impact your own reaction to people who have harmed you?
A version of this story appeared in the January 26, 2025, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "Turn our attention to God so He’ll attend to us".
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