What is the Bible? Who wrote it and why do we read it? Where is it leading us? In this lesson, we will explore these questions and more. Do you have your bible with you? If not, go and grab it. Now that you’re all set with your bible, let’s explore how to read and use it!
Introduction Video and Opening Prayer
Go Deeper
Bible Basics
So what is the Bible? If you answered “a book,” you’d actually be wrong. To be more accurate, you would want to say the Bible is really a collection of books. There are 73 total books which make up the Bible. It is not just any collection of books, it is the Word of God.
We say the Bible is the inspired Word of God written by human authors. This means that God used normal people like you and I to write the Bible, but the Holy Spirit inspired them while they were writing. Everything they wrote was also what God wanted them to say. To use the example of Luke’s Gospel, we would say that both God and Saint Luke are its authors.
Can you name some of the Bible’s authors? In your Destined Journals, try to write down the names of some biblical authors and the names of the books they wrote. Draw a picture of one of the authors you name. If you need help, open up your bible to the New Testament, I bet you’ll find your answers! For extra credit, write down a verse from one of your favorite biblical authors.
Now it is time to learn more about this collection of books we call the Bible.
If you are in 1st through 5th grade and using “The Catholic Children’s Bible,” turn to page 14-15 and read together as a family. If younger children have trouble reading, parents should direct their attention to the illustration on page 15 and help explain it to them.
Children in 6th grade through 8th grade are encouraged to watch the following video along with their parents:
Discussion Questions:
1.) What is your favorite Bible story?
2.)What things in your life would be easier if you had some wisdom from the Bible?
3.) How do you like to read the Bible?
Learn how to read your bible
Exercises:
Pre-K through Grade 5:
Grades 3-5:
The following worksheet will help students learn how to find specific verses in their bible after being given the citation (ex John 3:16). If the answer seems easy, that’s probably because it is.
Grades 6-8:
Complete the following Scavenger Hunt through your bible. If you get stuck, feel free to ask each other for help in the comments. Each clue refers to a specific part of the Bible, sometimes a person or a chapter in a book, or sometimes even a specific verse. Solving each clue leads you to the next. As you solve each clue, you may find yourself learning more about the story of salvation found in the Bible!
Featured Saint
This lesson’s featured saint is St. Paul. He wrote much of the New Testament of the Bible and is sometimes known as the Apostle to the Gentiles. This title recognizes his efforts to preach the Gospel to non-Jewish peoples. Next to St. Peter, he is one of the most important figures in the early Church.
In art, St. Paul is often depicted carrying a sword. This is partly because of a verse from the Letter to the Hebrews, traditionally believed to be authored by him. It reads, “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” (Hebrews 4:12)
As a family complete the following fun activity based off of this famous Bible verse. The finished product would be a great addition to your family prayer space!
Let Us Pray
This lesson’s prayer challenge is very simple: read the Bible as a family every day! Did you know that reading the Bible is a type of prayer? That’s right. The Bible is God’s word, and when we read it, we enter into a conversation with God.
If you want to learn an excellent, time-tested method of reading and praying with Scripture, watch the following optional video:
Live It Out Activities and Closing Thoughts
Your “Live It Out” activity for this lesson is very simple: explore your bibles! Look through the one we gave you, along with any you may have at home. How are they different? How are they similar? What do you like about each one? Flip through its pages, cover to cover, and see what amazing resources your bible has to offer that you may have never known about.
In any of the bible’s we gave you, there is more to explore than we can cover in any lesson. It is up to you to get to know your bible better. In the back of most bibles, you will find helpful maps of biblical places, verses for different times in life, Catholic prayers, and much more.
St. Jerome famously said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” If that sounds a little harsh, try thinking of it this way, “The better we know Scripture, the better we know Christ!”
Your Bible is your roadmap to Heaven. It will help you get to know Jesus. We say that the Bible is the Word of God, but do you know who is also called the Word of God? Jesus! If you don’t believe me, try reading the first chapter of John’s Gospel.
Ok explorers, this lesson is over and it’s time for you to start your adventure. You have your map in front of you. I hope it leads you to an amazing treasure!
More to Explore
Want to try reading the Bible in a year? What if you had it sent to your phone every morning? Try Bishop Boyea’s year of the Bible! Instructions are in the video below.
Great timing to dive into the Word of God & line up our New Year Intentions with our daily devotions & readings. Our family can’t just watch one Fr. Mike episode, it led us adults to “The Bible in a Year” podcast. Good stuff!
I love the way Fr. Mike explains things, many of the staff at the parish are listening to the podcast as well!
From a theatre teacher’s perspective, I loved the acting in the opening video looking for the right trail. :). My kids enjoyed creating the plastic knives and diving deeper into learning about the Bible.
We certainly had fun filming it! Hopefully the kids have some new favorite Bible verses!
We enjoyed the outdoor setting of the intro video (and the drive through cameo)!
It was definitely a lot of fun filming, glad your family enjoyed it!
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My first grader enjoyed the story time and stickers!
Good to hear, hopefully the stickers lead to many holy future story times!
My kids thought the video was very funny! We love our Children’s bible, it’s very easy to follow and really helped the kids understand all the different types of books that make up the Bible. I had each of the kids flip to any page any verse, tell me who wrote it and what type of book, then see how that verse can relate to their life as a map to God. We had fun exploring the Bible
Those are some great ideas for this lesson, I hope anyone who reads your comment gives it a try! Even as a DRE, I find that explanation of the Bible books helpful.
As far as the discussion question asking how do you like to read the bible, Adelaide used to absolutely love the Action Bible. She read it so many times we can’t count and she always read it in bed before she fell asleep. We tried to get her another bible when she got older that was for teens, but haven’t found one directed for her age that she enjoyed as much.
As far as our son, he wants to say that certain bible passages are able to help in certain situations that you may be struggling with. Stress, anxiety, trouble at school…etc.
For good practical wisdom, I always like the wisdom books such as the Book of Proverbs! Its a great way to learn how to read the Bible prayerfully. If you send me an email, I can help you find a Bible your daughter may like!
Thank you. We enjoyed this lesson as our daughter is getting much better at reading and can now explore the word with the guidance given in this lesson on how to find passages and the sticker page will drive her readings to start!
Tell her I said happy reading! It is so exciting that she can start to explore Scripture on her own!
Great opening video!! My kids thought the globe in particular was funny! We really enjoyed looking through our bibles today. We have a first grader who is excited about the stickers. We have signed up for the Year of the Bible and are excited to begin exploring and understanding each part more intentionally as a family.
We had never thought about how many books Paul had written on his own (with God’s help of course)!! Remarkable!!
St. Paul certainly stayed busy, what amazes me even more is that he wrote many of them while in jail!
Kiddos are excited to learn about the stickers in the back of the Bible.
Let us know how it goes, those reading plans are a truly wonderful resource!
We loved looking through the bible! The scavenger hunt was so fun to search for all the chapters. We liked Fr. Mikes lesson and the opening video.
Had a lot of fun doing the Bible Scavenger Hunt. We got pretty good at it toward the end!
We loved the first video in the lesson. When he pulls the globe out of his bag. I can’t stop laughing. 😂
We liked learning about the bible today!
Great lesson, thanks! My first grader enjoyed the scavenger hunt!
Hello! The lesson was great, we really liked the intro video and thought it was really funny to watch. We also liked learning on how to read the bible.