Prayer Before Reading the Bible

Saint Jerome is a saint in the Catholic Church, best known as a scholar who translated the scriptures from their original languages into Latin. His version of the Bible is still considered an important translation in the history of the early church.

The following prayer is considered his prayer for use before reading the Bible:

O Lord, you have given us your word
for a light to shine upon our path;
grant us to to meditate on that word,
and to follow its teaching,
that we may find in it the light
that shines more and more
until the perfect day;
through Jesus Christ out Lord.

Ruth Duck

Ruth C. Duck is professor of worship at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, and a widely-published author of hymn texts.
She has written and edited several books of worship resources.

In a 1981 book entitled Bread for the Journey, published by The Pilgrim Press, she includes these thoughts in the book's Introduction:

The image of life as a journey is another way of saying that faith and worship grow out of our stories and the story of God's people moving through time. This approach to faith and worship assumes that the experiences out of which they grow are important.
She later adds the following comment: From scripture one is reminded of the manna from heaven, which fed the Exodus sojourners in the wilderness. At this time in the life of the church, there are burdens to be borne and struggles to be endured for the sake of justice and peace and the wholeness that comes from incorporating all sorts of people into our life.

In the book she offers this prayer for the season of Epiphany:

O Spirit that flows through all of life, you were powerfully present in the life and ministry of Jesus. Yet many of his contemporaries were looking for something more dramatic, someone less simple. Like them, we do not always recognize your presence. Give us spirits that respond to you Spirit as an instrument resounds to a musician's touch, that we may glorify your name in Christ Jesus. Amen.

May that prayer go with you on this, another day on your journey through life.

Rabbi Hillel

Rabbi Hillel was one of the great heroes of the Jewish People. He served in a position that combined religious and secular leadership, and was the highest position of leadership in Jewish Society during the several centuries preceding and several centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple. Hillel himself lived at the beginning of the century preceding the Destruction.

In addition to his contributions to the understanding of Jewish Law, he is famous for a number of incidents in his personal life, and "ethical" pronouncements that he made:

Most famous perhaps is the incident which occurred before his rise to leadership, when he was not yet a scholar, but had a burning desire to study Torah. At that time, Torah study was tightly controlled and limited only to those of the highest caliber and to those who could pay for it. Hillel, working then as a woodchopper, did not have enough money to pay for entry into the Beit Midrash. On a freezing cold snowy day, he climbed onto the roof of the Study Hall, and lay at the "skylight" listening to the lecture, until he froze. When the scholars below observed his form above, they retrieved him, and changed the policy such that anyone who wished to study Torah could come in and do so.

A certain non-Jewish "wise-guy" came to scoff at the Torah, first to the home of Shammai, then to the home of Hillel. He said, "Teach me the Torah while I am standing on one foot." Shammai, sensing his true intention, had him thrown out forthwith.

When the individual came to the home of Hillel with the same request, Hillel responded. "No problem! The main idea of the Torah is 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Everything else is commentary. Now, if you're really interested, go and study the commentary." So impressed with Hillel's response, according to Jewish Tradition, was the visitor, that he took Hillel up on his instructions, began to study the Torah seriously, and became a Jew.

Source: http://rabbihillel.com/

This final quote which grows out of the same theme:

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow;
that is the whole Law; all the rest is interpretation."