Praying with the Bible during Lent

The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.

America Media

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How can Scripture help deepen our prayer lives this Lent? The New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III joins host James Martin, S.J., to share his own paths of prayer- through scripture, music and poetry. Timecodes: 0:00 Who is Ben Witherington III? 3:40 What do scholars mean by the ‘historical Jesus’? 6:33 The last 7 words of Christ 7:57 Biblical roots of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving 11:10 Ben reclaims his faith and is called by God 17:30 Praying with the Bible and grief 33:20 Where to start reading the Bible 34:55 Christianity is a historical religion 40:55 Why Catholics should read the Bible 44:58 Audience Question: How do I hear the readings at Mass with freshness? Read Fr. Jim’s spiritual advice article on this episode Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: thespirituallife@americamedia.org Become a subscriber today at Americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why does the term health care leave people feeling sick to their stomach? Maybe it's because instead
0:04.5	of being tied to health, the word seems to have a deeper connection to industries. At Catholic
0:09.5	Health Care, we're returning the word health care back to its former glory, because when
0:13.9	health care really cares, communities thrive, prevention is prioritized, and everyone has access to
0:19.9	care. Say it with has access to care.
0:21.5	Say it with me.
0:22.4	Health care.
0:24.0	Sounds better already.
0:25.5	Catholic Health Care.
0:26.6	We care.
0:27.8	You flourish.
0:30.2	Sponsored by the Catholic Health Association.
0:35.2	And for me, that's one of the things that's helped me be a better prayer is listening to how other people who pray profoundly
0:39.3	or write profoundly about prayer teach us what it really is. It's the soul and paraphrase.
0:46.3	That's what prayer is.
0:48.3	Welcome to the spiritual life. I'm Father Jim Martin.
0:53.3	On this podcast, we reflect on how God is at work in people's daily lives and in their prayer.
0:59.0	And I am joined by my wonderful producer, Maggie Van Dorn. Maggie, good to be with you.
1:04.0	It's always good to be with you, Jim. And I know that we have a very exciting guest this week, someone that you have worked with before in your own writing and consultation, the great scripture scholar, Ben Witherington.
1:18.2	Yeah, I'm really excited to have him on.
1:20.6	He's a Protestant scripture scholar.
1:22.3	And maybe you could tell us a little bit more about him, Maggie.
	...

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