Bread for the Day: Daily Bible Readings and Prayers is a sweet little Bible devotional that keeps things simple: it provides references to all three Revised Common Lectionary daily readings for each day, with a selection of one reading printed out, plus a hymn to look up and sing, as well as a brief, newly composed prayer. These daily prayers were written by twelve Lutherans from across the country as they reflected on the day’s readings. It’s a great way to get a daily dose of scripture, as well as daily and seasonal prayers and other seasonal observances and rituals.
Bread for the Day can be used as a home devotional or for a Bible study or fellowship group. It offers pre-planned devotional time with a hymn, a scripture reading, and a prayer, all of which are from ELCA resources and writers. By providing the day’s lectionary readings, Bread for the Day aims to be easy for laypeople to use. The table prayers and seasonal rituals are especially useful for families with children, including content like a Palm Sunday “Prayer for Placing Palms in the Home, a “Table Prayer for Summer,” and “An Evening Service of Candlelight for Advent” designed for home use. The seasonal content, including prayers for daily activities and questions for reflection in the back of the book, have been newly updated.
In order to fully use Bread for the Day, it’s helpful to have copies of Evangelical Lutheran Worship and All Creation Sings, which are the sources of the hymns referenced in each day’s devotion. Both of these worship resources are great for laypeople to have at home anyway, filled with prayers and other valuable material for individual faith observance as well as hymns and liturgy. In the coming years, hymns from This Far by Faith: An African American Resource for Worship will also be referenced. Even without these other worship resources, however, it is still possible to gain a lot from Bread for the Day, given all the prayers, readings, and rituals that it contains that can stand alone and help you create a beautiful, scriptural, devotional habit.