• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A Times Square billboard is planned for promoting and celebrating "The Bible in a Year" podcast. The billboard will be unveiled Dec. 19, 2021, and will stay up through Jan. 9, 2022. (CNS photo/courtesy Ascension)

Times Square billboard will promote, celebrate ‘Bible in a Year’ podcast

November 12, 2021
By Catholic News Service
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Bible, Feature, News, World News

WASHINGTON (CNS) — A billboard will go up in New York’s Times Square during Christmas and New Year’s to promote and celebrate the evermore popular podcast “The Bible in a Year,” but more is in store for the program that topped the charts shortly after its debut in January.

The creators of the daily podcast that leads listeners through the Bible’s narrative have announced several new initiatives designed to highlight the show’s success and attract even more listeners.

An all-new Spanish-language version of the podcast — La Biblia en un año — with original commentary and a new, native-Spanish speaking host, will be launched Jan. 1.

“The Bible in a Year Retreat” virtual event for listeners will take place Feb 18-20. It will have a limited capacity for participants but is “designed to help Catholics cultivate a lifelong relationship with the word of God — one that extends far beyond the podcast.”

The planned billboard will be unveiled Dec. 19 in Times Square and will stay up through Jan. 9.

“Through distraction and distress, our culture has lost a hopeful, historical biblical worldview — but by the grace of God this podcast has helped thousands rediscover it,” said Father Mike Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and popular Catholic speaker and author, who hosts the podcast.

According to Ascension, a multimedia Catholic publisher and the podcast’s producer, “The Bible in a Year” to date has hit 142 million downloads and 3.3 billion minutes of listening worldwide. It gets 464,000 daily downloads, of which 90% are U.S.-based listeners.

“That U.S. audience of 418,000 would fill the largest football stadium in the country, that of the University of Michigan, four times over,” according to a news release.

The featured guest on the podcast is Jeff Cavins, a Bible scholar and creator of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. Cavins and Father Schmitz created the podcast with the backing of Ascension.

Each episode averages about 23 minutes and includes Father Schmitz reading through Ascension’s entire “Great Adventure Catholic Bible” in 365 episodes, providing commentary, reflection and prayer along the way.

The reading chronology is based on the Great Adventure Bible Timeline reading plan, which organizes the 14 narrative books of the Bible into 12 periods to help readers understand how they relate to one another and to God’s plan for salvation.

That plan is designed for three months, so Cavins expanded it for “The Bible in a Year.”

What makes this reading plan successful is that it helps readers follow the story without losing a sense of the narrative in a non-narrative book, Cavins told The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, in an interview shortly after the podcast debuted.

“Instead of just knowing stories of the Bible, we’re trying to get people to know the story of salvation, of salvation history,” said Cavins, who is a member of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

Hours after its debut, “The Bible in a Year” shot to the top of Apple Podcasts charts. It was the No. 1 podcast in all categories Jan. 2-18. It was the No. 1 podcast in the “Religion & Spirituality” category Jan. 2-June 30 and from Oct. 24 to the present.

“We’re humbled by testimonials from people of all walks of life who’ve started to apply a biblical worldview to their lives — gaining clarity on God’s will, overcoming addictions, returning to the sacraments or are converting to Catholicism, renewing marriages and relationships — and many more incredible stories,” Father Schmitz said.

In testimonials received by the podcast’s creators, many listeners have said they found the program over the past year “a joy and a blessing” and an “anchor” amid the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Like so many others, I lost my way over the summer because of COVID. ‘The Bible in a Year’ has not only brought me back, but anchored me in place. For this I am forever grateful,” said one.

“The Bible in a Year” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast platforms, and through Hallow, a Catholic prayer app.

also see

Bible is ‘key to evangelization’ and soul of theology, says Bishop Barron

Matthew, Mark, Luke or John? Who’s your quarterback? Inventive faith-sharing ‘Bible Draft’ comes to parishes

Nearly 1,000 Catholic women find peace in the midst of anxiety

Annual 100-hour nonstop public Bible reading planned in Louisiana diocese

RADIO INTERVIEW: Bible in a Year

Pope names woman Scripture scholar as secretary of biblical commission

Copyright © 2021 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Priest who offered up cancer for clerical abuse victims says he was healed at Lourdes
  • All are welcome: Finding a home at Mount St. Joseph
  • Tuition at Catholic high schools in Baltimore archdiocese significantly lower than other area private schools
  • Religious leaders share vocation stories with Cockeysville students
  • Movie Review: ‘Knock at the Cabin’

| Latest Local News |

Sister Margarita Musquera, O.S.P., dies at 93.

Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day

Religious leaders share vocation stories with Cockeysville students

| Latest World News |

Shock, despair and mourning in Aleppo amid ‘terror’ of the earthquake, local bishops say

U.S. bishops’ religious liberty chairman: Proposed new rules on contraceptive mandate ‘disheartening’

Diplomats, faith leaders gathered at U.N. urged to advance religious tolerance, harmony around world

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Sister Margarita Musquera, O.S.P., dies at 93.
  • Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day
  • Religious leaders share vocation stories with Cockeysville students
  • Shock, despair and mourning in Aleppo amid ‘terror’ of the earthquake, local bishops say
  • U.S. bishops’ religious liberty chairman: Proposed new rules on contraceptive mandate ‘disheartening’
  • Question Corner: Must I believe in and follow apparitions?
  • Movie Review: Lourdes
  • Diplomats, faith leaders gathered at U.N. urged to advance religious tolerance, harmony around world
  • Russia poses ‘biggest threat to religious freedom in Ukraine,’ says archbishop

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED