Daily Bible Reading Plans and Seasonal Devotional Guides

Eight free, printable plans for every tradition, from the whole Bible in a year to the seasons of Advent, Lent and Easter

By the editors of Weekday GraceReviewed October 2026No ads, no sign-up

Most people who try to read the Bible every day stop somewhere in Leviticus, or in the second week of Lent, or the week the kids get sick. The plan was usually fine. What was missing was a plan the right size for the season of life they were in, and a way to pick it back up without guilt.

This page gives you eight plans of different lengths. Three follow the church year: Advent 2026, Lent 2027 and the fifty days of Easter. Four are for any time: the whole Bible in a year (two ways), the New Testament in 90 days and the four Gospels in 30 days. The eighth is Psalms and Proverbs, which you can read every month for the rest of your life. Every plan has its dates worked out, a short note on how to use it, a checklist you can tick off on this page, and a printable PDF with boxes to check.

The plans are written for Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant readers alike. Each one lists references only, so they work with any Bible you own. Where churches number verses differently or keep the seasons on different dates, the page says so.

Which plan is right for you?

Pick by the time you really have, not the time you wish you had. Ten minutes a day, kept for a year, will take you through the whole Bible. Five minutes a day through Lent is a better start than a year-long plan abandoned in February.

The minutes are an estimate for reading at an unhurried pace, about 200 words a minute. Some days run long; Psalm 119 alone is 176 verses.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105 (ESV)

How to use any of these plans

• Choose a time and a place, then protect them. The same chair and the same cup of coffee will carry you further than willpower. Morning suits most people. Lunch, the train or the last fifteen minutes before bed all work.
• Read, then stop for one minute. Before you close the book, ask what stood out and what it says about God. Write a line if you can. That minute is where reading turns into prayer.
• Tick the box. Use the checklist on this page (it saves on your device, with no account) or print the PDF and keep it in your Bible.
• When you fall behind, skip to today. Don’t try to read four days at once. Start again with today’s reading and mark the missed days to catch up on a slow weekend, or let them go. A plan is a servant, not a debt.
• On a hard day, read less. One paragraph read slowly is still reading. The Psalms are always there.
• Keep the whole passage in view. Daily portions cut the text into pieces, and a verse can mean something very different alone than it does in its chapter. Our guide to reading a verse in context gives six questions to ask.

The Bible in a year

Two tracks, each 365 days from January 1 to December 31, 2027, and each about eleven minutes a day. Both cover all 1,189 chapters of the 66 books that Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Bibles share. Neither has catch-up days built in, because a plan that pretends you will never miss a day is no help when you do. If you start late, start on Day 1 and ignore the dates, or start on today’s date and finish the missed days in December.

Track 1: Canonical, cover to cover

The canonical track reads the books in the order printed in most English Bibles, Genesis to Revelation. Its strength is simplicity: you always know where you are and what comes next. Its weakness is the stretch from Leviticus to Deuteronomy in the spring and the long run of the prophets in the fall. Push through them. They make sense of the New Testament in a way nothing else does.

Track 2: Chronological, in the order events happened

The chronological track reads the story in roughly the order it happened. Job comes after the flood, because its setting is the age of the patriarchs. The psalms David wrote while running from Saul are read beside the chapters of 1 Samuel that tell that story. Chronicles is read alongside Samuel and Kings, and each prophet is read in the reign of the king he spoke to. In the New Testament, the four Gospels are read side by side in four movements (birth and beginnings, the ministry in Galilee, the road to Jerusalem, the last week and the resurrection), and each letter is read at the point in Acts where it was most likely written.

Dating parts of the Bible is a matter of judgment, and scholars disagree about some books, especially Job, Joel, Obadiah, the psalms with no title, Galatians, James and Hebrews. The order here follows widely held placements and the plan says so where a book’s date is debated. It is meant to help you see the story whole, not to settle those questions.

The New Testament in 90 days

All 260 chapters, Matthew to Revelation, in about ten minutes a day. The dated version runs from January 1 to March 31, 2027, which ends three days after Easter, but it works in any three months. Reading this fast lets you hear each book the way its first audience did: a letter in one or two sittings, a Gospel in about a week. You will notice repeated words and arguments that a slower plan spreads too thin to see.

The Gospels in 30 days

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in a month, about fourteen minutes a day. The dated version begins on Epiphany, January 6, 2027, and ends on February 4, six days before Ash Wednesday, so you come to Lent having just read the whole life of Jesus. It is also a good first plan for someone new to the Bible, and a good plan for a group, because everyone can keep up.

As you read, notice what each writer does differently. Mark is fast and plain. Matthew keeps pointing back to the Hebrew Scriptures. Luke notices the poor, women and outsiders. John slows down for long conversations and tells you why he wrote (John 20:31).

Psalms and Proverbs every month

This plan has no start or end date. It follows the day of the month. On the 1st you read Psalms 1-7 and Proverbs 1; on the 15th, Psalms 78-79 and Proverbs 15. The Psalms take 30 days, divided by length so no day is much heavier than another; Psalm 119 is spread over three days at its stanza breaks. Proverbs has 31 chapters, one for each day. In a 30-day month, read Proverbs 30 and 31 together on the 30th. In February, read Proverbs 28 through 31 on the 28th, or in a leap year 29 through 31 on the 29th.

The practice of praying the whole Psalter in a set cycle is very old. Monks in the Benedictine tradition prayed all 150 psalms every week, and the Book of Common Prayer divides them over thirty days of morning and evening prayer. This plan is lighter than either, about ten minutes a day, and can sit beside any of the other plans.

Advent 2026: The promise and the coming

From Advent Sunday, November 29, to Christmas Day, December 25, 2026: 27 days, two short readings a day, five to ten minutes. Each day pairs an Old Testament promise with a New Testament passage that takes it up. The first weeks walk the long story from creation through Abraham, Moses, Ruth and David, in the spirit of the Jesse Tree, an Advent custom that grew out of medieval pictures of Jesus’ family tree. The last week arrives at Mary, Joseph and Bethlehem.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:8 (ESV)

Starting earlier? Orthodox Christians keep the Nativity Fast for forty days from November 15, and some Protestant and Anglican churches have taken up a forty-day “Celtic Advent” from the same date. For them the plan adds a two-week prelude, November 15 to 28: Isaiah 40 to 53, a chapter a day. Churches on the Julian calendar keep the fast from November 28 to January 6 on the civil calendar; begin the prelude then and move each reading thirteen days later.

After Christmas, keep going with the reading plan for the twelve days of Christmas on our guide to the Christian year, which runs to Epiphany.

Lent 2027: The Gospel of John

From Ash Wednesday, February 10, to Easter Day, March 28, 2027: 47 days, one reading a day, about five minutes. On weekdays (Monday through Saturday) the plan reads John’s Gospel in order. Sundays are not counted in the forty days of the Western Lent, so on Sundays the plan rests on the old penitential psalms (6, 32, 38, 102, 130 and 143, with Psalm 51 on Ash Wednesday). In the two weeks before Palm Sunday it reads Jesus’ long farewell to his disciples (John 14 to 17), so that Holy Week can follow John 12, 13 and 18 to 20 day by day: the entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the foot washing on Maundy Thursday, the cross on Good Friday and the empty tomb on Easter morning.

Lent has long been a time for reading the Scriptures more slowly, alongside prayer, fasting and giving to the poor. If your church gives you a Lenten devotional too, use this plan as the reading it points back to.

Keeping Orthodox Great Lent? In 2027 Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, March 15, and Pascha falls on May 2. Begin the plan on Clean Monday and read in order; the 39 readings before Palm Sunday will carry you to Lazarus Saturday, April 24, with two days to spare. Orthodox churches read John 11 on Lazarus Saturday, so save John 11:1-57 for that day if you like. Then follow Holy Week from Palm Sunday, April 25.

Holy Week at home. For families, read the Holy Week passages aloud at supper. They are short enough for children to hear in full, and each day’s reading matches what the church remembers that day.

The fifty days of Easter

From Easter Day, March 28, to Pentecost, May 16, 2027: 50 days, one reading a day, about five minutes. Easter is a season, not a day, and many Christians who keep Lent carefully let Easter slip by in a weekend. This plan keeps the whole fifty days.

The first week reads every Gospel’s account of the empty tomb and the risen Jesus, then Paul’s long chapter on the resurrection. The middle weeks read what the resurrection means for ordinary life, in Romans, Colossians, 1 Peter and 1 John, and end in the new creation of Revelation 21 and 22. The fortieth day, Thursday, May 6, is Ascension Day and reads Acts 1. The last nine days wait, as the disciples did, with the promises of the Spirit, and Pentecost reads Acts 2.

They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

Luke 24:32 (ESV)

Keeping the Orthodox Paschal season? Pascha in 2027 is May 2. Begin the plan that day: Ascension falls on June 10 and Pentecost on June 20. Orthodox churches read the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of John at the Divine Liturgy through these fifty days, beginning with John 1 at Pascha, so you may want to read Acts alongside.

The dates, checked

Every date on this page is computed, not typed. Easter is worked out by two independent methods that must agree before anything is printed, and the seasons are counted from it. The dates match our guide to the Christian year, which has Western and Orthodox dates through 2036.

Where lectionaries differ

A reading plan is not a lectionary. A lectionary is the set of readings a church reads aloud in worship, and many churches have one. If yours does, these plans can sit beside it, not replace it. Here is how the main ones work, without ranking them.

• The Revised Common Lectionary is used by many Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed and other churches. It sets Sunday readings in a three-year cycle. Year B, the year of Mark, begins on Advent Sunday 2026.
• The Catholic Lectionary for Mass shares the three-year Sunday cycle with small differences, so Catholics are also in Year B. Its weekday readings follow a two-year cycle for the first reading; from Advent 2026 Catholics read Year I.
• The Daily Office has its own lectionaries for morning and evening prayer. The Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer (1979) uses a two-year cycle, and Year One begins at Advent 2026. Catholics who pray the Liturgy of the Hours have another, and the Church of England and other Anglican churches have their own.
• The Orthodox lectionary is built around Pascha. The Gospel of John is read from Pascha to Pentecost, and then Matthew, Luke and Mark follow through the year, with an Epistle reading every day. Because Pascha moves, the cycle moves with it.
• The Narrative Lectionary, used by some Lutheran and other congregations, follows the Bible’s story over four years, from September to Pentecost.
• Many evangelical and free churches use no lectionary. They preach straight through books of the Bible. That practice is called lectio continua, “continuous reading,” and the Reformers championed it. The canonical track above is the same idea applied to private reading.

Different Bibles, different numbers

Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include books that Protestant Bibles do not (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and in Orthodox Bibles a few more). These plans cover the 66 books all three share. Catholic and Orthodox readers who want to read the others can add them in their place in the Old Testament.

Verse numbers sometimes differ. Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic Bibles number most psalms one lower, following the Greek (Psalm 51 is Psalm 50). Bibles that follow the Hebrew chapter breaks put Joel 2:28-32 at Joel 3:1-5, Malachi 4 at Malachi 3:19-24, and Isaiah 9:1-7 at Isaiah 8:23-9:6. Where your Bible’s numbers look off by a little, that is usually why. Two passages in John and Mark are absent from the oldest manuscripts (John 7:53-8:11 and Mark 16:9-20). Most Bibles print them with a note, and the plans include them.

A short guide to devotional reading

Reading plans are about getting through the text. Devotional reading is about letting the text get through to you. The two belong together, and Christians have practiced them side by side since the first communities met to read Scripture aloud.

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Acts 17:11 (ESV)

How to read slowly

1. Be still for a moment first. A breath, a short prayer such as “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:9), and then begin.
2. Read the passage once straight through for the story or the argument. Who is speaking, to whom, and why?
3. Read it again, slower, and aloud if you can. Scripture was first written to be heard read aloud (Nehemiah 8:1-8; Colossians 4:16), and you will hear things your eyes skip.
4. Stop where a word or phrase catches you. Don’t hurry past it. Stay with it for a minute and ask why it stopped you.
5. Turn it into a prayer. Thank God, ask, confess or simply repeat the phrase back to him.
6. Carry one line into the day. Write it on a card or set it as the lock screen on your phone.

This is a simple form of lectio divina, an old way of praying Scripture that began in monasteries and is now used across many traditions. Our guide on how to pray sets it out in full, with a printable card.

Journaling prompts

You don’t need a special journal. A cheap notebook and two or three lines a day will do. Choose one or two of these prompts, not all of them.

• What happened in today’s reading, in one sentence?
• What does this passage show me about God?
• What does it show me about people, and about me?
• Is there a promise to trust, a command to obey, an example to follow or a warning to heed?
• What surprised, confused or troubled me? (Write the question down. You don’t have to answer it today.)
• What one word or phrase will I carry into today?
• What do I want to say to God after reading this?
• Looking back over the week: what keeps coming up?

Using a plan with a small group

Reading plans work best with company. Agree on one plan, read on your own during the week, and meet once a week to talk about what you read. The Gospels in 30 days, the Lent plan and the Easter plan suit a group well, because each runs a single season.

A simple meeting of about 45 minutes:

1. Open with a short prayer or a psalm from the week’s readings.
2. Check in. Everyone says how the week’s reading went, honestly. “I read two days” is a fine answer.
3. Share one line. Each person reads aloud one verse that caught them and says why, in a minute or two. No one comments yet.
4. Talk about one passage. The leader picks one reading from the week and asks: What does it say? What did it mean to its first hearers? What does it ask of us?
5. Pray for one another, briefly, by name.

A few habits keep a group healthy. Don’t make anyone read aloud or pray aloud who would rather not. Welcome people who are behind, and never make the plan a contest. When a question comes up that no one can answer, write it down and look it up together next week, or ask a pastor or priest. If your group includes people from more than one church, let each describe their own tradition’s practice in their own words.

For a class, a youth group or a parish program, print one PDF per person and the one-page journal and group guide for the leader.

Free printables

No ads, no sign-up, no email wall. Print as many copies as you need for a church, school, small group or home, and share them freely. They are licensed CC BY 4.0: credit “Weekday Grace, weekdaygrace.com” if you adapt them.

Related guides on Weekday Grace

• The Christian Year: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week and Easter for every tradition, with the colors, the Sunday Gospels, and Western and Orthodox dates to 2036.
• Read It in Context: six questions to ask of any verse, and an index of the verses most often quoted out of context.
• How to Pray: nine prayer patterns from the Bible and the whole Church, from the Lord’s Prayer to lectio divina, with printable cards.