Gospel of John 3:1–36 Catholic Bible study Lesson 4

The Gospel According to John:
An Encounter with Grace & Truth

Lesson 4 A Man of the Pharisees, Named Nicodemus
the Gospel According to John 3:1–36

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
Sacramentum Caritatis (Sacrament of Love)
glossary for the Gospel According to John
cross references in the Gospel According to John
next lesson: There Came a Woman of Samaria

This material coordinates with Lesson 4 on pages 21–26 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”—the Gospel According to John 20:30–31

welcome to our in-depth study of the Gospel According to John
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 25-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson videos, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Gospel According to John 2:1–25
In Lesson 3 There Was a Marriage in Cana, Jesus performs his first sign recorded in the Gospel According to John. This occurs in Galilee where Jesus changes water into wine at the implied request of his mother. In the Fourth Gospel, this sign marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, and through the sign Jesus manifests his glory, a divine attribute. After a brief stopover in Capernaum, Jesus travels to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. While there he drives the money-changers out of the Temple. (The cleansing of the Temple occurs in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but much closer in time to Jesus’ Passion). After this, many people began to believe in Jesus’ name because of the signs he has been performing. Jesus, however, doesn’t trust himself to them.

map notes—Jesus in Jerusalem
At the conclusion of the second chapter in the Gospel According to John, Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover feast, one of three major feasts that practicing Jews were required to attend each year. In the third chapter of the Gospel According to John, Jesus still is in Jerusalem, where Nicodemus, described as a ruler of the Jews, comes at night to talk with him. In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus clearly establishes his home base in Galilee, but like all good practicing Jews, he travels to Jerusalem on the major feast days. His time in Jerusalem always is marked by encounters with the Jewish religious authorities, simply called the Jews in the Fourth Gospel—although it’s important to keep in mind that all practitioners of Judaism aren’t opposed to Jesus. The meeting with Nicodemus is the first of Jesus’ recorded encounters with any of the Jewish religious leaders. It also is the least antagonistic, although Nicodemus’ pride appears to stand in his way of accepting what Jesus teaches about the kingdom of heaven. As the Fourth Gospel progresses, Jesus’ encounters with the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem will become more heated. Click on the image (right) to enlarge the map, which appears on page 24 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

how do you approach Jesus? (59:53)
In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses the way in which Jesus responds to the people who approach him in the Gospel According to John. Nicodemus, for example, approaches Jesus as a religious leader. He recognizes that Jesus must have been sent by God based on the signs that Jesus has been doing. When Nicodemus proves unable to accept what Jesus tells him about the kingdom of God, Jesus suggests that if Nicodemus is a religious leader then Nicodemus also should be able to understand what Jesus is saying based on Hebrew tradition. This exchange highlights that our attitude when we approach Jesus is the key to determining the manner in which Jesus responds to us in our encounters with him.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. You can follow along as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 4, “A Man of the Pharisees, Named Nicodemus,” on pages 21–26 in the study book.

what does it mean that Nicodemus is a ruler of the Jews?
The Gospel According to John 3:1 describes Nicodemus as a ruler of the Jews. This indicates that Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, a word that means “assembly” and describes a prestigious religious court consisting of 71 prominent Jewish leaders. Nicodemus is mentioned only in the Fourth Gospel, where he appears three times, the first of which is in the third chapter of the Gospel According to John.

read the Catechism—how well do you know your faith?
One of the points the Evangelist continues to emphasize in the Gospel According to John is that it’s impossible to rely on our five senses of vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch to lead us to God. Instead, we need to rely on our spiritual senses, also called the theological virtues, if we wish to “see” God. Can you name the three theological virtues without looking at the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

Consider how it is that the theological virtues are able to function as spiritual senses enabling us to relate more intimately to God. If necessary, refer to paragraphs 1812 and 1813 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

WHAT DO THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES mean to you?
It is not uncommon for Christians to take the theological virtues for granted.

? How does knowing that the theological virtues are considered supernatural virtues change the way that you think about them?
? How has Jesus focused attention on the spiritual senses so far in the Fourth Gospel?

ex libris—how would you define the theological virtues?
Can you offer satisfactory definitions for all three theological virtues? If these topics are of interest to you, check out Faith Hope Love by the philosophical writer Josef Pieper. His small volume consists of three sections in which he relies on etymology to examine linguistic clues that shed light on the underlying meaning of the theological virtues. The result is surprisingly helpful information that has many practical applications for Christians. Read excerpts and learn more about Faith Hope Love and other works related to Bible study at ex libris—main bookshelf.

the mystery of the sacrament of Baptism
The third chapter in the Gospel According to John contains Jesus’ explanation of Baptism, a teaching that Nicodemus fails to grasp. The following thought-provoking description of the sacrament of Baptism is from a homily by Basil of Seleucia, a bishop who lived in the 4th century.

Consider what Baptism is and proclaim its grace. All blessings are contained in it. It purifies the world; it restores nature. It is a speedy redemption, a simple remedy, a liquid fire that burns away sin, a sponge that purifies conscience, a garment that never wears out. It is a womb that conceives without passion, a tomb in which those who are buried are born again. It is the ocean in which sins are drowned, the element that witnesses to the devil’s defeat. It is the seal of him who takes possession of the fortress, the unfailing advocate before the Judge. It is the stream that extinguishes the fires of hell, the grace that gives admission to the supper of the Lord. It is a mystery, both old and new, foreshadowed even in the time of Moses. To Christ our God be glory forever, through endless ages.

born from above—you could look it up in our archives
There are linguistic distinctions between being “born anew” or “born again” and “born from above.” To learn more about the relationship of these terms to the sacrament of Baptism, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

read the Catechism—what are the effects of Baptism?
Have you ever wondered exactly what the Church teaches about the sacrament of Baptism? Paragraph 1213 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church lists the effects of Baptism, something that every Catholic should know.

1213 Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: “Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.”

read the Catechism—how well do you know your faith?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is an excellent place to find scriptural support for Church teaching about the sacraments.

How many of the primary scriptural sources supporting Baptism can you identify without reading paragraphs 1217–1225 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

Q&A—one of the key mysteries of our faith
In one of our study groups, a discussion about the sacrament of Baptism in the Fourth Gospel led to a discussion about Jesus’ sinless nature.

Q: How was Jesus able to remain sinless?

A: This question points to one of the key mysteries of our Christian faith—Jesus is both human and divine. Being human ourselves, we find the idea of another human remaining sinless almost impossible to buy. It’s far too simple to say that Jesus was able to remain sinless because he’s God. The primary heresies in the early Church, which persist in various forms in the present day, centered on the problems created by Jesus’ dual nature. If we insist on making Jesus either human or divine, we find it easier to think about Jesus in terms we understand. We know what it means to be human. We don’t have any personal experience of being divine—but we definitely know that divinity transcends the limitations of humanity.

Q&A—a comment about Baptism
A participant in one of the groups studying The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth made this comment about Catholic teaching regarding infant Baptism, reflecting a viewpoint commonly endorsed in some Protestant communities.

Q: read the Catechism—I disagree with Church teaching regarding infant Baptism because there’s no free will on the part of the infant.

A: Disagreeing with Church teaching is heresy, so in charity we’re choosing to treat this participant’s comment as a question of understanding. It’s not heretical to have questions about doctrine. Baptism is considered the first sacrament of initiation into the Church, and Jesus has much to say about it in the Fourth Gospel. The Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes 72 paragraphs to teaching about the sacrament of Baptism, but the most significant paragraphs related to infant Baptism and free will are paragraphs 1231 and 1250–1255.

Acceptance of Church teaching regarding Baptism is binding on all Catholics, and this includes acceptance of infant Baptism. This in no way precludes acceptance of adult Baptism, either those validly baptized into other Christian denominations as teenagers or adults or unbaptized persons who are baptized when they enter the Catholic Church. Such a high value is placed on the sacrament of Baptism that paragraph 1256 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for the possibility of anyone performing this rite—provided they have the correct intention, water flows, and the Trinitarian formula is precisely followed.

read the Catechism—what it says might startle you
Paragraph 1257 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses the necessity of Baptism, and contains a rather surprising statement in its last sentence, which should give all of us pause any time that we begin to assume we know how God is going to act in any given situation.

1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.

On the face of it, the argument that an infant has no free will appears to make sense. For every case I know of in which a person was baptized as an infant and later fell away from the Church, there’s a case where a person wasn’t baptized until later in life and became serious about his or her faith. While I’m acquainted with many cases of infants baptized by sincere parents yet the children grew up and left the faith, I also know of a number of cases of baptized infants whose parents fell away from the faith (or never really embraced it to begin with) and yet the children nevertheless became serious about Christianity. I fall into this last category. Matthew was baptized Catholic at the age of 15. It’s both a blessing and a great mystery that God meets each of us where we are.

It’s impossible to determine from our own experiences whether it’s preferable to baptize people as infants or when they’re adults. The Church has decreed that both forms are valid. One of the truly liberating things about being Catholic is that we don’t have to wrack our brains about this issue. The Church has decided, and we’re bound by that decision. The only difficulty is coming to accept the Church’s authority. I’m in no way attempting to discount how challenging a task that can be, but that’s a topic for another discussion.

I’d suggest that anyone who’s having difficulty accepting the validity of infant Baptism speak with a priest about his or her concerns, and then pray asking God for more understanding.

here comes the bridegroom
The first mention of a bridegroom occurred in the last lesson when the steward of the feast at the wedding in Cana called the bridegroom over to comment on the fact that the best wine was saved to serve last. The unnamed bridegroom in that instance quite obviously isn’t Jesus, and the fact that the names of the happy couple in Cana aren’t mentioned points to their relative insignificance. What’s important is that Jesus’ first sign takes place at a wedding—the actual couple getting married is of little importance. The wedding theme, however, is of extremely important. In the Gospel According to John 3:29, the Evangelist continues to emphasize the union between humanity and divinity that takes place in the person of Jesus Christ.

WHAT DO YOU THINK it means that Jesus is a bridegroom?
Bridegroom is a somewhat bizarre label to pin on Jesus, since we know that Jesus never married.

? What is John suggesting about Jesus?
? How might Jesus’ status as a bridegroom be related to what Jesus is attempting to teach Nicodemus about Baptism?
? Is there any type of union involved in the sacrament of Baptism?
? What possible reason might the Evangelist have for going out of his way to emphasize that Jesus is a bridegroom?
? What might this have to do with the Old Testament prophet Hosea’s use of a marriage as the image of God’s relationship to his unfaithful people? Those unfamiliar with the Book of Hosea might want to read the first two chapters. The wedding theme described there will continue to be prominent as we move forward in our study of the Gospel According to John.You can learn more about Hosea in Lesson 19 Hosea’s Vision of God’s Covenant in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided.
? What impact does viewing Jesus as a bridegroom have on a person’s day-to-day spiritual life?

a different view of Jesus’ need to be lifted up
In the Gospel According to John 3:14–15, Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Son of man must be lifted up, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, in order that whoever believes in Jesus may have eternal life. It’s tempting to think about this lifting up as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death on the cross, and to stop there with our reflection. What we then are in danger of missing is that before the Son of man can be raised up, he has to come down to dwell among humanity. The serpent had to be raised up because he was of the earth; God had to come down to earth where we can perceive and sense divinity, and that’s what gives men and women access to eternal life. Note that while Jesus provides a channel to salvation, sin remains in the world—just as God provided a way for people to overcome snake bites but didn’t eliminate the snakes. Through Jesus’ Passion, death, and Resurrection, humanity is given a means of becoming immune to the poison of the world.

a tie to the Book of the Proverbs
Almost everyone who has had any exposure to Scripture can quote the Gospel According to John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” one of the most familiar verses in the New Testament. Tami points out a strong connection with the Old Testament Book of the Proverbs 8:22–31 (RSVCE). The relationship is slightly more obvious if both Testaments use the words “begot” and “begotten,” but over the years translators have gone back and forth, sometimes translating the Gospel According to John 3:16 as being about God’s only-begotten Son, and sometimes as being about God’s only Son. The translation that we reprint in our study books—the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—uses only-begotten—although the earlier translation that we link to online—the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) varies slightly from the RSV2CD. The online version refers to Jesus as God’s only Son instead of as God’s only-begotten Son. The Book of the Proverbs 8:22–31 (NABRE) begins this way: “The LORD begot me, the beginning of his works, the forerunner of his deeds of long ago; from of old I was formed, at the first, before the earth.” While not quite as clear in different translations, the connection between the two passages still is apparent.

the language of faith
Read “Believing in Jesus” on page 25 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth” to learn how a change in grammar relates to the way the Greek word for belief is used in the Fourth Gospel and highlights what the Evangelist John understands to be the end result of our faith.

the popes inspire us—Trinitarian love
“Trinitarian Love” on page 25 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth is an excerpt from Sacramentum Caritatis (Sacrament of Love), sometimes referred to as Sacrament of Charity. In this apostolic exhortation by Pope Benedict XVI, the Holy Father points to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel According to John 3:34 as evidence that men and women have been given the opportunity to become sharers of God’s inmost life. You can find links to other magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents.

read the Catechism—how well do you know your faith?
There is one clear difference between a sacrament and a sacramental. Do you know what it is without looking at the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

How many sacramentals can you name without referring to paragraphs 1667–1679 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church? Which sacramentals play a regular role in your spiritual life? What are some sacramentals that you would like to include more often?

for additional reflection
The third chapter in the Gospel According to John sets forth some of the clearest teaching Christians have regarding the sacrament of Baptism. With 2,000 years of Christianity under our belts, we have a decided advantage over Nicodemus when it comes to trying to get a handle on what Jesus is talking about. Jesus explains that the sacrament of Baptism is about being “born from above” (as opposed to the more common but slightly misleading translations that give us “born again” or “born anew”).

The following questions are designed to help readers begin to form their own thoughts and ideas related to the Gospel According to John 3:1–36. For more reflection questions, refer to the introduction to Lesson 4 on page 21 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

? What’s wrong with the original birth “of the flesh”?
? What benefit do men and women receive when they’re born “of the Spirit”?
? What might explain why the Church places such a high value on the sacrament of Baptism?
? What promises are made by a new adult Christian entering the Church or by the parents and godparents of an infant being baptized?
? What part of these baptismal promises is incorporated into the Sunday liturgy?
? With which sacramental are these baptismal promises most closely associated?
? When was the last time you thought about your baptismal promises?
? In what ways do you keep these baptismal promises you made or that were made by your parents on your behalf?
? Consider why the Evangelist places so much emphasis on Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus about being born from above.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Gospel According to John 3:1–36 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Gospel According to John.

God our Father,
you so loved the world that you gave your only-begotten Son.
Grant that we may honor our baptismal promises
and so demonstrate our belief in your Son
through obedience to his word.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,
who comes from heaven and is above all. Amen.

Lesson 5 There Came a Woman of Samaria—the Gospel According to John 4:1–54
Lesson 3 There Was a Marriage in Cana—the Gospel According to John 2:1–25

you also may like our study of the book of Revelation
The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, a 23-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines ways in which our traditional Christian view of heaven is built on Hebrew apocalyptic visions recorded in the Old Testament. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary and takes a close look at the role of the prophets in present-day Christianity. Illustrations by Tami Palladino depict the often-misunderstood images in the book of Revelation. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.