How to Read the Gospels

by Fr. Mark Jarmuz

The four canonical gospels were written as living texts – to be shared among the Christian communities, to be read as they came together to ‘break bread’, to be revered as authoritative accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, our hope (or as Jesus says of himself in John’s gospel, ‘the way, the truth and the life’ (John 14:6)). These texts teach us how to follow Jesus, how to understand the meaning of our lives and our world; they are a doorway through which we can glimpse, and – indeed – step, so that we may ‘know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that [we] may be filled with all the fulness of God’ (Ephesians 3:19).

This short seven-session course, suitable for individual or group use, offers a way to read the gospel texts for ourselves, as inspiration for our lives and our prayer.

(Photo by Lauren Kan on Unsplash)

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