The Holy Bible
Lent is a great time to read the Holy Bible and to dive deep into God's word. The Holy Bible is made up of 66 individual books - 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament - and for anybody who hasn't read it before it can become a little much to try and read from cover to cover (it's about 35% longer than War and Peace), so it's best to focus on certain books individually.
At this time of year we recommend the book of Matthew, being the first book of the New Testament. This will take you from Jesus' birth through to his death and resurrection, and takes about 2 hours 30 minutes to read. Alternaviely, the book of Mark follows a very similar but condensed pattern, and takes around 1 hour 30 minutes to read.
Reading the Holy Bible is a journey, and so you shouldn't feel like you need to read entire books in one visit. Instead, to ensure you get the most out of it try to have a break after each chapter and recall in your mind what you've just read.
There are a number of versions of the Holy Bible but probably the most "readable" for 21st century Christians is the English Standard Version. You can pick one up from Eden Books using the below link
Other Suggested Reading
This year we suggest reading Women of Holy Week, by Paula Gooder.
Women of Holy Week is a series of nine stories about nine different, but interlinked, women. Starting with Palm Sunday and finishing with Ascension Day, these nine stories imagine what it might have been like to accompany Jesus in this final week of his life from the perspective of nine women. Some of them we know with certainty were there because the Gospels tell us they were: the widow with two coins, the woman with the ointment of pure nard, Mary wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of Jesus. Some are not mentioned at all, but someone like them was probably present: a woman journeying to Jerusalem for the Passover, the wife of a scribe, and a female disciple at the Last Supper. The stories also aim to travel from the outside in: from people who had the most fleeting encounters with Jesus at the start of the week to his most devoted followers at the end.
The book and podcast are available from the Church of England website here: