This Classic Catholic Guide Is Your Key To Reading, Praying, and Living the Gospels—
Even In Your Busy Life!
Have you ever struggled to read & understand Scripture, develop a strong prayer life, or apply the Gospels to your daily life?
If so, I have good news for you!
Popular British priest & author Father Bernard Basset wrote Following Christ Through The Gospels specifically to help ordinary Catholics read and experience the life of Christ in Scripture.
And now beginningCatholic.com is offering an updated, eBook edition of Fr. Basset's out-of-print classic. Following Christ Through The Gospels contains everything you need to:
- Start & succeed at reading and understanding the Gospels.
- Develop a solid & effective prayer life.
- Begin to really live your faith.
Form an intimate, personal
relationship with Christ
Following Christ Through The Gospels is a guided tour of more than 200 key Gospel passages.
This popular & proven method by renowned author & retreat master Fr. Bernard Basset trains you step-by-step to reach a deep understanding of each Gospel passage.
This book is not an academic study of the Bible.
You will finally meet Christ in Scripture!
This is simply one of the best books available for several different aspects of a strong Catholic faith. It will:
- Guide you in forming deep knowledge of the Gospels
- Train you step-by-step in a solid prayer life
- Build your own personal relationship with Jesus
- Teach you to integrate your stronger faith into your daily life
That is why beginningCatholic.com is republishing this important book!
You can joyfully read Scripture
Following Christ Through the Gospels has helped many thousands of Catholics overcome their struggles with Scripture.
And you, too, can engage the heart & soul of the Gospels.
You'll learn to see the key messages in each Gospel passage:
- Discover how the "sign" told to the shepherds in Luke 2 is a clue to the whole pattern of Christ's life. (See passage #14 in the book.)
- In Matthew 7, Our Lord tells us a sure way to keep his friendship. Make sure you're aware of it! (See passage #83)
- Read of Jesus' cure in Mark 7:31-37 and gain an insight that is fundamental to understanding the sacraments. (Passage #100)
Former title: 200 Gospel
Questions & Inquiries
Fr. Basset's expert guidance will make the pages of Scripture come alive with meaning & insight.
Your knowledge, understanding & faith will grow and deepen as you unlock the vast treasury of the Gospels.
And I can tell you from experience what a joy it is to finally read Scripture fruitfully—the very word of God!
A proven, effective method—and
just 15 minutes a day
Fr. Basset calls his simple, proven approach the "Gospel inquiry" method. For each of the 200-plus passages, he guides you with clear, direct questions to help you:
- Notice significant details
- Discover and reflect on essential themes
- Understand how the Gospels apply to you
You need only 15 minutes a day to start seeing a new vitality and relevance in the Gospels.
That barrier between you & the Bible will disappear!
Now Following Christ Through The Gospels can give you an easy way to read & encounter more than 200 of the most important parts of the Gospels. You'll finally make the most effective use of your time reading Scripture—and your time with the Lord.
Cover the full span of the Gospels
In Following Christ Through The Gospels, Father Basset gives us the complete tour:
From the angel's Annunciation to Mary...
...to Jesus's birth and private life...
...through the main events of his public ministry...
...right up to his death & Resurrection.
He even includes the Ascension, Pentecost and the Holy Spirit.
Throughout, you'll focus on the most important passages:
- Discover the one simple verse that describes the crux of Christ's Passion (It looks like one of those "throw-away" lines that we read over quickly! Find it in passage #203)
- Grow with dozens of meditations on the Sermon on the Mount, the famous "gospel within the Gospels" (chapters 5-7 of Matthew)
- Learn how to read Jesus' parables—and discover the two essential dispositions you must have to make sense of them! (See passage #120)
Your guided tour of these Gospel passages will actively build your faith and knowledge of Scripture. You can't build a stronger foundation for your faith than by gaining direct, useful knowledge & wisdom directly from the Gospels!
But don't stop at just reading the Gospels...
Move beyond "just reading"—grow into
fruitful prayer
Your days of only wishing for a solid, effective prayer life...
...are over!
Now you can have a prayerful interior life, too—that essential ingredient in keeping your faith alive & healthy.
Following Christ Through The Gospels is so effective because you won't just read the Gospels, you'll learn how to pray the Gospels!
Quickly become engaged with any Gospel passage. You'll tease out the specific things the Lord is trying to tell you through the words of Scripture. And you'll meditate on exactly how it applies to your own life.
Just follow the simple pattern in Following Christ, and step by step you'll master a simple but powerful method of prayer that you can use at any time, with any passage of Scripture.
(It's a simple method that's similar to Lectio Divina, and the ways of prayer taught for centuries by many of the Church's spiritual masters.)
But Following Christ Through The Gospels will also do more for you...
"How do I apply this to my daily life?"
Of course you also want a rich interior life that overflows into your daily life.
You see, Father Basset wasn't just a popular priest, author and speaker. He was a master of prayer & spirituality for lay people seeking to live their faith amid ordinary daily life—just like you & me!
Following Christ contains hundreds of specific suggestions for living the Gospels in daily life. These useful, relevant lessons directly from Scripture will be your certain guide to truly living your faith:
- Get right to the heart of Jesus' point in the famous passage about serving "God or money". (Click here to read passage #75 in the book as an example.)
- Let our Lord's "hidden life" teach you the value of your own ordinary activities at home and at work. (See passage #28)
- Find the lesson in Judas' betrayal that begs to be applied directly in everyone's personal life. (Passage #188)
- Discover the essential quality of "becoming like little children" in Matthew 18, and find how it applies to your home & work life. (See passage #149)
And what's more, you'll learn to discover your own applications for daily living—in prayer!
Guide your life with new Gospel wisdom
Following Christ Through The Gospels helps you connect your faith with your ordinary life—a critical task which our faith demands of us all.
Build your faith. Feed it the "living water" of Scripture. Let this renowned author give you solid training so you'll develop a strong faith...
...and then let that faith bear fruit in your daily life.
- Apply Christ's teaching about being "wise as serpents and innocent as doves" to your life in the often-hostile secular world (Matthew 10:16; see passage #106).
- Understand the proper application of our Lord's instruction not to judge others (Matthew 7:1-5; see passage #77).
- Find a powerful new weapon against temptation in passage #34's meditation on Christ's own temptation in the desert.
Integrating your faith into your daily life will let the joy of faith shine forth in your life.
The joy and peace of Christ is a powerful beacon to your family & friends. And then you can help them develop in the faith with your deeper, prayerful knowledge of Scripture!
This time-tested classic has helped thousands of Catholics around the world
This program was successfully field-tested by thousands of committed Catholics when it was first launched. And Following Christ Through The Gospels is a classic work that has withstood the test of time, both in the U.S. and abroad!
You'll gain solid knowledge with this successful, substantial program, and you'll form your faith well. It's an extremely effective and beneficial way to spend just 15 minutes a day!
Following Christ is easy to make progress with—this is one program that won't end in frustration!
Very soon, you'll discover that you are capable of reading & praying with the Gospels. Your faith will be stronger—your life will be stronger.
(Click here to read passage #75 in the book as an example, if you didn't see this link above.)
Once you master the simple method used in Following Christ, you'll find that it works beautifully for any book of the Bible. And not only does a strong understanding of Scripture form an excellent foundation for your faith, but now you won't need "experts" to tell you how to interpret the Bible! (Like many others, this independence was an important step for me in forming a fully adult Catholic faith.)
Get solid formation from this
rich classic—without the "fluff" of
more recent programs
I have to tell you: in my own long search for a key to unlock the Gospels, I tried a lot of recent material.
- Some gave me piles of academic, historical criticism that just didn't help me at all. (And some of it seemed designed to undermine my faith!)
- Others had a fluffy, "feel good" approach, but no real content. That didn't satisfy me, either.
- And some authors just used the words of Scripture as an excuse to talk about their own issues & opinions. (Yawn!)
I can promise you: you will not have an experience like that with Following Christ Through The Gospels.
This program is filled with strong encouragement to take your faith seriously. You can rely on this program to strengthen your faith, not weaken it!
Let this be the stepping-stone you're looking for to take your faith to the next level.
A timeless work that's as fresh as
the Gospels themselves
Following Christ Through The Gospels was first published just before the widespread confusion of the 1960s & 70s.
But this is not some "old-style" Catholic work!
Just like the Gospels themselves, Fr. Basset's expert guidance is always fresh. And it's refreshingly substantial, too! This is the solid ground you'll want to build your faith & understanding of Scripture on. It will make you well-informed, not mis-informed!
In fact, Following Christ Through The Gospels anticipates Vatican II's clear call for the laity to read & study Scripture, to see it as the true word of God meant for all of us in all times, and to fulfill our responsibility as adults to form a mature, active Catholic faith.
Following Christ embraces the fullness of the Catholic faith:
- You'll discover the Gospel roots of many tenets of the Catholic faith
- You'll know your faith better, & will be able to defend it better
- You'll be able to lead your family & friends in the faith better
And with a broader, more well-grounded faith, you'll be able to live that faith more fully.
Go at your own pace, or use it for
group study
Following Christ Through The Gospels contains the full text of each Gospel passage, so everything for each lesson is self-contained. Of course it also works well with any Bible translation, so you can use your own Bible if you prefer.
You'll find it easy to use on your own for self-study, or you can use it in a Bible-study or prayer group.
In a group setting, Fr. Basset's structured inquiry method will help your group quickly focus on the Gospels themselves, so you'll make progress much more quickly. The questions are wonderful for guiding discussion and avoiding those time-wasting "free association" sessions!
Whether you use it on your own or in a group, Following Christ will finally let you focus & learn from the Gospel texts themselves.
Handy eBook format gives you
great flexibility & quick access to this
wealth of information—
more than 260 pages!
The beginningCatholic.com edition of Following Christ Through The Gospels is a convenient eBook.
This immediate-delivery eBook format lets you download it now, so you can quickly start your new life of faith—and the sooner you start, the sooner your faith will be growing!
The handy Adobe Acrobat format lets you read it on your computer and print it out for easy reading away from the computer.
And as an eBook, you can work through new passages whenever you have a few minutes of quiet at the computer. You can easily start to build your intimate knowledge of the Gospels—before checking email, when surfing the Web, and even while waiting for meetings to begin at work!
The eBook format also lets you instantly locate passages and important information right when it's needed—without flipping through a printed book.
Now you'll have many additional possibilities to discretely develop your faith—possibilities that you wouldn't have with just a traditional book. And if you're like me, success comes quicker when something is more flexible about fitting into your schedule.
Feed your faith again & again
Not only will Following Christ Through The Gospels finally let you unlock the vast treasury of Scripture—you'll also find that it is a handy, rich resource full of concise lessons about the Gospels.
You can return to Following Christ over & over again, each time gaining deeper knowledge and new insights.
Begin your new life of faith
right now—risk free!
You can start to grow your faith & knowledge of the Gospels right now. And this time you'll succeed with Following Christ Through The Gospels!
And you can do it without breaking your budget.
Many other Bible-study programs are unbelievably expensive, some costing hundreds of dollars.
And "prayer workshops" and seminars are also costly—and time consuming! Even good ones can only teach you a fraction of what you'll learn from Following Christ Through The Gospels.
I want to make sure everyone can get this valuable resource!
So because I've assembled this outstanding program as a book, I'm going to price it like a book: Following Christ Through The Gospels is only $11.95.
At that price, it's only pennies per day to unlock the pages of Scripture—and in only 15 minutes a day! Spending just pennies for your own expert guide to the Gospels is a terrific value, and you'll have a wonderful resource that will significantly boost your faith.
And of course Following Christ is backed by beginningCatholic.com's solid no-risk, 60 day guarantee. If you're not satisfied, for any reason, you can return it within 60 days and I'll give you a complete refund. So your decision to buy from us is totally risk-free!
First experience a life closer to Christ, and then decide
Here's what you can do: get first-hand experience of how much this program will benefit you...
...and then decide.
Buy Following Christ Through The Gospels now and give it an honest try for even just one week. Read one passage a day, spending just 15 minutes with it.
You can start at the beginning of the book, or skip around and read any passages that interest you. Get a solid start with the Annunciation and infancy narratives... or meditate deeply on Our Lord's Passion... or pick your favorite parables... or finally see how to live the Beatitudes!
You choose!
(And here's the complete list of Gospel passages in the book [opens new window], so you can see what there is to choose from.)
If you don't like the book, then take advantage of the guarantee and I'll gladly issue you an immediate refund.
It's a no-risk offer to develop a solid understanding of the Gospels, and to boost your prayer & faith life to a new level.
With an offer like that, you've got nothing to lose!
I'm making you this offer because I know how much Following Christ Through The Gospels can help your interior life—and I want everyone to have the same chance to finally be able to read the Gospels effectively and meet Christ in prayer.
I know that it will make a major difference in...
- Your understanding of the Gospels
- Your Catholic faith
- Your prayer life
- Your ability to live your faith meaningfully in your everyday life
It takes only 15 minutes a day. But it yields life-long benefits of joyful Scripture reading, prayer and a stronger life of faith.