Keys to understanding and reading Holy Scripture on a daily basis
Mame, 80 p., €12
Excellent little book to understand what the Bible is and the best way to read it. In language without any jargon, he explains the formation of the Bible and its contents. Then continues with the educational part which provides advice for reading it: the place, the time to devote, where to start, the different meanings it has, but also the place of prayer.
One chapter is particularly welcome because it answers a frequent question: “What to do when faced with passages that pose difficulty.” » The keys provided unlock the reading, which is constantly renewed: “As Saint Gregory the Great said: “Scripture grows with the one who reads it.” It is never the same because we are never the same when we open it. »
Bible: an essential book for beginners
♦ “First questions about the Bible”, by Michel Quesnel
Desclée de Brouwer, 2026, 180 p., €15.30
This is a book to put in everyone’s hands. Published in 2010, it has just been republished, and it is an opportunity for all those who want to acquire or consolidate basic knowledge of the Bible. Illustrated, supplemented by boxes, it is organized in four parts (General, Old Testament, New Testament, The Bible today), answering in a short and simple way the questions that everyone asks, in the order in which the Book is read.
It ends with contemporary questions about the work of exegetes and archaeologists or the reasons to continue reading the Bible. The work of a great specialist, theologian, biblical scholar and exegete, accessible to all.
A liturgical and educational version of the four Gospels
♦ “Jesus is alive. The four Gospels. Official text of the liturgy »
Desclée de Brouwer, 622 p., 8.90 €
At the center of faith, the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is this evidence that explains the continued purchase of Bibles and Gospels. The version proposed by Desclée de Brouwer has a double interest. The texts are those of the liturgical translation allowing the reader to find during the celebrations what he was able to read or meditate at home.
Above all, the edition backs the four Gospels on 40 pages with extracts from the Old Testament which anchor the life of Jesus in all of biblical history. The same effort, more detailed, over 110 pages, is made with the New Testament, to grasp the first fruits of the evangelical faith. An educational, sober book, focused on the essentials.
Valuable advice for learning to pray
♦ “First steps in prayer, by Jean-Marie Lustiger”
Paperback, 184 p., €6.90
Every week, when he was Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger (1926-2007) gave a “talk” lasting around fifteen minutes on Radio Notre-Dame, the Parisian station that he had launched. These tips for prayer, in a direct and familiar style, have continued to be republished for forty years: and in fact, their simplicity and their great depth allow them to make a lasting impression on the heart of those who study them.
He himself, with an ardent prayer, still transmits to us through these lines, like the rabbi to his disciple, the fire which animated him: “Every day our life is an event! An event that must be taken as a gift that God gives us, as a space where we will be given the freedom to love him and to love others”…
A theologian tackles misconceptions about faith
♦ “Ending misconceptions about Christianity”, by Sylvaine Landrivon
Workshop edition, 224 p., €13.50
Theologian Sylvaine Landrivon tackles 94 “misconceptions” about the Christian faith. Noting that “biases” between the literal text and its interpretation “modify its meaning”, she reviews questions concerning the origins of Christianity, the plurality of Christian confessions, the relationship to science and the body and, of course, the relationship between men and women…
She devotes a third of her work to the feminine question, her specialty and her fight, by calling into question assertions such as “Eve is responsible for the fault”, “priests must be male to be like Jesus”… A stimulating reflection.
For an in-depth entry into the liturgy
♦ “Understand and live the liturgy. Signs, gestures and symbols explained to all”, by Xavier Accart, preface by Mgr Matthieu Rougé
Lead, 352 pp., €18
This book which deciphers with simplicity and depth the rites and fundamental notions of the liturgy has become a classic. This third edition (the first dates from 2009) has been revised and increased by a third: quotations have been renewed and boxes added at the end of the chapters, themselves recast (“The orientation of the celebrant”, “Screens in churches?”, “The attitudes of the body at mass”…). An essential work for long-time practitioners as well as for catechumens and neophytes wishing to enter deeply into the understanding of the symbols and to “inhabit” their gestures with a view to “becoming prayer” themselves, fully participating in the liturgy celebrated.
