Life of Christ

Often I get asked for books or other resources to help people become more familiar with their faith and build their relationship with God. One of the best books I can offer for getting to know Jesus Himself better (that is not a straight-up textbook) is Fulton Sheen’s Life of Christ. As is always the case with Sheen, his book is highly engaging, easy to read, and easy to apply to our own lives. 

His goal in this book is to bring all four gospel accounts together into a single, unified biography. He follows the outline of the Gospel to describe the sequence of events of the life of Jesus, and uses the writings of the saints to expand even on the most seemingly minute details. His message throughout is that, in order to understand Jesus as a person, you must first understand the Cross. In Sheen’s own words, Jesus Christ is the only person in all of human history who came into this world to die. The Cross overshadows every moment of Jesus’ life, and so if we want to understand Him, we must understand His mission of the Cross. 

Throughout the book, Sheen offers not only great insights into Scripture and the life of Jesus themselves, but also connections to the Faith overall. He brings together the necessity of the sacraments, the ministry of the Apostles, and a variety of other connections to truly deepen one’s relationship both to Jesus individually as well as the Church in its entirety. If you are looking for a book to help truly get you ready for the coming Jesus into the world, I recommend Fulton Sheen’s Life of Christ.