One of the most influential movements in the Church today is centered on St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body (TOB), of whose teachings Christopher West is the preeminent translator for a popular audience. In Word Made Flesh: A Companion to the Sunday Readings (Cycle C), West offers reflections on an entire cycle of Sunday Mass readings through the lens of TOB, providing a fresh way to process and act on the Good News by orienting our desires for union with God with our understanding of ourselves and our relationships with others. 

St. John Paul II’s TOB is most often framed as an extended catechesis on human sexuality and married love.  It is that, to be sure, but, as John Paul II observed, what we learn in the TOB “concerns the whole Bible” and the “whole mission of Christ.”  Wearing John Paul II’s “spousal lenses,” West takes us on a tour of the Sunday readings throughout the liturgical year and opens their hidden meaning, allowing God’s word to take flesh in our own lives.

 

In a clearly written introduction, West provides a primer on TOB—an overview of its main teachings and an explanation of how these teachings brilliantly illuminate the whole story of salvation from Genesis to Revelation.

 

In Word Made Flesh, West offers distinctive reflections on all fifty-two Sunday readings from the first Sunday of Advent through Christ the King Sunday. Some weeks he focuses primarily on the Gospel, while in others he emphasizes a specific passage or verse from one of the other readings. The reflections naturally and deeply connect with the human experience of living with body and soul in the world while also contemplating the nature of the glorified body in the eternal kingdom to come.

The material in Word Made Flesh can be used as a weekly devotional or as a preparation for Sunday Mass. Subsequent editions of Word Made Flesh will be released prior to the start of liturgical cycles A (Advent 2019) and B (Advent 2020).

Christopher West serves as senior lecturer of theology and Christian anthropology for the Theology of the Body Institute. His global lecturing, bestselling books, and multiple audio and video programs have made him one of the world’s most recognized teachers of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. As founder and president of The Cor Project, he leads an international outreach devoted to helping others learn, live, and share this teaching.

West is the author of more than a dozen books, including Theology of the Body Explained, Theology of the Body for Beginners, and Good News about Sex & Marriage. His work has been featured in the New York Times, on ABC News, MSNBC, and Fox News, and in countless Catholic and evangelical media.