Christians throughout the world observe the forty-day season of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter as a time of spiritual reading, meditation, prayer, fasting, and renewal. Just as Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai while fasting for forty days, and Jesus likewise fasted for forty days in the wilderness before beginning his public ministry, so also Christians continue this spiritual discipline today. Since Sunday-the Lord's Day-is a day of rest, worship, joy, and feasting, the six Sundays during Lent are not counted in the forty days.

The four gospels-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-are the primary sources for discovery and meditation on the life and teaching of Jesus. Good News for Today takes the reader on a spiritual pilgrimage through the gospels without the duplications in their accounts. If you read the gospel lesson suggested for each day, you will read the complete gospel story, as it unfolds from the baptism of Jesus to his passion, death, and resurrection. You are invited to begin this spiritual ascent with Jesus Christ.