The Life of Jesus

Journalist Tornielli (Francis) braids together stories of Jesus’s life with commentary from Pope Francis in this fresh and imaginative take on the gospels. In the author’s hands, familiar episodes take on new color and resonance, as when a pregnant teenage Mary is told by the angel Gabriel that she’ll give birth to the son of God: “Time began ticking again as the infinite took flesh in the girl’s womb.... Mary kept the secret in her heart.” Themes that emerge in Tornielli’s retelling echo the pope’s priorities, including care for marginalized people; faith that is both strong and practical; and an intimate relationship with Christ (“The nearness of the Lord is understood only by entering into that lowering of himself, into that humbling of himself, allowing him to envelop us in his compassion and his tenderness,” muses Torniellie). Elsewhere, he writes passionately of his openness to God: “When I feel amazed—which is a grace from the Holy Spirit, a gift of his grace—I will then feel that the Lord is present... that he touches my heart with his tenderness.” Catholics will prize this cinematic treatment of Jesus’s story. (Nov.)