Series: Plough Daily Devotionals
Published by Plough on January 6, 2026
Genres: Non-Fiction, Christian Life, Theology
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Easter is the high point of the year for millions of Christians around the world. And for most of them, there can be no Easter without Lent, the season that leads up to it.
A time for self-denial, soul-searching, and spiritual preparation, Lent makes time for daily reading and reflection. This time-tested collection of devotions will deepen and stretch your faith, and can be returned to year after year. Culled from the wealth of twenty centuries, the selections are ecumenical in scope, representing the best classic and contemporary Christian writers.
This expanded second edition adds dozens of voices, new and old, and takes the reader all the way through Eastertide to Pentecost. It includes ninety-six Lenten and Easter readings, plus seven chapter-opening poems.
This Lent and Easter devotional is full of insightful reflections on Christian doctrine and its implications for life. The editors collected readings from many different writers, and the content in this book spans multiple centuries. The readings include excerpts, essays, and poems, and each devotion is just a few pages long. I appreciate how well the editors balanced the need for both brevity and depth. The readings are short enough for busy people to maintain a consistent practice, while also offering real substance. Many devotionals are fluffy and insubstantial, but this one offers real theology, deep insight, and helpful perspectives on what it means to live in light of the gospel.
The original edition of Bread and Wine released in 2003, and this revised and expanded version includes additional readings from even more writers. The editors also added a whole new section for observing Pentecost. These changes are substantial enough that fans of the original edition may want to pursue this revised edition as well, and people who are shopping for this book now need to know that this new edition offers significantly more content.
This was my first time reading Bread and Wine. I greatly enjoyed it, and I found the readings insightful and thought-provoking. I appreciate the substance that this book offers, and how well the excerpted readings stand on their own. The editors did a great job deciding where to begin and end each reading. Everything feels natural, and I never felt like I was missing context. I also felt that the quality was fairly consistent throughout, and the readings offered enough variation that they did not feel repetitious to me, even within the same thematic sections.
My one notable complaint is that you have to flip to the back of the book to see when different writers lived and published the works excerpted here. Since this book offers perspectives from so many different eras of history, I would have liked each reading to include a time frame in the headings, along with each author’s name. This book introduced me to some writers I wasn’t familiar with, which is great, but I wish that each reading had mentioned what era these writings hailed from.
Bread and Wine is an excellent devotional for Christians who want to reflect deeply on their faith around Easter. It is also a great read for any time of year, since it covers so many essentials of Christian doctrine and practice. The book is also an attractive, sturdy hardcover, and the pages have nice thickness. Overall, Bread and Wine is a great devotional and an appealing gift book.