Well, a man can't live on jam, and neither can a Christian society. Our Heavenly Father said mankind was the salt of the earth, son, not the honey. And our poor world's rather like old man Job, stretched out in all his filth, covered with ulcers and sores. Salt stings on an open wound, but saves you from gangrene.' (George Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest)

Taking his cue from this blunt but realistic statement of Bernanos, Fr Luigi Maria Epicoco accompanies the reader on a real rethinking of the potential of Christian life. He begins by challenging a 'do-gooder' view of the faith and reminds us that the believer depends on no other law than the charity of Christ given us in baptism.

It is no casual remark he makes when he writes that 'the saints are those for whom baptism works'; and the potential which baptism introduces us to can be summed up in the three theological virtues - faith, hope and charity - which flow into life lived according to Christ: a joyful and free existence, because we are loved.

Luigi Maria Epicoco's book, then, suggests that we reflect on and rethink these 'three virtues' beginning with life itself, illuminated by some biblical stories which become something of a program and provocation for all our lives.