Her new release, Who Is Jesus?: Discovering Christ in the Gospels: A 12-Week Catholic Bible Study, published by Ave Maria Press — which follows Christ from his birth to his passion and resurrection — is aimed at both the first-time reader of the Bible as well has those who have read through the Bible more than once.

One day after he posted — then deleted — an image comparing himself to Jesus Christ, President Donald Trump sat at his desk in the Oval Office and read from the Bible directly to a camera.

Even in early America, public readings of the Bible were commonplace. From colonial town squares to the halls of Congress, Scripture was not hidden away—it was foundational. Presidents from Washington to Lincoln referenced it openly. Schools taught it. Communities gathered around it.

A weeklong public reading of the Bible is underway in Washington, D.C., where hundreds of  religious, cultural and political figures are taking turns reading Scripture aloud from beginning to end. The event,