You Are Mine: Daily Bible readings from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day

'Again and again, as I have sought to look into both the scriptures and my own life, I have heard in the silence the one who assures me, ever more strongly, 'You are mine'. My hope and prayer is that you who read it will hear something of the same.'

At this time of Lent, David Walker explores different aspects of human belonging through the medium of scripture and story in order to help us recognise the different ways in which we are God’s beloved. And as we recognise ourselves and our own lives in the narrative of God’s engagement with humanity and his creation, he gently challenges us to engage for God’s sake with God’s world. 

‘This is a wonderful companion for Lent by David Walker. It is short but deep, and engages the reader in both prayer and reflection. A perfect way to explore what it means for all of us to belong to Christ in a challenging world.’
Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

Every day during Lent Bishop David Walker invites us to look afresh at a Biblical character or saint. We gain new insights into their lives. He helps us journey through Lent with a deeper knowledge of how much God loves and treasures us. God reminds us ‘You are mine.’ David draws on his experience as an ordinary member of a family and a friend, a theologian and a Bishop. God’s desire is for us to belong to Jesus and to each other.
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu

‘I have a great admiration and respect for David Walker. It was so good to read these revealing reflections on the scriptures which he offers in the light of his experience. They are highly accessible while being theologically profound. I hope others will find them as illuminating and inspiring as I did.’
John Inge, Bishop of Worcester

‘Using Lenten scriptural readings and rooted in his own personal journey, David Walker helps us to recognise the presence and activity of God in our own life, and as a consequence our connectedness and belonging to all God’s creation. This is down-to-earth, sound biblical and pastoral theology, as you would expect from Bishop David.’
Brother Benedict, Provincial Minister, The Society of St Francis

‘In these thoughtful, touching and often candid reflections, David Walker reveals how he learned that we belong to God through other people. In his father, teachers, therapist, wife, parishioners, children and grandchildren, God becomes vividly present to him through fierce love, inspiring intellect, warm hospitality, quiet wisdom – and even the hatred of a suicide bomber’s attack on the city where Walker is much-loved bishop.’
Paul Vallely, author of Pope Francis: Untying the knots – the struggle for the soul of Catholicism

‘In this remarkable collection of devotions, David Walker combines deeply personal reflections with refreshingly practical observations on the Christian life. The message is humble and clear: in our Lenten battles for our better selves, we belong to God and to one another. This is writing as liberating as it is demanding – full of challenge, comfort and quiet joy.’
Loretta Minghella, First Church Estates Commissioner

Transforming Ministry online, February 2020. Review by Sue Piper

This treasure of a Lent book has moved me deeply.  David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, has given us a very personal insight into his own journey of faith as well as encouraging us to understand the meaning of scripture as it may relate our own lives.  It has been very helpful to link directly with the God we worship and how He makes His presence felt to us, as individuals, each day, in all of our relationships with one another.  The language is honest and straightforward, and the Lenten season will be greatly enhanced by our understanding of belonging to God and belonging to one another as family and as community, both locally and globally.  There is much material for personal reflection and this book may well lend itself for study group sessions set over a period of time, not necessarily restricted to Lent.  The author offers us wisdom, honesty, joy, and understanding.  It teaches us to open our hearts with love for not only the chosen scriptures but will encourage us to use Bishop David’s wisdom in our everyday encounters with one another.

Reviewed by Sue Piper  

Reform, February 2020. Review by Jenny Mills

[In You Are Mine by David Walker] each day there is a Bible text related to the theme of Christian belonging, and a reflection that is both personal and challenging, and both informative and engaging. Walker uses his wealth of faith experience. He opens with: ‘How do we belong with God and with Jesus? And how do our human lives help or hinder us along the way?’ Each day is no more than three pages. This book is relevant for the times in which we live, and addresses current topics as well as reflecting on biblical texts.You are Mine requires setting aside a little more time [than normal Bible reading notes] in order to benefit from its content. I particularly valued the depth of [this book].

Jenny Mills is Minister of Newport Pagnell United Reformed Church and West End United Church, Wolverton, Buckinghamshire

Church Times 17.01.20. Philip Welsh's Lent book roundup 2020 

In You Are Mine, David Walker invites his readers to join him at a popular level in the investigation of Christian belonging which has preoccupied him academically over a number of years. His daily reflections are loosely grouped into belonging with God, and belonging ‘with the people who are closest to us; with the great figures of the Bible and Christian faith; with the wider community and its special places; and with the big celebrations and events of the Christian cycle and human life’ — concluding with the events of Holy Week. 

Each day starts with a short Bible passage, which acts as a springboard for the notably personal reflections by the author — among other things, drawing on the experiences of his upbringing, of therapy, and of his life as parish priest, as bishop, and as grandfather. The daily prayer highlights the general theme within the individual story. 

What emerges is a wise, humane, and generous spirituality. At times, it is a bit more affective than some of us feel comfortable with — producing these reflections is ‘like writing a series of love letters to God’; ‘I can feel the warmth of his smile’ – but there is also a strong and sharp commitment to social issues. He does not seek to shock, but quite often is pleasingly heterodox: he applauds Sunday-afternoon christenings; respects the faith of occasional churchgoers; hates changing the words of hymns; finds his faith encouraged by adherents of other faiths; and is ‘convinced that most politicians go into that work out of a deep and genuine desire to serve their community’.

This is not a Lent book for developing daily Bible-reading. It will appeal to those looking for a Thought for the Day-style piece, linked to scripture, that builds into an attractive picture of Christian life as lived by an engaging representative.

Reviewed by Philip Welsh

Reviewed by Richard Frost

Building on his previous book, God’s Belongers, Bishop David Walker takes explores how activities, events, places and people enable us to know that we belong with God.

This book explores what it means to belong with God – note, not belong to God but with God. Using daily reflections, the Bishop of Manchester takes us through Lent and in to Holy Week. These weekly themes are interspersed, on Sundays, with thoughts on the Lectionary Gospel reading for the day.

Each of the weekday readings follows a particular theme within the overall topic of belonging. Bishop David considers how we belong to the Father and the Son, in relationships with others, and with the saints (primarily figures in the Old and New Testament but also Francis of Assisi and Ignatius Loyola). He also turns his attention to complex issues in the society in which we belong and the importance of celebrations and festivals such as Christmas and christenings.

The author acknowledges early on that he reveals more about his own faith and challenges than in anything else he has written and indeed there is a significant degree of autobiography contained in the book’s pages. Reading You Are Mine with that context in mind will enable individual readers to do so in a way they find personally helpful.

For this reviewer, this is a book which clergy and those in paid ministry would find especially helpful. It offers some of David Walker’s own experience of the joys, frustrations and practicalities of ‘parish life’ as well as thought-provoking ideas about how churches can enable people, whether inside or outside their walls, to feel they belong.

For Holy Week, Bishop David takes what might be called a more ‘traditional’ Lent book approach. Following the events of the most important week in the year, he offers valuable comments and interpretations, old and new. In doing so, the book concludes on the strongest of notes.

Richard Frost is the author of Life with St Benedict and writes a blog at workrestpray.com