As we journey through life, we face challenges - both big and small. What spiritual essentials will help us survive life's storms?

Lentwise is a five-session course which helps us to deal with the rigors of real life. Using fresh insights from John's gospel, it explores:

• direction
• nourishment
• wisdom
• refreshment
• security

Each session contains enough material for 90 minutes and includes: guidelines and full background notes for leaders, a passage from John's gospel freshly translated by the author, prompts to aid both discussion and understanding, inspiring quotations and personal stories, prayer exercises, ideas for using multimedia in the group, and resources to support worship together. Each group member will need a copy of the book.

Paula Gooder is a writer and lecturer in Biblical Studies. She is a Reader in the Church of England and a member of the General Synod. Her other writing projects include contributions to Reflections for Daily Prayer (Church House Publishing) and the Archbishop of York's recommended Advent course (Autumn 2008).