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New York Times bestselling author Father James Martin brings the Gospel stories alive and invites us to experience the living Jesus through prayer and contemplation. The person at the heart of the Gospels – Jesus – can seem impossibly distant. What should be a life-changing encounter with a vivid, real-life person is turned by many preachers, teachers and writers into a cold series of dos and don’ts. The Gospel stories about his astonishing life and ministry-the clever parables that upended everyone’s expectations, the incredible healings that convinced even skeptics, the nature miracles that dazzled the dumbstruck disciples-can seem far removed from our own daily lives, hard to understand, even irrelevant.
JESUS takes us through Father James Martin’s personal spiritual discipline, inspired by Ignatius Loyola, in which we are encouraged to use our imaginations to place ourselves directly into scenes of the Gospels. A gifted story teller and spiritual director, Martin helps readers re-experience the stories of the Gospels in a completely new, vivid way so that we might gain a closer understanding of Jesus through prayer. The book will move sequentially through the Gospels, considering each part of Jesus’s life, inviting the reader into not only familiar passages but also the “hidden life” of Jesus. It will be a bold “retelling” of the Gospels, faithful to the Christian tradition, and meditating deeply on parts of the story that have often escaped notice. Martin provides personal stories from his own life, powerful anecdotes by beloved spiritual teachers and saints, and brings the reader along his own travels through the Holy Land.
