Our church has begun a 9 to 12 month study of the Gospel of Mark, and one of the pastors recommended the book, Friendship with Jesus: A Way to Pray the Gospel of Mark by David Miller. I immediately bought it for my Kindle.
The author shows how to draw closer to Jesus using Ignation contemplation. Here’s a brief explanation:
“In Ignatian contemplation, we need only imaginatively enter and participate in the biblical stories for God’s revelation to become a present event for us. It happens now as we watch the stories unfold-in our mind’s eye-and listen to what God moves in our hearts. Jesus draws us into the world of the story and reveals himself to us.”
I don’t know about you, but this really tugs at my heart. I want to experience Jesus more!
Here’s another paragraph that I thought was particularly meaningful for novelists:
“Stories can change us. That’s why Jesus told stories. That’s why Matthew, Mark, and the other Gospel writers told us stories about Jesus: so we might enter them and have our lives changed. They invite us to live in the world that their stories reveal. This world, they tell us, is far more real than the world we usually occupy. But we can know this more real world only if we enter and inhabit the stories.”
I’m only in chapter 2, but I already know that this book is going to be meaningful to me and helpful to my prayer life and my relationship with both the written word and the Living Word.
~robin
