“We must let God work and, in time, let what happened with Jesus happen, which was so shocking,” he said, although he also warned of that “schizophrenic Christianity, separated from reality.”
“Without a doubt, a valuable contribution to knowing more intimately the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, a book that is read fluently, that arouses interest, that invites deep prayer and helps to penetrate into the intimate knowledge of Jesus and of the One who is his Source, the Abba,” said Father Rafael Espino in the presentation.
“To Rosa García Aguilera, my mother, who taught me to pray.” The dedication of Abba. The prayer of Jesus of Nazareth (Editorial San Pablo) could be enough to summarize the content of this atypical book, without pretensions, but that penetrates deeply. Because through it, its author, a 44-year-old layman from Linares, already shows the thread of an intimate relationship like the one Jesus had with God, his abbá“a word that I find precious because It was what, counterculturally, Jesus used to address God and indicates the type of relationship he had with him.”.
The trip of your dreams, with RD
Because abbáas Chamorro said on Wednesday, June 26, during the presentation of the work at the San Pablo Bookstore in Madrid, “is not a simple term, but a profound experience of Jesus, it is a word that has the value of the close and transforming experience that Jesus felt with God” and that the author intends to transmit through these pages, because “If prayer does not touch life, it is not prayer.”
And this power of transformation, this teacher of Philosophy and Therapeutic Pedagogy in Secondary and Baccalaureate, began to feel it at the age of seven, when he discovered those books with which his elders prayed and, since then, “the subject of prayer, which has always fascinated me enormously, like meditation“which seemed to me to be something deeper than what I had been taught, has been present in my life.”
“The image that this book gives of Jesus is that of a Jesus to whom I would unite the word interiority, “the value and power of the deep to transform what is outside”stressed Chamorro, who also highlighted the fact that, through the Gospel, “we know the miracles of Jesus, but many times the moments in which Jesus stops to pray go unnoticed, and he does so before great moments.”
“There is no recipe for prayer”
“If the topic of prayer is the first topic that appeared in my life, the second is that of the desert fathers and the ways of praying that have been formed with the great mystics, until reaching centering prayer“said the author and blogger of Digital Religionwhere, as he explained, “prayer leaps and moves beyond the word to reach another silent place, where the encounter takes place, where the pure relationship exists.”
A prayer for which, he asserted, “the best recipe is that there is no recipe; the recipe is for each person to ask themselves the question in the most transparent and honest way possible,” because “We carry the answer within us, but in this distracted society we are not allowed to recognize it”.
“But how does that prayer show up in the life of a Christian?” he was asked. “You will know them by their fruits,” Chamorro began explaining. “Many times it is enough to drop many prejudices or beliefs about what we believe things should be and let God work in us, to be like the drop that falls on the stone and that apparently does nothing, but over time we see that the stone erodes. We must let God work and in time what happened with Jesus, which was so revolting, will happen.”he said, although he also warned against that “schizophrenic Christianity, separated from reality.”
“A very modern book”
“It is a very modern book and I would recommend it to people who want to get started in Christianity.”said JoseFer Juan Santos, also a professor, popularizer and graduate in ecclesiastical studies., who accompanied Chamorro in the presentation of the work, of which he also highlighted that “it will help us a lot to return to prayer as something essential, because far from those who believe that it is in decline, prayer is something that greatly engages modern man.” , is something very typical and specific to Christianity.”
“It is not a book that the author has accustomed us to, more focused on poetry and literature, but poets have that good thing, of putting together words that sometimes do not go together, and here there is clarity and simplicity, it is not a complex book that makes you abandon reading. And well written,” continued JoseFer, who highlighted “the good work of synthesis that a young person should read so that his faith also matures and see that it has meaning, depth and that there is still a long way to go. And it is also good for families to have this panoramic and overall vision that this book offers us.”
“Theology that clarifies things too much for us is not entirely good, it is not from God, and here we find unconditional love and a God the Father in whom we must trust,” the professor highlighted, because “We need a Church that is real, not a treatise on ecclesiology, something that we are able to live, and this book gets this rightwith prayer and contemplation.”
Accompanied in the Presentation by Brother Pepe Pedregrosa, a Pauline who acted as moderator, and Father Rafael Espino, editorial director of San Pablowho stressed that Abba. The prayer of Jesus of Nazareth “It is a book on Christian prayer in its most confessional sense, with a rigorous Christological and ecclesiological foundation,” a book “with a spiritual approach to everyday life, a lover of perennial wisdom, of apophatic contemplation, of the expansion of consciousness, and not tied to any particular religious tradition.”
“Without a doubt,” added Espino, A valuable contribution to knowing more intimately the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Goda book that is read fluently, that arouses interest, that invites deep prayer and that helps to penetrate into the intimate knowledge of Jesus and the One who is his Hontanar, the Abba“.
