So vivid and life-like are these portraits that it is worth a feeling of recognition that one looks at them. Here are no idealized, other-worldly portrayals, but rather faces one seems to remember, living faces that reflect the passions and experiences of living men.

Artist Sam Patrick picked his models from all walks of life, sparing no effort to find the desired features, the desired felling in a face. The result is a startling realism -- these people speak to you from the page and their eyes and their expressions tell a story.

On the page opposite each drawing is a brief, straightforward account of the life and his relationship with Jesus. These were written by Omar Garrison, Religious Editor of the Los Angeles Mirror-News, and they serve to help you know and understand these men and women as intimately as you do your own family and friends.

Taken all together, these portraits and stories bring to life the great moments in the life of Christ -- his meetings with the apostles, his miracles, his betrayal, and his passion. To read of these events in this unique new presentation is to experience afresh the beautiful and moving story of Jesus' life and to understand anew the great source of our faith.