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Sustainable Health |
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Autobio
Latest Books by John Green
BLINDING IS HIS LIGHT Seeing The Light To Sustainable Health PASSING OVER FROM DEATH TO GLORY SACRED HEART & WORD SUSTAINABLE HEALTH WITH FAITH FOOD & FITNESS BLINDING IS HIS LIGHT Seeing The Light To Sustainable Health TABLE OF CONTENTS, SYNOPSIS, & EXCERPS CONTENTS Raised Protestant................... Born in The Spirit…..……………………….…….. Confirmed Catholic……………………………….. Your Face……………………………………….………. I Thirst…………………………………..…………….. Closing…….……………………………………….……… Lord Teach Us To Love……………………….. SYNOPSIS Blinding Is His Light describes the 'indescribable harnessing together’ of John's identity, spirit, soul, and body, at age fifteen, his initiation to wholeness, through his conversion by faith through grace. The book chronicles John's journey to be empowered to walk the talk of sustainable health and wholeness, giving hope to anyone struggling with health issues, self-doubt, or hardship. “Cutting his teeth” as a doctor on the grim stench of death that follows protracted war - through starvation, malnutrition, disease epidemics, and unimaginable poverty - John learned hard and young as a missionary in Africa to survive being stretched to his limits, impelled to taste for himself the bitter truth about social injustice and its’ root to greed and violence.In Africa John witnessed just about every form of malnutrition and co-related sickness there is. But his real understanding of nutrition did not began until, in a single moment, when, far removed from the third world, he finally saw, and was able to acknowledge, deep down, with his 'whole' being, the honest truth of his own very real and personal contribution to the culture of violence and death on our planet. John's heart was ready to be totally transformed for ever, converted to sustainable health for all, when he finally saw in his heart that eating meat is the greatest single footprint an individual contributes to the global culture of injustice and death. John realised only then, in that moment, that the survival of our planet depends on the choice we each make in our hearts to the culture of death, for it is now a case of non-violence, or non-existence. John finally grasped the need to make a ‘personal decision’ – one which involved a paradigm shift, from his head, all the way into his heart - a deep commitment, to “Go vegan.” This decision taught him the indescribable, the 'wholistic' joy, of extending kindness to all creatures, great and small. This personal decision was the missing link he had searched for - for so long - the decision which ‘qualified’’ him to become healthy, to encourage others to be healthy and whole. John’s story describes how sustainable health and wholeness is possible for all: eat a raw plant based diet totally free of animal products and processed foods. Nourish your inner life of faith, hope, and love.Blinding Is His Light traces the thread of Johns' journey to give hope to those still looking for the door to light and sustainable abundant life. EXCERPS One day as a boy of fifteen I was praying the prayer of forgiveness. Suddenly, our heavenly Creator overshadowed me. I fell down onto the cold concrete right there, and for hours I cried so hard I could not speak or even move. That was where this mission began for me, this space. All that I am, all that I hope for, stems from that first miraculous moment of my forgiveness, acquittal, healing, beginning, and birth in His Spirit, His child of the universe. This moment was and always will be for me the most wonderful and most precious moment of my life, when i cried with indescribable joy. Everything God promised me came true for me that day, and holds true today just as it did on that glorious day. God's great love transformed my life for ever. From then on I knew that every man, woman and child in the universe is blessed with a body to house a spirit and soul, of infinite proportions and potential, according to the fountain of holiness and of healing God has laid up for those who believeth. He gave me back my life and my sight. This was and is the biggest miracle of my life. He restored me whole into a new creature (2 Cor 5.17). I would never ever be the same again. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?b If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. [1] (1 Cor 3.16-17) Or do you not know that your body is a templef of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6.19-20) As I took my first breath that hour, a new creation in the image of our Creator, my spirit gave birth, and I cried out, with my whole being, the first chant of my origins and birth, in Spirit filled and joyful praise: What a morbid state is darkness Where, once, my body and soul had no harness. And how blinding is His Light Which fills my soul with blissful fright. Ten years later as a missionary doctor in Africa, I was privileged to supervise the deliveries of around 100 complicated births 24/7. God permitted me to experience the indescribable - the unspeakable - heartache of trying to save thousands of desperately sick children, a great many of whom didn’t make it. Africa was the most soul destroying season of my life, my first real testing ground, where illness and death rates would sicken even the most seasoned of doctors. Personally experiencing the unspeakable horrors of injustice on the planet at this level was for me the hard core trial - the crucible - of understanding and appreciating, of processing the privilege of what we have in the developed world. This was the price tag on my initiation into the truth about man's inhumanity to man. Africa doesn’t bend, but stretched me to the limits of my capabilities. She branded her harsh and awesome beauty in my heart forever. She impelled me to taste for myself the truth about social injustice. I discovered the root of injustice is greed, ignorance, pride, unforgiveness, fear, violence. My desire to see health for all springs from that. Part of me truly owes this space you have visited, to the mothers and children of poverty and suffering on our planet, most especially to those precious children I, in my desperate weakness, couldn’t save. The other part of me dedicates this space to the Name above every name, the Name that cannot be named, the One who brought me here. Did you ever have a deep and knowing certainty that this day, this week, this month, this year, are all going to be the best in your life; if you’re there, we could be on the same page. I have a belly laugh that can lay me on the floor and needs regular exercise; on the other hand I like to cry at the feet of the Lord every single day, till I surrender, totally, all I am, to Him; that's my daily beauty cleanse; then my day has begun and I’m ready for anything. I have just come out of a long journey that took several years of discernment
and obedience following God's call into religious life. Our planet is melting from south to north and west to east, and if we, each of us, don't recognise the need for healing in our selves and with each other, and disarm our hearts of unforgiveness, by the time the water levels reach our ankles it will be so long, and all over red rover. We got to want healing before we can heal the planet. It starts within our own back yard. Healing is the fruit of grace working through belief. Reconcilation is the fruit of love. It involves forgiveness to all creatures great and small, to ourselves, each other, and even to our Creator if need be. It's non negotiable. We can't be set free if we can't experience and offer forgiveness. The fruit of forgiveness, healing and reconcilation is peace and non violence, again, working through grace and love. If we are going to extend grace and love, we have to discover how it works in our own hearts. It is the door to peace on our planet, and it starts in our own heart. This is what it means to disarm our own hearts. This is the way of non violence. This peace, healing, and grace operates in a wholistic way at all levels of our being - spirit,soul and body - and by extension to our planet. Our Creator is the one who alone can achieve this in us and through us. We can't do it in our own strength. We can will it, desire it, pray for it, work at it. But we need His grace for healing our selves and our planet. PASSING OVER SORROW TO GLORY TABLE OF CONTENTS Preparing for The Passover…………………………. PART ONE: SORROW THE CROSS Jesus is condemned to death……………… Jesus accepts his cross…………….…………. Jesus Falls……………………………………..……….. Jesus meets Mary………………………………….. Veronica offers her veil to Jesus……… Jesus is stripped of his clothing……….. Jesus is nailed to the cross……………… Jesus dies on the cross……………….……... PART TWO: PASSOVER THE TOMB Bringing Jesus down from the cross…. Cross to the Tomb…………………………………. The Tomb………………………………………….……… Tenebrae…………………………………………….……. Passover….……………………………..................... Easter Saturday Vigil……………………………. PART THREE: GLORY RESURRECTION Resurrection Sunday : Reflections……. Resurrection: Mass Excerpts……….……. Divine Mercy……………………………………. ASCENSION & PENTECOST Baptism in the Spirit…………………….….. EXCERPS THE FOURTH STATION OF THE CROSS: JESUS AND MARY GLANCE Lord, give me strength, as the saying goes, to express in joy, that which i owe, to one whose love for me so much has given, and to give to Her some gift for heaven. (1969) All i know about my self and identity came to me through Jesus, and all i know about Jesus came to me through Mary. So all i am is thanks to our Lord and our Mother. My relationship with Mary began in my heart and soul at the age of fifteen the moment I came to meet Jesus. During the Lent of 2009 I wrote a piece about Our Lady Of The Rosary, which focussed on the sacred mysteries of our Lord’s passing over from sorrow to glory. One of the pieces, which follows, is a meditation I wrote before the Blessed Sacrament immediately after praying the Stations of the Cross. This piece focuses on the fourth station. I pray it may assist you in your walk with Jesus and Mary. My Meditation on the Station of The Cross, where Jesus meets His afflicted Mother. Mary my mother you reveal to me the depths of love in your heart for me, and for all, in this divine glance of agony. “A sword would pierce your heart,” just as Simeon prophesied in the temple in Jerusalem at the joyful mystery of the presentation of our Lord, our baby Jesus. And here in this moment of your agony, you reveal your grace in our consolation, through the merciful gaze of your most blessed countenance, as you look, pierced to the heart, to your most Beloved Son, the gaze which reveals the mystery of the greatest love story of all time, the love between two virgins, our mother and her divine son, as if it is in this momentary glance God's purpose to reveal the fulfilment of the scene at the very genesis of humanity when Adam and Eve first laid eyes on each other - the opening and the closure of an age, caught in one gaze of and with the venom of the devil's sword piercing Her most unspeakably for our salvation, consolation and empowerment. With the help of Mary, mother of the Son of affliction, and the grace of God, I see into the unspeakable consolation of and through this piercing affliction. In this divine glance is the lesson for all who are learning to ‘see.’ If we can summon the grace to but look out through our pain and our own agonies and wretchedness and into the eyes of God's creation, it may be into the face of the next bird or dog or man or woman or child, or any living creature, and really look into the eyes and face, and, through those eyes, to the very heart of that creature, we will surely 'see' into the vast depths of the mystery of this most divine of all glances in all time, and in to the mystery of how God himself, through his only son, this Jesus, loves us, is in love with us, with an infinite thirsting love. This glance, foretold by Simeon in the same temple only days after his birth, at the dedication of his life for this moment of agony, for each newborn child of God, of whom, he, the son of God, Christ Jesus, is the firstborn. In this glance we see deeply into the mystery of Christ’s life, death and resurrection. These mysteries are revealed to us through the mother of God herself. We see in the Gospels the picture of Jesus, as in this scene of their glance of agony, the picture of our divine master, through the very eyes of Mary, and, through her eyes, in to a most priviliged communion with her most sacred heart. It is only with the grace of Mary and through her perfect vision that we are able to glimpse into the mysteries of her divine son. This is why every word, every verse of sacred Scripture, is packed with mystical and divine revelation, if we but align our hearts and minds and bodies into formation with Mary. Mary is the first Apostle, not Peter, not John, not Paul. Mary helps God reveal the divine image of Jesus in to our hearts. It was Mary who is the least visible in the gospels, and because of this, it was and is, by this divine transparency, Jesus, whom she makes the most visible. This is the Charism, the divine vocation of Mary, to reveal her son to us. Mary has, through God's divine plan, provided us with the perfect apostle, and our first apostle. When we look at Jesus and to Jesus let us pray for the grace to look and to see with the attitude of the heart and soul and body of our blessed mother Mary. Mary is the one who best helps God reveal the joy, the light, the agony, and the glory of Christ. The mysteries of Christ’s life, death and resurrection are perfectly revealed through the word if we allow our beings to be so utterly possessed by the sacred heart and essence of Mary. Mary it is who instructs us. Mary is the painter of the divine image. Mary is the mother of the divine master. Hence the rosary is the Mother's key to unlocking deeper revelation of the mysteries of the Christ, the suffering servant. The rosary teaches us how to take hold of the hand and that gaze and the heart and the being and the presence of Mary, how to look to and for and at Jesus, with and through her. If we can receive her sight, we can receive his sight. This is my meditation and prayer and hope and expectation - what I am believing for - in communing with Mary and Jesus, that he, in his great mercy, would concede to bless me with the gift of even a glimpse into His vision and sight, that I might see the fullness of his glory and love. I pray, I know, that he will come through again, for the praise of his glorious name, with yet another of his unspeakable miracles for all who place their trust in him. Each mystery of the Rosary is a divine scene in God's story and plan. Each scene has and is the divine snapshot of God's truth and love and glory, revealed to us through the eyes and heart and witness of our Blessed Mother. SACRED HEART & WORD CONTENTS Preface Introduction Know My Word Wisdom Wisdom & Faith Wisdom & Hope Wisdom & Love Wisdom & Peace Faith Faith & Peace Faith & Love Faith & Hope Hope Hope & Love Hope & Peace Love Love & Peace Peace SACRED HEART & WORD EXCERPS INTRODUCTION Sacred Heart & Word applies faith and reason to explore the weave in divine logic the structure and framework of the sacred heart of the Divine Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All Creation is connected to Creator through the Sacred Heart. We see His heart beating everywhere in Nature. His Sacred Heart connects to every part of His body, the Church. We are the Spouse and Body of Christ, and we reflect His Sacred Heart through our own divine nature in Christ and through the testimonies of our lives in Him. The Sacred Heart of Mary, the Immaculate Mother of the Sacred Heart, and the Sacred Heart of God, present in the most Holy Eucharist of the Blessed Sacrament, are one and the same. Our heartbeats, through Mary, are one with Him. Sacred Heart & Word is, I believe, with all my heart, a project of God, and for God, to give all glory and praise and honour to Him. It is but a small unworthy gift from me to Him, Virgin of Virgin, True Light from True Light, through Mary. The Sacred Heart of the Holy Trinity is the wellspring of the sacred river, the “spring of water gushing up to eternal life” [1] that circulates through the chambers and the openings of the divine nature, “a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the most high,” [2] from whom is extended the river of life, first to the most perfect of all creations, our Holy Mother (the most perfect reflection of and window into the sacred heart), and through her, mysteriously, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and through Mother and Son, to the Church and to all of creation. “I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. [3] The angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. “ [4] I began to see how many scriptures reveal more than one of these primary areas, that they are linked and interconnected, like a river to her branches, as our own circulation communicates to the heart through each of its’ chambers. For example, Psalm 85.10: Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness (hope) and peace will kiss each other. Sacred Heart & Word evolved as a cross reference tool for the New Testament and Psalms, in which the model of five primary chambers – [1] Faith; [2] Hope; [3] Love; [4] Peace; and [5] Wisdom - is arbitrarily applied to describe the divine essence of the Holy Trinity. This model describes also the portals (doorways) which connect each of the primary chambers in the divine nature, of which there are, arbitrarily, ten, here numbered: [1] Love – Peace; [2] Peace – Wisdom; [3] Wisdom – Faith; [4] Faith – Hope; [5] Hope – Love; [6] Love – Wisdom; [7] Wisdom – Hope; [8] Hope – Peace; [9] Peace – Faith; [10] Faith – Love; SUSTAINABLE HEALTH WITH FAITH FOOD & FITNESS TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………… Called to Africa……………….…………………….. A Better Medicine………………………….……… Nourishing In…………………………………………… Cleansing Out…………………………………………… Prayer, Fasting, & Love………………….… .... Wholeness.……………………………………………… |
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