reading
Reading for several hours during the day helps me to live more intentionally, deeper and focused. Writing and broadcasting a few questions about the read chapters to my students is mere pleasure. They engage and learn a lot. So do I when adding to their answers my few insights. As daily practice (almost a habit) it gives much additional value to my life. I am thankful.
douglas howard
free books
Good books are not free and cannot electronically be read by people placed in non-Western countries. Amazon is restricted in MENA countries.
Modern, up-to-date scholarly literature is expensive and not accessible for the people that I work with.
We need to find new ways.
A solid alternative seems to be ebooks. If you order a book that is not available in your residential country, they warn you ahead of cashing in.
trauma therapy
Helps the traumatized to create a safe zone in his/her imagination.
From there the destroyed life can step by step be repaired.
imagination
Symbols of faith, or sacraments are imaginative rituals that open the door to deep life experiences.
Baptism, communion, laying on of hands, putting oil on the forehead of a sick, all these symbols take the participating person into the spiritual, real world.
heavenly places
To live continuously in sync with Jesus means to let his thoughts and perspectives be everything for you. No other opinion is allowed to compete with His voice. Driven by His love and compassion you try your uttermost to imitate Him in every possible situation. How can this practically be done?
Practice your God given tool of imagination and open the door into the invisible world. Walk with Jesus along the path He is going. Observe Him and follow, that means do the same as He does. Try to have eye contact with Him. The Holy Spirit will speak through this connection to you and certainly reveal important information to you. Like in every trust and love relation swift and accurate communication needs time to develop and mature. It is very real, yet in the invisible world.
The critical moment that you will find yourself in many times during the day is whether you believe your decades old convictions and core values, or whether you dismiss them and cling to the words and guidance of Jesus. This can be a battle at times. Your thought world is the battlefield. The clash of old and new values inside you can be fierce and brutal. Try to “take captive” the old thoughts and hand them out to your master Jesus. Again, the handing over of old, corrupt and false thoughts is a very real process, yet invisible.
In order to make your new heaven oriented life habitual you need to dedicate every day several hours to serious prayer and study. Study of Scripture and the literature of our spiritual Fathers have much power to discipline our emotions and thoughts.