Revd Dr Martin Israel, mystic, priest and pathologist, was born on April 30, 1927. He died on October 23, 2007, aged 80.
If I can forget even for a moment all the injuries that have been done to me, and all the unpleasant things people have said about me, and all my fears and worries about the future, if I can start to forgive all those in my life who have betrayed and injured me — always bearing in mind the injury I have done to others — I repeat, if all this incubus of resentment, fear, and hatred which is part of the human condition and is what we call the hell in our existence, can be relieved and cleansed through the power of love, I can suddenly begin to live properly and realise that I am not really alone at all. I will see that both my misery and my hope are part of the universal scheme of becoming, and that I can only begin to be a proper person when I am no longer enclosed in myself. Then I will know that I am part of a greater whole which is the psychic component of all created things. At that point, a new awareness comes into me and I begin to understand the meaning of forgiveness. When I am unforgiven— and this was the state of man before the Resurrection — I am enclosed and alone, full of fear, self-justification, and many other fruitless, destructive emotional attitudes. But once this enclosedness is penetrated through love that comes to me, not because I deserve it, but because I am a creature of God, an opening occurs in my defences so that this love can enter me and healing can come to me. This is precisely how people are made whole in Christ. I repeat, once this protective separateness in me is rent asunder by love and I am no longer frightened and resentful, the power of God can come to me and I can begin to realise the Christ within me. Christ, Son of God p.10
If we pledge ourselves to the preservation of life and the fostering of goodwill among people, we will be open to the healing power of God. Prayer and Healing.
John the Baptist makes us aware of what we are, and then Jesus accepts us for what we are. He gives up his life for us. He becomes sin for us so that, as St Paul puts it, a new dimension of reality may come. Discipleship Today.
- To buy Dr Israel's booklets, tapes, cd's, books go to The Churches Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies.
- Download a copy of Healing and the Spirit.
- Download copies of nearly all of his Christian mystical writings from The Revd Dr Martin Israel's website.