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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I hope persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and please return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is called OneLife Ministries – An Interspiritual Contemplative Fellowship. Hope to see you there. Blessings.
SPIRITUAL TEACHING
When the divine is directly experienced, one's propensity to theologize is considerably reduced.
*Anthony de Mello. The Song of the Bird.
The scholar, theologian, educator, and preacher tell you what others have said; the seer tells you what he himself has seen. Aim to be a seer. Seek to read from and learn from seers; trust only what your most inner heart convinces you is Truth. An outer affirmation not matched by a true, spiritual inner conviction you cannot hold close as your truth, anyway. A seer may not be seen by others as intelligent; but divine wisdom disguises itself in the lowly, the common, and the apparently unremarkable. Beware of him who blows his horn before, wanting to impress others with his teaching; be willing to learn from anyone whom your heart confirms as one who lives and feels the truth he speaks of. Better your words be few and wise, than many and misleading, when it comes to matters of Spirit. And, yes, beware of him who is always ready to tell you the truth he claims to know. The road to enlightenment is paved with less knowing, not more, with fewer words, not more.
*Brian Kenneth Wilcox. OneLife Ministries.
Being a Lover
Loving the Divine
is like the man who was in bed
with his wife. He kept talking;
finally, she said, “Dear, would you please
just shut up and make Love
to me!”
Fall through the words
into the Body; drop all thought
and penetrate within the rind. That's
what Love-making is all about, and
more. But I will remain silent about
the more.
No great lover is a great
lover, because he has mastered
the theories of other lovers, any more
than a poet is great, for he can quote
great poems.
The great lover is the one
who practices, the one who makes
an artwork out of loving. He longs for
the Body of the Friend, knowing that loving Her
makes him a better lover for Her.
Once, a Master instructed his
disciple, who complained of
his struggles at spiritual practice.
The Master said, “Son, just knowing
how to pucker up the lips, that is a
good beginning.”
Loving God and the other, one
Loving; always be a beginner,
always be ready to give and receive
more. Doing is the way beyond
the self, and being a speck of Dust
lost in the Sunlight is already to taste
Heaven.
*Brian Kenneth Wilcox, Jan, 4, 2010
Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians in Christian tradition, suddenly stopped writing his masterpiece of theology, not finishing the last of three volumes. He supposedly never wrote any theology again. Another theologian finished the work. When Aquinas' secretary complained that the work was not finished, Aquinas said, “Brother Reginald, some months ago I experienced something of the Absolute, so all I have ever written about God seems to me now to be like straw."
When the mystic came down from the
mountain he was accosted by the
atheist, who said sarcastically,
“What did you bring us from that
garden of delights you were in?”
The mystic replied, “I had every
intention of filling the skirt with
flowers and giving them to my
friends on my return.
But while I was there
I became so intoxicated with the fragrance of the garden
that I let go of the skirt.”
*Anthony de Mello
The one who knows, does not say. The one who says, does not know.
*Zen Aphorism
* * *
*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis. While within the Christian path, he is an ecumenical-interspiritual teacher, author, and chaplain. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Jail, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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