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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. I hope persons of varied wisdom paths will find inspiration here.
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox
MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Teacher, Author
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is called OneLife Ministries – A Contemplative Interspiritual Fellowship.
SAGELY WORDS
Faith is God's work within us.
Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
*Thomas Aquinas. 13th Century. Christian philosopher and theologian.
SPIRITUAL TEACHING
Thomas Aquinas is the greatest Christian theologian and philosopher of the West. He is know for his synthesis of Aristotle and Christian thought. His synthesizing and writing were immense, for Aquinas wrote eight million words: two million on the Bible, one million on Aristotle, and the remainder to university teaching and compendia for theology students.
Yet, on December 6 1273, during Mass in Naples, something happened that changed the course of Aquinas' life as writer. Some commentators say he had a mystical experience, others think he had a cerebral stroke. Aquinas, regardless, refused to complete his Summa Theologiae; the work was left off at Part 3, Question 90, Article 4.
Aquinas' secretary, Reginald of Piperno, urged him to complete the work. Aquinas replied: “Reginald, I cannot … in comparison with what I have seen in prayer all that I have written seems to me as if it were straw."
Aquinas did write again ~ a commentary on the Song of Songs. This he wrote on his deathbed. He apparently was injured by a bough of a tree, as he rode toward the Council of Lyons. Sadly, no copy of the commentary survives.
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Aquinas reminds us of the power of prayer over words. Likewise, a story, likely apocryphal, about him reminds us of the same. In Paris, Aquinas was asked his view on the Mass. He went into a state of silent, deep prayer, contemplating for an unusually long time. Afterward, he wrote down his thoughts on the Mass. When through, he threw down his writing at the foot of a crucifix and sunk back into silent prayerfulness. Friars present said Jesus descended from the cross, picked up the scroll, and read it. Jesus spoke, “Thomas, you have written well concerning the Sacrament of My Body.”
Possibly, Aquinas' most important lesson to us is not anything he wrote. He was a man of prayer, and reports are that he wrote only after praying. Could it be we would be much better off using fewer words and spending more time in prayer? Possibly, the centrality of prayer to the spiritual life is the most important gift he left us.
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SPIRITUAL EXERCISE
How much time do you spend in prayer? Do you have set times for prayer? What are different forms of prayer you use? Would you like to spend more time in prayer? What excuses do you make not to pray more? Would you do better by being silent more and praying more?
© OneLife Ministries. Feb 21, 2010.
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*The writer was assisted on material concerning Aquinas by Simon Critchley. The Book of Dead Philosophers.
*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.
*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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