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Lenten Devotionals 2009
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, the writer hopes persons of other faiths find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps you trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches you. Please share this ministry with others, and I hope you return soon. There is a new offering daily.
Blessings,
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox
Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader,
Spiritual Counselor, Chaplain
PRAYERFUL ENTERING
Let the following affirmation be preparation for entering into the Inner Sanctuary of the Heart of Hearts...
In this moment,
I am open fully to the Divine
I am not seeking anything
I am not straining for anything
In this moment,
Love is arising to me
Love is with me
Love is sustaining me
In this moment,
I am in Love with Love
I give and receive as I am given opportunity
I, thereby, am a conduit of blessing
Giving and receiving timely and joyfully
In this moment,
I am receiving all I need
I am not defined by the past
I am not defined by what I do not have
I am not defined by what I have
I am not defined by what I feel
In this moment,
Spirit and I are one
Spirit is bringing into my life whatever I need
*Brian K. Wilcox
LISTENING TO THE SCRIPTURES
15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
*Matthew 5.15-17 (ESV)
RECEIVING SACRED TEACHING
You are light; you are formed to be a Light-conductor. You are a unique expression of Light. There is no other person who has lived, does live, or will live with the Light-configuration you are.
The Universe is a vibration of sacral Energy. You are part of that Energy. You are a sacrament of God, a living expression of the Creator, a means of divine creativity - of godness.
You share in the One Light of Love and Generosity. Your every word, thought, and act enhances or not the focus and intensity of Light within and through you.
You are to be a laser beam of Divine Grace, and this Grace is nothing other than the manifesting Presence of God, the Mind of the cosmos, an extension of pure Transcendence in the immanence of your body, surroundings, and world.
* * *
I stopped at the quaint little store in the mountain city of Solvang, California. It was filled with clocks, tick, tick, ticking away. Some sang, some chirped. Some just ticked. "If you wind them and leave them together long enough, they'll all soon be ticking together in harmony," the shopkeeper told me knowingly. I listened. What she said was true.
*Melody Beattie. Journey to the Heart. "Be Aware of the Energy Around You." April 10.
* * *
St. Paul tells us of the need to have close to us persons with a like spirit - a like energy field. Such persons encourage us and edify us in spiritual aspiration and practice of virtue.
Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together.
*II Corinthians 6.14cd (NCV)
How do these persons encourage and edify? Certainly, by words, but more so by Presence.
* * *
We are energy and vibration. When we're open, how easy it is to begin ticking to the rhythm of those around us. If we had kept ourselves locked up and put away, it would be different. But since we've chosen to be open, to be sensitive, to open our hearts and souls, we'll connect with, tick to, the vibrations of those around us. Our energy fields will touch and merge. We'll begin to feel, and sometimes visibly take on, the characteristics, rhythms, and vibrations of those in our field.
Pay attention to, choose carefully, those with whom you live. ... Sometimes, when we're feeling off balance, it may be that we're around energy that just isn't right for us.
*Melody Beattie. Journey to the Heart. "Be Aware of the Energy Around You." April 10.
* * *
When we open to Spirit - positive energies of spiritual love, joy, peace, ... - we open, whether we realize it or not, to negative energies.
Energies are all around us and manifest in many ways. They may influence us in ways nonrational, below awareness. Influence may evidence biologically or emotionally, or both.
We could term these negative energies "demons," and these could include personal spirits or purely energies. In the spiritual world, the two may be the same.
Everyone, however, has an energy quality. We are energy. We take on varied energies to form our energy-constellation. We share with everyone in our immediate surroundings our energy configuration. We give and receive and, thereby, is formed a community of energy-sharing - a communion.
We, therefore, are to choose wisely whom we let into our energy field. As we move closer to Spirit, the persons whom we share intimately our energy with will likely become more select and fewer.
Now, surely, we must live among many persons. Yet, we can do some things to protect ourselves energetically. First, choose whom you allow to get close to you. You can love everyone you meet, but, likely you will meet few persons to share intimately with in a spiritual way.
Second, keep constant in devotion. Prayer, as well as other devotional practice, builds up a protection against negative energy sources, human and otherwise.
Likewise, do not feel wrong for detracting your energy sharing with someone. You yourself hold the key to whom connects with you energetically or not.
Also, be aware of the energy field of anyone who wants to have a close relationship with you. If you have what we often call a "gut feeling" that someone is not good for you, pay attention to that intuition.
Last, at the beginning of each day, pray an energy prayer. Pray for a hedge of protection to be solid around you.
* * *
We are to be a Light. To be that rightly, we have to focus on nurturing and maintenance of our whole self-system as a means of Grace. To be Divine Energy is to be Light, is to be a Way of Grace coming into our dimension, of Christ sharing Love with persons around us.
* * *
One energy enhancer and protection, as noted above, is a soul companion. I favor "soul companion" to "soul mate," the latter over-romanticized.
We need one close soul companion. Yet, we need a community of soul companions. This community may be a few or many persons.
I offer a warning. Be careful about trying to find a community of soul companions in your religious community. Most religious community is not designed to provide deep and steady nurturing of persons living deeply the spiritual life. Most persons in religion are not prepared to understand such, live such, and give you support in such a life.
Thankfully, more and more Christians are being introduced to the practice of a deeper spiritual life. So, the extent of soul companions in the Christian faith has been expanding in the last decades.
Most religious leaders are not prepared to be soul companions. Such persons tend to be surrounded by institutional constraints and preoccupations, and do not feel in a position to be as open as many other persons. Many among the clergy are defensive in such matters, seeing their position, income, and reputation are linked to ecclesiastical approval and "blessing."
Yet, there are deeply spiritual religious leaders, and it would be wonderful for you to share spiritually with such a person. Based on my experience, however, they are few in the Christian faith - and I assume in all faiths. We in the Christian faith have tended to train church leaders, not men and women filled with and being a means of the numinous Holy.
Do not limit yourself only to your religious sect when seeking a soul companion. There are deeply spiritual beings in other religious faiths.
Most of all, be prayerful that God will work to bring you and your soul companion or companions together. Do not seek such too hard, for such matters are more of a gift than something you find.
* * *
Soul companions are persons who will be a refuge for you. They will mediate the Presence of Grace. They will console you, and they will challenge you. They will share and be shared with about experiences you each, or all, can share with only a few.
To share our experiences of God, we need the blessing of a spiritual community of like-minded souls around us. We need a place where we belong spiritually as well as physically, ...
You need community around you and with you because, as your interior world becomes more alive, you will want to be with people who understand the journey - not your journey, but the soul's journey.
A soul companion is not a soul mate but a person with whom you share a bond of reverence for the spiritual journey you are both on and for how you have chosen to walk on this Earth. Soul companions discuss topics that nourish each other's spirits and help each other appreciate the divine gifts in their lives.... Soul companions use their inner light to illuminate the light in each other. ... You are spiritual mirrors for each other, witnesses to each other's sacred experiences,...
*Caroline Myss. Entering the Castle.
QUIETLY RESPONDING
1) How are you taking care of yourself, as regards your being a field of energy meant to be a spiritual Light to the world?
2) Do you have a soul companion? If so, who is it? How is he or she fulfilling that role in your life? If you do not have a soul companion, pray for one.
3) Do you have a soul companions community? If so, how does the group help you? How do you help other members? If you do not have such a community, pray for one. You may be led to start one, or to seek one out.
4) Can you protect yourself energetically better? If so, how.
5) Are you in an energy relationship with someone you need to release from your energy field? Are you willing to do that?
6) Do you know someone you might want to be spiritually close to? What is there about him or her that leads you to consider that possibility? I encourage you to pray about the matter.
* * *
*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian K. Wilcox, of SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis. Brian is an ecumenical spiritual leader, open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Contact the above email to book Brian for Spiritual Direction, retreats, or workshops. You can order his book An Ache for Union at major book dealers.
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