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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, 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, MDiv, MFT, PhD
Ecumenical Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader,
Spiritual Counselor, Chaplain
LISTENING TO THE SCRIPTURES
When you pray, go into a room alone and close the door. Pray to your Father in private. He knows what is done in private, and he will reward you.
*Matthew 6.6 (CEV)
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
*James 4.10 (NLT)
6Be humble in the presence of God's mighty power, and he will honor you when the time comes. 7God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him.
*I Peter 5.6-7 (CEV)
INNER DISPOSITION OF PRAYER
Michael Molinos, or Miguel de Molinos (1628-1696 CE), was a Spanish priest condemned for teaching Quietism. The Catholic hierarchy came to consider Quietism heretical.
Quietism at its best, though, taught self-abasement and total abandonment of all things to God. This self-abandonement was practiced in Silent Prayer.
Molinos observes there are two modes of spirituality among Christians. First, many persons are externally spiritual. Other persons are internally spiritual (The Spiritual Guide. Library of Spiritual Classics. Vol. 5).
The externally spiritual use the outward means to live out the Christian life. Molinos explains:
These people endure pain to obtain virtue. They delight in talking about God. They delight in being very fervent in love, and even in being skilled in prayer. They are seeking to obtain greatness by doing things. They believe God abides close to them only by their doing the above-mentioned things.
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