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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 pray 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 I hope you 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 barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
Blessings,
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox, MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, Chaplain
Brian encourages support of the 4-Star Christian organization Compassion, which supports children worldwide; for more see www.compassion.com .
OneLife ministry appeals for a collective opposition in Love to all forms of prejudice based on religion, as is so practiced in fundamentalist and conservative, and in some moderate, religious groups. Such is to be seen as a violation of the central teachings of Christ: Love God above all, Love others as yourself. May all such prejudice cease, and may all peoples and loving faiths live as One on this earth. Amen.
Opening Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
with all thy quickening powers;
kindle a flame of sacred love
in these cold hearts of ours.
See how we trifle here below,
fond of these earthly toys;
our souls, how heavily they go,
to reach eternal joys.
In vain we tune our formal songs,
in vain we strive to rise;
hosannas languish on our tongues,
and our devotion dies.
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
with all they quickening powers;
come, shed abroad a Savior's love,
and that shall kindle ours.
*Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Alt. In Poems of Grace.
Sacred Teaching
In other words, suppressing or acting out both produce substitute emotions rather than true emotions. Both are sedatives. Experiencing perfect, or true, emotions means relaxing the background totality, realizing that the emotions are functioning or happening in the midst of the whole space. At that point, we begin to experience the flavors of the emotions, their textures, their tempera-tures. We begin to feel the living aspect of the emotions rather than the frus-trated aspect.
*Chögyam Trungpa. Orderly Chaos: The Mandala Principle.
In the 2004 movie “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” all have returned to Hogwarts for the start of a new school year. After the students are seated, Professor Dumbledore begins announcements. He introduces new faculty members. He, then, turns to a serious topic concerning the students’ safety. He says, "On advice of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the Dementors of Azkaban, until such a time as Sirius Black [who was perceived to be a dangerous foe] is captured. The Dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds."
The Dementors are frightening beings, and Dumbledore says that they will not disrupt the school. He warns, however, that "Dementors are vicious creatures. They will not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way. Therefore, I must warn each and every one of you—give them no reason to harm you. It is not in the nature of a Dementor to be forgiving. But, you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."
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Despair is alien to the Christ spirit. Meditation and Contemplative living are means to transform energies of negativity.
Faith does not mean denying “the darkest of times.” Faith looks through eyes of Light to see the truth that good is inherent in evil, clarity is integral to doubt, and love resides within hate.
There is an Angel inside “Satan.” “Satan” can become the manifestation of Light, which is only repressed as the Shadow.
We experience personal and cultural Dementors. Such negativity includes anything that brings harm and fragmentation. And, in meditation and Silence, we experience this dark side, manifesting subtleties of harmfulness and selfishness we would not have seen without the ego-self being disarmed by Quiet.
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The Pharisee functions as an archetype in the Gospels. He is a chief opponent of Jesus Christ, and the dangerousness of the Pharisee is in denying the darkness that captivated his attention, a darkness that could not see itself as darkness.
However, one Pharisee, Nicodemus, realizing the Light of Christ, came to Christ in the dark of night (St. John 4.1ff). Later, Nicodemus sought, before his colleagues, to defend Jesus’ right to a fair trial (St. John 7.45ff). Also, he assisted Joseph of Arimathea in taking Jesus’ body off the cross and in the burial (St. John 19.48ff). Nicodemus brought the ointment to apply to the body. Nicodemus is a sign of the potential transformation of darkness by Light, the conversion of negativity into positivity.
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Judas, through betraying Christ, manifested the darkness that provided the context for the Light of Christ to show its Love. Light arises out of darkness, for its potential is already in darkness. Darkness and light are part of the one Good Creation: For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4.6, ESV). The passage does not read, “Let light replace darkness,” or “Let darkness be destroyed that light may shine.” No, “Let light shine out of darkness.”
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So, look deeply into the darkness, and do not despair. See the Sun and Moon and all the Stars, see a million Galaxies and more, in the blackness of a cloudy night. Faith says, as Elohim in Genesis 1: “Let there be light.” And, amazingly, one finds that in saying this, she discovers that the Light of God is the Light she has in herself. She is the Light, for she is one Substance with the Father, with the Mother, for out of a substance one must share the substance - how much more must this apply to God and you, who are created by God.
Then, she knows that to shine the Light is simply to be her Self as manifestation of the Light. This gives her inestimable value, and magnifies her service and presence among others.
Blessings! In Christ!
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox
June 19, 2009
barukhattah@embarqmail.com
SUGGESTIONS FOR PRAYERFUL REFLECTION
In what practical ways do you turn on the "light" so as to transform the "darkness"?
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*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-interspiritual 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 . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*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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