|
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.
Brian encourages support of the 4-Star Christian organization Compassion, which supports children worldwide; see www.compassion.com .
Prayer
Snatch me up and deliver me from all the passing comfort of creatures, for no created thing can fully quiet and satisfy my desires. Join me to Yourself in an inseparable bond of love; because You alone can satisfy me. Amen.
*From "Prayer For Enlightening the Mind." Www.ecatholic2000.com. Adaptation.
Scripture
10 When the people saw the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they would stand and bow down in front of their own tents. 11 Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.
*Exodus 33.10-11 (NLT)
Quote
Contemplation, although the highest form of prayer, is not an elite, lofty endeavor for special 'holy' people. It is for ordinary, happy, uncomplicated people who enjoy being with God.
Contemplation is a long, loving, listening, joyful look at the real God, at our real self, at real people and at the real world. ... Simply stated, it is a personal experience of God, a direct and immediate contact with the divine. It is as Moses experienced ... seeing God face-to-face, not through a concept or an image but directly through faith.
As a mother knows her child, the artist knows his work, a musician recognizes his created music, the contemplative knows God. It is knowing God deeper than the intellect, will or external senses; it is knowing God at the core. Contemplation is a spiritual knowledge, communicated spirit-to-spirit. It is an authentic, mysterious knowledge, a sacredness of self and of God, a pure, serene light inward. We cannot analyze it nor really conceptualize it, it is a view of the divine. It is relaxing in God, it is enjoying God in holy leisure, it is an act of sublime adoration. ... We feel His love, and we are united in serenity, unity and harmony.
*"Contemplation: A Treatise on Mysticism," by Jacqueline Galloway ( www.ecatholic2000.com ).
Spiritual Teaching
St. Therese of Lisieux (b. 1873) saw herself as what she called a little soul. Her spirituality was a contrast to much Catholic spirituality, which had stressed mortification of the body and doing extreme penances. St. Therese saw herself as that little soul loved by God like a parent loves a child. Harsh actions were not necessary for her little way to the Divine.
To share her teaching on Prayer, she used the image of a child falling asleep in the parent's lap and a patient resting trustingly in bed while being worked on by a physician.
St. Therese was asked what she did when praying. She said, "I don't do anything, I just love him!" Her way of trust in God's love has become known as the way of spiritual childhood.
Actually, St. Therese practiced the ancient form of Prayer we call Contemplative Prayer. The anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing speaks of this Prayer: "There will come times when your mind is free of involvement with anything material or spiritual and totally taken up with the being of God himself" (Chapter 67; Editor, W. Johnston).
I do not think Contemplative Prayer need be devoid of all things. Rather, this Pure Prayer is beyond meditation in that there is fruitful emptiness in which arises spiritualized images, feelings, thoughts, aspirations ... Yet, these come and go. God is equally present to the Soul, and the Soul to God, in the tranquil flux arising from the Union of Love.
Responding
Continue to practice daily your varied devotional acts. Allow time to sink into the Silence and there rest in the Beloved, in Love.
* * *
*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, with friends and under a vow of simplicity. Brian is an ecumenical-interspiritual leader, who chooses not to identify with any group, and renounces all titles of sacredness that some would apply to him, but seeks to be open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He affirms that all spiritual paths lead ultimately back to Jesus Christ. 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 briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*Contact the above email to book Brian for preaching, Spiritual Direction, retreats, workshops, animal blessing services, house blessings, or other spiritual requests. You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
|
