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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. This writer is an interspiritual-contemplative Christian. Interspiritual is open to the wisdom and practices of varied faith Paths, and does not see any one Path as the sole means of relationship with the Divine. I hope persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here, and this site can contribute to the unity of faiths in a world that needs religions to be a vital means of healing. 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-Contemplative Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader,
Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
Prayer - St. Thomas of Aquinas for Guidance
O creator past all telling,
you have appointed from the treasures of your wisdom
the hierarchies of angels,
disposing them in wondrous order
above the bright heavens,
and have so beautifully set out all parts of the universe.
You we call the true fount of wisdom
and the noble origin of all things.
Be pleased to shed
on the darkness of mind in which I was born,
The twofold beam of your light
and warmth to dispel my ignorance and sin.
You make eloquent the tongues of children.
Then instruct my speech
and touch my lips with graciousness.
Make me keen to understand, quick to learn,
able to remember;
make me delicate to interpret and ready to speak.
Guide my going in and going forward,
lead home my going forth.
You are true God and true man,
and live for ever and ever.
*St. Thomas Aquinas (b. c. 1225)
Scripture
20I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me. 21I don't turn my back on God's undeserved kindness [grace]. If we can be acceptable to God by obeying the Law, it was useless for Christ to die.
*Galatians 2.20-21 (CEV)
Spiritual Teaching
We are received into Christ, into Love, by “undeserved kindness,” or “grace.” This is the same energy of limitless, pure Love that we live in and through all the Journey, and beyond our exit from this life. Paul uses the image of walking to speak of persistence in Grace, in Love, modeled by the self-giving of Jesus:
Live a life filled with love [lit., walk in love], following the example of Christ. He loved us [or, you] and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
*Ephesians 5.2 (NLT)
Yet, we may struggle to walk in Love. For we may struggle to accept ourselves and know and feel dearly loved like we are. We may, also, project saintliness as an unattainable ideal, and see those called saints as free of the common struggles and foibles we humans share. These unrealistic images and ideas can lead us to give up on being truly, humanely holy.
* * *
St. Thomas Aquinas is likely rivaled by only one person as the greatest theologian the Church has known – St. Augustine. Aquinas was born about 1225, northern Italy. He was born near the small town of Aquino.
One night in the castle of Roccasecca, his home and birthplace, the young Thomas slept in the same room when one of his sisters was killed by lightening.
For the rest of his life, Aquinas was terrified of thunderstorms. He would duck into a church for refuge at the approach of a thunderstorm.
Spiritual Teaching
Aquinas was more than a great thinker, which he certainly was. He was a contemplative, also. Aquinas was a man of deep and consistent prayer. He was a truly holy person, of outstanding devoutness and Prayer. The Jesuit, James Martin, in his My Life with the Saints, shares:
This most intellectual of men was also deeply devout and frequently enjoyed intense experiences of mystical prayer. He was admired for his humility and piety. One of his friends said of him: “His marvelous science was far less due to his genius than to the efficacy of his prayers.” Richard McBrien writes in his Life of the Saints, “His entire ministry as teacher and preacher was a matter of giving to others what he had himself contemplated, which was for him the highest of all activities when done out of charity [i.e. Love].
* * *
So, here we have a deeply spiritual man, and one of the brightest thinkers in the history of the Church, and he hides in churches during thunderstorms. What, then, is the connection here? Just this. We admire and seek to emulate such devotion as that of Aquinas, and other saints, yet, we need to see them as very human, also. We can be encouraged by their humanness as much as their saintliness. We can learn that to grow in our devoutness does not take away all our human foibles, does not make us a spiritual superhero, does not make us immune to weaknesses and even sins that are common to other persons.
Yes, I am inspired as a thinker by the thinker Aquinas, I am inspired by the Aquinas that prayed before using his pen and was a mystic, but, also, I am inspired by the Aquinas huddled in a church, away from storm, thunder, and lightening – a man that despite his greatness, never showed one shred of evidence of recovering fully from the fatal death of his sister long before he became the imminent theologian and saint he was to be. As with Aquinas, we are not whole, perfect vessels, and we can celebrate that Grace uses us and understands our foibles even better than we do. So, take heart.
Responding
Are you struggling to accept your foibles? Are you accepting God loves you and accepts you as you are, that you do not have to be perfect to be dearly loved and to love yourself dearly? Be honest with God about this matter. Seek peace with God and yourself, open for Grace to love yourself fully, knowing God does.
* * *
*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.
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