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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 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 .
Affirmation
Go into quiet, and spend a brief time repeating inwardly the following. Or you may want to sing it as a chant. Afterward, proceed to the Scripture.
I discover God through being fully present to others in Love.
Scripture
You make me to know the path of life;
fullness of joy is with Your Presence,
and pleasant things by Your right hand for ever!
*Psalm 16.11, YLT (Adapted for Modern Readers)
Spiritual Teaching
Prayer is aimed at our deepest problem: our tendency to forget our liberating connectedness with God.
*Tilden Edwards. Living in the Presence.
* * *
I agree with Tilden Edwards that our deepest problem is one of forgetfulness. We get distracted by so many things. We become, if not careful, like a person dying of thirst, while water surrounds him. We can be like those Jeremiah refers to:
13You, my people, have sinned in two ways-
you have rejected me,
the source
of life-giving water,
and you've tried to collect water
in cracked and leaking pits [cisterns]
dug in the ground.
*Jeremiah 2.13, CEV
Jeremiah ties together two errors, both working together, as they do in our lives and societies. First, he mentions the people rejecting God. Then, the people tirelessly seek the quenching of spiritual thirst through means that cannot provide what only the real Presence of God can provide them. This futile grasping Jeremiah compares to cisterns, or wells, that cannot hold water. Aptly, in contrast, God is seen to be the “source of life-giving water.”
* * *
Jesus gives us a vision of spiritual Life as of fulness, or abundance. He did not present us a God who rejoices in withholding, but gives the Fulness of Godself flowing into every aspect of our lives. This, of course, is a spiritual fullness, and we need not equate it with an assumption that we shall have anything we want or have an abundance of material possessions – indeed, when a person is full of the Spirit, and the blessedness of such, he or she does not thirst for such material possessions: "I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest" (John 10.10, CEV).
* * *
Psalm 16.11 speaks of three blessings of the spiritual Life. We can enjoy knowing the “path of life.” This means there is a path of death, a way that leads to separation from our Source and the true meaning of our journey here on earth. We can enjoy, in fullness, the Presence of the Divine. This entails, again, the potential of separation from that Lively Presence. We can enjoy, thirdly, “pleasant things” through the gift of Grace. This implies there are many things we can grasp for, which will not be the blessings implied by the Psalmist. How often have we gotten what we wanted and missed what was best for us, for we did not trust patiently and prayerfully? So, this sums up the verse: Life, Presence, Blessings.
Therefore, what might have happened, if we can ever say, “I know longer enjoy Life, Presence, and Blessings”? Does this not happen to us, at times, against our intents - or better, for we fail to be focused and committed enough in our intent?
* * *
Blessed Padre Pio speaks of enjoyment of the blessedness of spiritual Grace. He writes: “Often place yourself in the presence of God, and offer him all your actions and suffering” (Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti. Padre Pio's Words of Hope. "Presence of God." Meditation 105).
All the Good of spiritual blessedness flows from living in the Presence. If I am not enjoying Life, Presence, and Blessings, I can ask, “Have I forgotten consistently to place myself in the Presence of the Sacred?” Likely, I have lost that connectivity to God, which Tilden Edwards speaks of, and I have chosen to invest in leaky wells, among them good things that draw me away from the best God has for us.
* * *
We need tools to practice living in the Presence and to enjoy the Life of blessedness. Early monastics employed a word translated in English “tools” for practices of living in the Holy Spirit. If I wanted a nail to penetrate a piece of wood I am working on, I would not use a fork, I would use my hammer. And I would not try to cut my steak with a leveler, I would use a knife. So, see, there is a basic sanity about choosing instruments to place ourselves in the Presence of God consistently – and that word “consistently” is key to enjoying the blessed Life.
So, living in the Presence is as practical as eating a meal. I may have a spoon, fork, plate, glass, … We can say these are tools of enjoying a meal. Any spiritual thought or act, and intentional spiritual disciplines, are tools to enjoy spiritual blessedness.
* * *
Certainly, there are times we do not feel blessed or blessedness. No one lives in a constant state of spiritual ecstasy and likely few, if any, in uninterrupted spiritual contentment. Many of the Psalms do not reflect the enjoyment that the Psalmist speaks of in our verse for today. Yet, when we are in these spiritual lows, it is vital to be faithful to our spiritual practices. Our loyalty to the acts, words, and disciplines that keep us turned toward the Face of Grace will help sustain us and see us back to a felt sense of the Presence of God.
Responding
1.What are intentional ways you are applying to live in the Presence of Love?
2.What are some good things our culture promotes, but you consider do not encourage you to live so as to enjoy the blessedness Christ wills for you?
3.Are you being consistent in your spiritual disciplines? Explain.
4.How might you live more consistently the spiritual Life, so as to enjoy a closer, more intimate relationship with God?
* * *
*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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