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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.
Prayer
Christ, live your Life through me.
Scripture
16You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
*Matthew 7.16, NLT
Spiritual Teaching
Mark O'Keefe, in “Prayer and Conversion,” tells of teaching a class on moral theology. He asked what is the “first principle of natural law” - the most basic natural, moral law. The answer, in the reading for that day, is “Do good and avoid evil.” A student said, jokingly, “If it feels good, do it.” He quickly added, “And don't forget its corollary: 'You got a problem? Take a pill.'”
*In The Tradition of Catholic Prayer.
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The great spiritual masters of our tradition, and our own experience after even a little trying, tell us that building up a habit of prayer is hard work. But, what's more, growth in real prayer, entering into deeper prayer, is not just about praying more often or more consistently. Growth and deepening in prayer requires making our whole life, day in and day out, fertile ground for prayer. Our daily life must become increasingly consistent with our growing life of prayer in order to support that prayer and as a manifestation of a true growth in prayer.
It is easy to think that we can judge the quality or health of our prayer by how it feels. But feelings in prayer are notoriously fleeting and unreliable. The wisdom of our tradition tells us that we should judge the quality of our prayer not by how it feels, but by how it is changing our living. We judge the health of a tree by the fruit it bears. If our prayer is converting us by making us more loving, more patient, more generous, more forgiving, then we can be sure that our prayer is good; because real prayer is always and necessarily linked to conversion of life.
*Mark O'Keefe. “Prayer and Conversion.”
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Conversion can entail two aspects – a moment of decisive turning to God, or the ongoing process of being conformed to the image of Christ. In the latter, as O'Keefe presents, prayer is vital. True prayer both inspires holiness, which is conversion of life as a process, and as one grows more into the likeness of Christ, he or she longs to pray as a communion with the Sacred and an impetus to become more like the One dearly loved and longed to emulate in spirit and act.
This is a slow process, and we need not be discouraged as we notice small inspirations and movements showing we are falling more deeply in Love with Jesus. There are moments we may seem to be soaring spiritually, and other moments of such apparent failure that we might be tempted to lose faith in our capacity to be true to the Way. This need not delay or detour us. Return to Prayer, be honest about the struggle and discouragement, and ask for Grace. Above all, keep prayerful, regardless of your feelings, and spurred on by the apparent stumblings along the Path of conversion.
Responding
1)How do you see relationship between prayer and life in your life experience?
2)What evidences do you see in your life for your ongoing conversion of life?
3)What are Christlike qualities you aspire to manifest as a follower of Jesus?
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*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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