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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.
Scripture
15If you have ears, pay attention!
16You people are like children sitting in the market and shouting to each other,
17"We played the flute,
but you would not dance!
We sang a funeral song,
but you would not mourn!"
*Matthew 11, CEV
Affirmation
I recieve the Word of God in many ways daily.
Spiritual Teaching
”Listen!” … I could spend the rest of my life pondering the implications of that one word. It plungers me at once into a personal relationship. It takes me away from the danger of talking about God and not communing with him. [I[t is good to ask myself how I hear God. I must remember it is an encounter, …
*Esther de Waal. A Life-Giving Way.
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Child actor Ron Howard was interviewed before an Actor's Studio audience of students. He was asked how he learned his lines, when he was a child and still unable to read. He said his father told him not to worry about what he was to say next. Howard was to focus his attention on what the other actor was saying. He was to respond to that. Howard recalled, “When you listen to what is being said to you, then you know what comes next.”
*Interview by James Lipton, “Inside the Actor's Studio,” shown on C-Span 2, 1999.
The whole spiritual life is a response. In living organisms a response is due to an internal or external stimulus. The stimulus is the causative agent. Likewise, in the spiritual life our growth and living is a sensitivity to the many ways the Sacred stimulates us. These stimuli can be of an internal or external nature. With discernment of that, we can respond naturally.
Internally, we may be stimulated in varied ways. Among these is an intuition, or hunch, that makes clear what Spirit is communicating and how we are to reply. Likewise, we may sense a blockage in the body, the energy is not flowing, we do not feel a connection to the Holy. This can be a signal of varied matters – a health issue, not enough rest, need of forgiveness, failure to be consistent in devotions, entanglement in an emotion that hinders contact with God,...
Externally, we may be stimulated in many ways. Spirit may speak – or stimulate – us through the word of a friend, a piece of art, a scripture, nature, the kindness of a stranger, the faithfulness of our love or beloved, the liturgy of a worship service, words from a book or speech, a teaching, …
The key is to live so close to Spirit that we can “hear.” The Divine rarely shouts, and often the simulations are missed if we are not wakeful.
Today, I got up and had devotion, prior to going for a job interview. I prayed to Spirit to show me in some way that He, She, was present and in control. After the interview I went to eat. The waitress placed my bill on the table. I joyfully and surprised read the name, the first time I had met anyone with the name: Brianna. Oddly, this is the name I joke with friends about when I refer to my feminine side: for my masculine name is Brian. This providential weaving of events alerted me to the humor of God. “Brianna” was God saying, “Hey! I'm here. I'm in control.” I smiled, I recognized, I responded. I would have missed it, had I not been alert to "listen."
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The trouble with relating to God, it seems, is that we don't hear what God says. If, as has been claimed, God is everywhere, in everything, and is always speaking, then the problem may be the way we are listening and not whether or not we are being spoken to.
*Corinne Ware. Saint Benedict on the Freeway.
How we listen is vital, for God is always speaking. One key is to recall God speaks in many ways, and God often speaks in ways we are not expecting, sometimes maybe least expecting. The Divine Word arises in the sounds and silences we live with and among daily.
Responding
A practice in listening to the Sacred – I offer you this brief exercise to work with. See if it helps you listen to the Holy Spirit speak within you and to you.
Go into meditation. Become quiet and calm. Relax for a few minutes. Pose this question silently – that is, do not say anything vocally, only inwardly: “What is Your purpose in my life?” Now, enter total Silence again. Be receptive to any answer that arises inwardly. This could come as words, an image, an intuitive feeling, a memory, lyrics of a song, … Wait until this arises. Ask anything you want back, to get clarification and continue the conversation. Listen again. Give thanks for the answer to your question, or questions. Devote yourself to do as Spirit has stimulated you. Slowly come out of the meditation. Sit for a couple of minutes before you get up.
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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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