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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.
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is called OneLife Ministries – An Interspiritual Contemplative Fellowship. Hope to see you there. Blessings.
Scripture
7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
*Psalm 51.7-8 (ESV)
Quote
Alone, in a deep wood
I could not see You, my Beloved
Then, a Light passed between the limbs overhead
and my eyes looked into a silent darkness
So sweet was this bright night,
no delight earthly could speak of it
For it pierced my ignorance with
a ray of Hope, lifting the veil of sadness
Now, I rest in Your arms
Content to smile while I wait this night's passing
A Wind blows the leaves lying about me
and whispers Your Name to my contented Heart
*Brian Kenneth Wilcox
Spiritual Teaching
Traditionally, purgatory is a place for cleansing between physical death and heaven. The word means “place or means of cleansing.” This place or means is for persons to suffer to cleanse non-mortal sins and have sins reversed by intercession of the living. There are purgatorial societies devoted to assist those in purgatory – by prayers and gifts. (“Purgatory.” In The Testament Christian Dictionary. Ed. George Thomas Kurian)
I am not here to defend, or not, the doctrine of purgatory. I am here to share a personal experience of purgatory on an archetypal, metaphorical level of spiritual experience, and apply this generally to purgatorial periods we go through in spiritual pilgrimage.
* * *
I awoke exhausted, but looking forward to my morning Prayer Time. After readings, I relaxed on my bed, and began seeking to pray and meditate. This seemed not to work: my body and mind were sluggish.
So, I got on the floor on my meditation bench. I was still struggling to get any positive sense of connection to the Spirit. My body and mind simply seemed closed off.
Then, a truth arose to awareness. You know, when you are spiritually able to “see” some truth and it has that energy of an epiphany. I mean, this spoke to me so deeply that I sat on my bench rejoicing – and positive energy coursed through me.
The truth. After months of struggling, trying to get out of my sense of being stuck, I realized I was where I was meant to be, in the Divine Order. Divine Providence had placed me in a purgatory. No, not that place after the demise of the body. Rather, that place of suffering and cleansing we go through to prepare us for the next aspect of the Journey, and the present burning away of left-over negativity from the past.
Why was I so excited to receive this Word? Well, I could relax. I could see that I was not really stuck, I was where I needed to be. I could not move on, not until the cleansing prepared me to receive the blessings the Holy Spirit had in store.
* * *
These purgatorial times are not times of punishment. God is not judging us. These times are a natural part of Divine Providence, a natural-spiritual law that holds us back until we are prepared to move on.
Here, we rely on Divine Providence. We relax into the suffering and faith of being in this interim period. We seek to be faithful to our devotions and service to others, for such faithfulness is vital to our purgation.
Possibly, if we can see the purpose of such purgatorial phases, we can shift our attitude. Rather than feeling stuck, and moaning about our being in the bog, we can rejoice to sink into the acceptance of the waiting period and give thanks for it as a positive and preparatory experience.
* * *
Now, contrast this waiting with moving on too quickly. How many times have you rushed on without being prepared for a blessing? Then, when you got it, you could not appreciate it.
See, we need times of preparation, and some of these are times entailing the suffering of purging the past. Then, we can move on, not with an attitude of woundedness, but with the joy of being healed.
The Psalmist prayed to be cleansed with hyssop. Hyssop was a plant used in ceremonial cleansings. This is a way of referring to our need to be cleansed of the leavings of the past, that we may be prepared for the freshness of the future.
Sometimes Love refuses to give us what we want and need, until we are prepared for it. That you cannot move on to the next stage of your spiritual Journey may mean only that you are being prepared to have it, enjoy it, and keep the blessings it has for you. Amen.
Responding
1)Do meditation on our Scripture for today? How does it apply to your life? What is the relationship between inner cleansing and joy?
2) Have you ever gone through a purgatorial period? If you would like, share what that was like for you.
3) Are you now going through a purgatorial time? How might you respond to this to maximize the gift of such a time?
* * *
*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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