|
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
Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it [or, he] is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.
*I John 3.1-3, NAB
Saint: 1) a person canonized by a church as an exalted example of holiness and service; these persons are on a long list of saints; 2) persons who are saintly; these persons may or may not be canonized; 3) all who have chosen to be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Teaching
We, in Christ, live in hope. This hope does not take us out of the beauty and needs of the present. Yet, the hope assures us of being “like him.” Because we bear the likeness of God, we aspire to be like God, fully: to be godly.
When we have this hope, I John says, we make ourselves “pure, as he is pure.” This is a conscious choice. We know God is holy. The more we are pure, the more holy we are, and the more like God we are, even in this life. Again, to have tasted of Christ means we want to be Christlike, and grow in Christlikeness.
To be holy, and to be pure, is to be saintly. This entails more than a moral abstinence from certain behaviors. We are not holy simply because we keep a list of dos and don'ts. We each may have known someone who was morally outstanding, as regards moral taboos, yet, they did not embody and share the Spirit of Christ. That is, they were outwardly moral, but they did not exemplify a person who had his or her self consecrated to the Love and Service of Christ Jesus.
Saintliness entails a consecration of our entire being to our Creator, in the Son, through the agency of the Holy Spirit. This is both an act, when we commit to this life of Purity and Service, and this is a process, one which deepens over time and with experience of following Christ.
* * *
Today, for the first time I met Lois. Lois is in her 70s. She is one of the Catholic volunteers at our jail. I met her before she went in to offer her Service; I immediately was impressed by her smile and gentle, lively spirit.
Afterward, I was waiting outside to welcome the Protestant volunteers, and here came Lois. She and I spoke again. This time she shared how joyful was her work with the inmates. Again, I was blessed with the joyful, gentle, and kind spirit of this beautiful soul.
During the conversation, Lois spoke of her feeling of being one with the inmates. She said, “My father taught us that no one is higher than the hat on your head or lower than the shoes on your feet.”
Lois told me of meeting a woman at her church. After Worship she saw a woman standing alone. She approached Lois and hugged her. She reminded Lois that when she had been an inmate, she promised Lois one day she would give Lois a hug on the outside. She did that day. And she said to Lois, “Do you know why the women in the jail like you so much?” Lois wondered. The former inmate said, “Because you don't talk down to us.”
* * *
Today – Sunday, November 1 -, in the Church, many celebrate All Saint's Day. On this day Christians honor persons recognized for their holiness and service to humankind. These persons live the Christ Spirit. The Holy Spirit, who serves with and among persons, not as One above, but One with, serves to meet the needs of humans through these humans we call the saints. These persons embody the Love that reaches out as an equal through persons like Lois.
* * *
In the early Church, Christians began celebrating the anniversay of the death of martyrs, and at the place of their death. In the 300s dioceses began interchanging feasts, transferring relics, to divide them, and to join in a common celebration. A common day for honoring all martyrs came after the persecution of Diocletian (d. 313). The number of martyrs was so immense, that a separate day for each was not possible. Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary on the present date for All Saint's Day. Gregory IV (827-844) extended the feast on November 1 to the entire Church, East and West. (“The Catholic Encyclopedia.” www.newadvent.org ).
* * *
As a Protestant, I find the Saints of the Eastern Orthodox and Latin Catholic churches to be an inspiration to me. I have enjoyed reading their lives and service. I do not find the lists of saints to be exhaustive, and neither the Eastern or Western Churches see the saints as other than human persons who attained great holiness.
Yet, the more fundamental level of saint is what we find in the New Testament. Repeatedly, every Christian is called “saints,” meaning “holy ones, consecrated ones.” Our baptism is a sign and sacrament of our being set apart to Christ, and to serve others through the Holy Spirit of the Word.
Persons like Lois are saints, in that they are saintly. They embody and share the Spirit of Jesus in humble, glad service. They encourage us each to a more humble, selfless, and joyful worship and service.
* * *
Saints on a list of saints, daily saintly persons like Lois – who will never be canonized by a Church -, and all those in Christ encourage us to fulfill the calling in our baptism. Christ encourages us all to live consecrated lives, knowing our baptism and participation in the Word and, also, Table of Christ summons us to be truly holy in this world. We may never be canonized by a church, but we can be and live saintly, with the help of the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Responding
1)Is there a saintly Christian from past history that has inspired you to live a consecrated life in Christ? What about him or her has inspired you?
2)Has a saintly person you have known personally inspired you to a life of holiness? What about him or her so inspired you?
* * *
*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.
|
