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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.
My Confession of Faith
A LOVE RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST
and through JESUS CHRIST
for ALL.
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
We do not preach about ourselves, but we preach that Jesus Christ is Lord and that we are your servants for Jesus.
*2 Corinthians 4.5, NCV
SPIRITUAL TEACHING
St. Paul declared himself a servant to those he ministered to. He saw being a humble servant as integrated with proclamation about Jesus Christ. Will not each devout follower of Jesus seek to be a servant of others, and find meaning in such humbleness of heart and lowliness of mind?
* * *
St. Theodosius (d. 1074) was one of two original pioneers of Russian monasticism. His teacher St. Antony established a monastic community in a cave overlooking Kiev. Upon retiring back into solitude, St. Antony gave leadership of the community to St. Theodosius, in 1032.
St. Theodosius, from a wealthy family, dressed like a serf and worked in the fields, when a young man. This scandalized his family. His mother protested; St. Theodosius replied: “Our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself and underwent degradation, and we have got to follow His example in this, too.”
St. Theodosius said that sanctification was to be sought through, not private asceticism, but love and discipline in community life. In this, he followed St. Basil and others. So, he transferred the monks from their individual cave dwellings and made them live together.
Likewise, the abbot held that the monastery existed to serve the world, in addition to the benefit of the community itself. Therefore, his monastery founded a hospital, a guest house, and a soup kitchen. So, the monks served the sick, travelers, and the poor. So clear did St. Theodosius see Jesus setting the example of ministry to the poor, that he wrote:
Mindful of the commandment of the good Lord, my unworthy self declares to you that it is good for us to feed the hungry and the homeless with the fruits of our labor.... If God's grace does not uphold and nourish us through the poor, what should we do with all our works?
Likewise, St. Theodosius was active in community affairs and was widely regarded a strong advocate for social justice. He served as a spiritual director for laity outside the monastery, worked in the kitchen and fields, and nursed the sick brothers. He died one year after his master Antony.
The relics of St. Theodosius were found undecayed by St. Nestor the Chronicler, August 14, 1091. They were transferred to the main cathedral of the monastery.
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I share about St. Theodosius for us to think upon the mutual reliance of the inner and outer lives, so to speak. Likewise, we can see in him an example of the engagement with the world central to the devout life. Certainly, Jesus exemplified this life of engagement with the world, though he had a rich inner life, also.
On one occasion the disciples of Jesus are fussing about who would be most important among them. Note how Jesus responds:
24 Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the most important among them. 25 Jesus told them, “In this world system the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ 26 But among you it will be different. Those who are the most important among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. 27 Who is more important, the one who sits at the table to be served or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, obviously. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves."
*Luke 22.24-28
* * *
This past Sunday, I was honored to be one who serves. A young man had not been baptized, and he wanted to be. He asked me, as Chaplain, to do it. I went into the cells where he lives. Several of his friends attended the baptism. We gathered in a small visitation room. We prayed, sang, and I gave a message. Then, he knelt before us on the hard, concrete floor, in the middle of the circle of friends. I poured water over him three times, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I anointed him with oil and the sign of the cross. To serve him, to be one with him, I knelt when anointing and blessing him. I was with him on the floor, not above him. This was a way of saying, "I may be your Chaplain, I may be ordained, I may be outside, but I am your servant, even as you are my servant." I was saying to this newly baptized man, "See, this is the Way of Christ. We live out our baptism in serving, in being a humble servant." To so knell, to serve, embodied for me the spirit of Jesus, the example of such men and women as St. Theodosius, and the man I pray to be for Christ. Amen.
RESPONDING
1)In what ways do you see yourself living out Christlike service to others?
2)Are there opportunities at being a servant that you are not taking advantage of? How might you follow this opportunities?
3)Find a friend or family member who would do the following with you.
(a) Each of you share the story of an act of humble service you engaged in that brought you much joy and meaning.
(b) Each of you share when someone brought much joy and blessing to you by serving you in some humble manner.
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*Material about St. Theodosius drawn from Robert Ellsberg. All Saints.
*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. While within the Christian path, he is an ecumenical-interspiritual teacher, author, and chaplain. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Jail, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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