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Brian K. Wilcox, a Chaplain, vowed Contemplative in the Christian tradition, Associate of Greenbough House of Prayer, and Postulant of the Order of St. Anthony the Great, offers an interspiritual work focusing on cultivating the Heart of Compassion. His book of mystical Love poetry is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. Brian integrates wisdom from the major spiritual Paths. May you always know that you are blessed!
All is Welcome Here
Living in Love beyond Beliefs
We Share One Life, We Are One Life
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*Silence, Sunny, Flickr
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There is a principle which is pure placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath had different names; it is, however, pure, and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion, nor excluded from any, when the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, they become brethren.
*John Woolman, 1720-1777, Quaker
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While I feel some sense of oneness with everyone, I sense the deeper Communion with few. Recently, a friend and former member of a church I served, and who was in my Contemplative Prayer training and group, met with me. We had not seen each other in years. What I noticed was an immediate kinship, spontaneous and pure. What I, also, noticed was how rarely I feel that purer, truer kinship with another. Again, while I am one with all, I am united in this holy Communion with only those who have surrendered beyond the forms of faith to the Spirit of Life. This is all by Grace, Grace to Grace.
I have gathered to worship with others of a like faith, in one place and over time, and there was no sense of this purer kinship. For pure Communion transcends religion and its forms, yet can be within diverse religions and varied forms and the same kinship be present. As a confessing Christian, I may as much or more feel This with a person of another faith group or no faith group. I may more feel It in the grocery store or on the street as in a church or sanctuary. This kinship is not made by what we believe or say or do. This being brothers and sisters is not guaranteed or in need of any creed or confession, any form whatever, even as This may feel no need of others, yet in Love be receptive of others in spontaneous invitation, or pure openness.
This kinship is a matter of the Heart, our heart. Prayerfulness gives rises to the enactment and consciousness of this pure, holy Communion, before and, so, free of all forms and, yet, able to embrace those very forms It is free of - if Grace so chooses. So, in this Communion you are never reliant on any outer forms of faith, even if you engage in them. Your Life arises from the Communion of Grace, timeless and boundless, as said before from Grace to Grace.
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O brother man!
fold to thy heart thy brother;
Where pity dwells,
the peace of God is there;
To worship rightly
is to love each other,
Each smile a hymn,
each kindly deed a prayer.
*John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892, Quaker
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We are each a lovely, pure Rose, in the Garden of Grace.
The Sacred in Me bows to the Sacred in You
BRIAN .
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