The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers
Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Sparks, Souls, & Luminaries Receiving the Medal of Freedom
While there is much to criticize in current America, let us pause for a moment to meditate on the sparks and light that shine from among the 17 recent recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom honored by President Biden
Thursday night.
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Thomas Aquinas offers a stunning teaching when he says
it is a great thing to do miracles, but it is a greater thing to live virtuously.
I think it can be said that each of these people, through their work and the strength and virtue it took to sustain it, has lived virtuously. A thing greater than a miracle?
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When people develop the sparks inside and steer them, in spite of nothingness and obstruction, to service, wonderful and praiseworthy things happen. Light and luminosity result that the rest of us can admire and be grateful for. And look inside to nurture the same within us.
One of the recipients, Sister Simone Campbell, a lawyer on behalf of the poor and oppressed, I know personally. An executive director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization, she headed the “Nuns on the Bus” movement advocating for healthcare, economic justice and immigration reform.
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Sr. Simone Campbell SSS addresses the 2020 DNC with a word of prayer. Originally posted to YouTube by Currents
News.
| Her honor is not only richly deserved, but in many ways I see it as applicable to the many wonderful Catholic
sisters of my generation who stood up and were counted without fanfare while standing for the poor and neglected, even when often being hounded by loud voices and well heeled forces on the right whether in church and society.
Simone is a perfect representative of these many solid women who walked their talk and made a life of justice-making inspired by Vatican II.
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Not least among them is my former student, Sister Dorothy Stang who died a martyr in the Amazon for defending the forest and the peasants and the indigenous people of the forest. In her, as in so many, was a heart of courage and caring and generosity and a commitment of steel.
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Other recipients of the presidential award include Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history and a prominent advocate for athletes’ mental health and safety and victims of sexual assault. Fred Gray, attorney for Rosa Parks, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King who said he was “the chief counsel for the protest
movement.” Raul Yzaguirre a civil rights campion and president of National Council of La Raza for thirty years. Richard Trumpka, president of the AFL-CIO for more than a decade, advocate for social and economic justice. And many more you can look up here.*
| Coverage of the 2022 Recipients of the Medal of Freedom, including famed Gymnast, Simone Biles. Originally posted to YouTube by TODAY.
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Meditating on these people and their accomplishments is a prayer practice in itself. Meister Eckhart says: “Who is a good person? A good person praises good people.”
May we all turn our sparks into light and be luminaries for others.
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Queries for Contemplation
How do these recipients of the Presidential Freedom Medal inspire you? What difference does that make?
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Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
A centering book by Matthew Fox. This book of simple but rich meditations exemplifies the deep yet playful creation-centered spirituality of Meister Eckhart, a 13th-century mystic, prophet, feminist, activist and defender of the poor who was condemned shortly after he died. “These quiet presentations of spirituality are remarkable for their immediacy and clarity.” –Publishers Weekly. Meister Eckhart was a 13th-century Dominican preacher who was mystic, prophet, feminist, and advocate of
creation-centered spirituality.
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Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
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See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE
Join Matthew Fox and special guest Caroline Myss for a 6-part Reflections Parallel course, “Beyond Patriarchy: Recovering the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine and
Why it Matters Today,” hosted by the Caroline Myss Educational Institute. July 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27 (Mondays & Wednesdays) 4:00pm-5:30pm PT (GMT/UTC-7) Register HERE.
Join Matthew Fox at the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie Virtual Retreat with a discussion of The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times. Thursday, July
14, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT (GMT/UTC-7). Register HERE.
Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie virtual retreat, discussing One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths. Thursday, August
18, 4:00-6:00pm PT. Learn more HERE.
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Creation Spirituality in Conversation.
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Victor Fuhrman of Destination Unlimited on OMTimes interviews Matthew Fox on Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. Navigate to the podcast page by clicking the image on the left.
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Announcing Matthew Fox's Newest Book!
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Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Selected with an introduction by Charles Burack
“This collection of Fox’s most life-giving insights blesses the connection between caring for our Mother-the-Earth and lifting up marginalized voices, between waking up from the dream of separation and stepping up to mend the net of creation.”
—Mirabai Starr, author, God of Love and Wild Mercy
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