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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I am writing this essay on Labor Day which seems like an appropriate time to meditate on basic issues around spirituality and work. |
Especially when the foundations seem to have shifted some during the covid emergency of the last few years when some people sacrificed so much to remain in dangerous working circumstances — | Vax in 8 Docs, a multi-specialty group of physicians from Northern California, voiced their struggles, loss, and determination against COVID in “My Shot!” adapted from the hit Broadway show Hamilton. |
front line workers
like nurses, doctors, staff people in hospitals and nursing homes as well as workers in grocery stores, public transportation, teachers and the rest. Many of these people got sick or even died in serving others. All of this was an affirmation still again of the value and
importance of the work we do and how deeply it ministers to others in various expressions of compassion, healing, readiness, generosity, giving. An affirmation of how interdependent we are–how we need workers of all kinds so that we may live, thrive—and work. For
those who stayed home from work during the pandemic and were able to work from home, deep questions arose about the relationship of work and family and of the meaning and value of our work. |
Work as vocation and legacy: CNN honors award-winning U.S. journalist Brent Renaud, killed while reporting from Irpin, Ukraine. | All this happened in the context of course of a pandemic that reminded us all of our mortality. This surely stirred many to ask deeper questions about work. Is work just for a paycheck, the bigger the better? |
Is work our way of leaving gifts behind for others, of saying thank you for having been here? And much more. One phenomenon occurring in the work world today is that of the Gen Z generation raising questions about the amount of time dedicated to work vs. the amount of time dedicated to family or relationships or causes one believes deeply in such as saving the Earth or building relationships. |
A new phrase has arisen called “quiet quitting.” It isn’t about getting off the company payroll, we are told,
but about staying on it and still having energy left to focus on things one does outside of our work worlds. | “How ‘Quiet Quitting’ Became The Next Phase Of The Great Resignation.” CNBC |
Given today’s tight labor market, many workers feel empowered to push back some and talk about quiet quitting on TikTok, I am told (not being a TikTok user
myself). Maybe it means getting a fuller perspective on life and work. All this seems to raise anew the age-old issues of a spirituality of work. We will explore this further in upcoming DMs. |
| To view
today's video, please click the image. You will be taken to today's post on the Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox website, where you can see the meditation in a larger version and also view and post your Comments. In the sharing that follows, a kind of community is developing around the DM.
If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE. |
Queries for Contemplation How did the pandemic affect your attitudes toward work? How do you see it having affected others’ attitudes toward work? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.” “Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE
Join Matthew Fox in a 6-week virtual course on “Mystics, Mysticism and Ourselves as Mystic-Prophets,” hosted by Creation Spirituality Communities. Wednesdays, 8/24, 8/31,
9/7, 9/14, 9/21, and 9/28, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox and Neil Douglas-Klotz for “The Aramaic Jesus and the Cosmic Christ: Enduring Lessons for a World in Confusion,” a live video conversation online, a
pre-launch event for the release of Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus, Sunday,
September 11, 10:00am-11:15am PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, discussing The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, Thursday, September 15, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register HERE. |
Matthew Fox, Caroline Myss, and Andrew Harvey offer a 3-part series of solo online lectures on “The Power of Truth, Wisdom, Choice Part 2” through the Sophia Institute in Charleston, SC. Wednesdays, September 21, 28, October 5, 3:00pm-4:30pm PT. Register HERE. Creation Spirituality in Conversation |
| Andrew Harvey, author of The
Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism, interviews Matthew Fox on The Essential Writings of Creation Spirituality, July 26, 2022. |
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