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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Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel instructs us that “Praise precedes faith.” |
To practice faith—any faith tradition—we need to bring the experience of praise to the table. That is what this great religious teacher is telling us. In these daily meditations, we have talked frequently of how we are called to do both our inner work and our outer work. The inner work surely includes praise, for praise is born of an encounter with the beauty of the world. Praise is the noise that joy makes. makes. Praise is intrinsic to the Via Positiva. | |
Poet Rainer Maria Rilke links the Via Positiva to the Via Transformativa, our mystical calling to our prophetic calling, when he says: We “do justice only where we praise.” Justice and Joy go together. We need the joy and praise to sustain us in difficult times when we struggle against big forces in order to heal, do compassion and make justice happen. But joy is also the goal of justice to render the Via Positiva more possible for more peoples and beings. Joy is a kind of culmination of equality—it invites more
people a chance to participate in the “festival” (Thomas Merton’s word) that life is meant to be—not for a privileged few but for all. And not just for a privileged species, but for all beings who share this earth. As
Buddhists pray, “may all beings be happy; may all beings be free of suffering; may all beings smile.” |
| Compassion, because it is about interdependence, is a reminder that we share suffering with all beings but joy as well. As Meister Eckhart says, “what happens to another, whether it be a joy or a sorrow, happens to me." |
Celebration or joy is integral to compassion therefore. With this in mind, I choose to dwell in upcoming meditations on invitations to praise. Another expression for
praise, it seems to me, is to not take for granted. It is so easy to take for granted. I have often defined mysticism as learning to not take for granted. This may be why Mary Oliver, who calls herself a “praise poet,” time and again urges us to pay attention and defines prayer as paying attention. Paying attention is not taking for granted. |
| 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. |
See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 42-56, 143f. And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth, pp. 1-4, 18f. Banner Image: “My Black Friends Matter.” Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash |
Queries for Contemplation What does it mean to you to hear that “praise precedes faith?” Where do you think we need to most not take for granted? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the
fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way. “Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory
views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story | |
Creation Spirituality: Liberating
Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every
religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator. “A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice. | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, discussing Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. Thursday, November 17,
4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, discussing Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations. Thursday, December 15,
4:00pm-6:00pm PT Register HERE. Creation Spirituality Conversations |
In a podcast episode with the Earth and Spirit Center, Matthew Fox reflects on how creation-centered spirituality, and the marriage of the divine feminine and sacred masculine, can help us respond with hope
to the troubles of our apocalyptic times. Listen HERE. | |
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