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Meditations with Matthew Fox
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On Grief Work, Youth Work, & Adam Bucko's Latest Book |
We have seemingly interrupted our meditations on Praise to reflect on the heart-breaking events of murder at the gay Club in Colorado Springs and other colleges this past week. And on a preferential option for
the young. |
But really it is not an interruption so much as a deepening of our acknowledgement of what our special but dangerous and endangered species is all about after a 13.8 million year journey to
today. After all, to praise the universe is to praise human beings also, children of the universe that we are. And children of Earth. | |
We are capable of great goodness but also of
evil and we need to find the goodness in the evil and find the goodness in the bad news as well as the good news. |
Meister Eckhart put it startlingly when he said: “All things praise God. Darkness,
privations, defects, evil too praise God and bless God.” |
Bruce Springsteen's classic "Dancing in the Dark" reminds us that even when things seem bleak, if we choose to dance, a spark will eventually arise. Originally posted to YouTube by Bruce Springsteen. | This is a hard saying and not at all immediately obvious. But it is real. From evil can come great good. Recognition, for example, of how free and powerful we are that we can choose to do good or evil with our mighty imaginations and
creativity. |
And how creativity must be steered into healthy and loving directions. Even at the club in Colorado Springs, good came forward. The persons who wrestled the killer to the ground have been called “heroes” by the mayor of the city for good reason. And the city planning that got the police to arrive in full force within 3 minutes of being called was wise and caring. And hopefully the caring for those who are grieving is
going on generously. |
All this is testimony to human courage and caring brought out of ordinary citizens by an evil event. In a recent book, Adam Bucko has shown a great deal of prescience for our times: The title alone carries a deep message--Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation. He chooses to speak to the broken heart and hearts are plenty broken these days and for a variety of reasons from war in Ukraine to climate change to many murders of the young and by the young. | Grief is like floating away from the world we have once known, towards a different world. Photo by samane mohammadi on Unsplash. |
The Via Negativa needs our attention and always in the context of the Via Positiva or praise. The Via Positiva is part of the healing of course. “Walk your walk of lament on a path of praise,” instructs poet Rainer Rilke. Adam’s short but substantive book speaks to today’s human crisis of despair and possibility. It derives from the deep experience of his growing up under soviet domination in Poland, living through the excruciating overthrow of the Soviet dictatorship, and coming to America as a teen-ager unfamiliar with the English language, hanging out in subways among the poor, living in India and
encountering great poverty there, and then working with young homeless adults on the streets of New York City for 16 years and now an ordained Episcopal priest in the Long Island diocese.
To be continued. |
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If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Meditations with Meister Eckhart, p. 56. See Matthew Fox and Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation. And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion. Banner Image: Photo from the 2018 CSC Gathering. Originally posted to the website of Creation Spirituality Communities. |
Queries for Contemplation What lesson do you derive from Eckhart’s hard teaching that "all things praise God—even Evil praises and blesses God?" What lessons emerge for you from meditating on the title of Bucko’s latest book, “Let your heartbreak be your guide”? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
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, Meister Eckhart was a 13th-century Dominican preacher who was a mystic, prophet, feminist, activist, defender of the poor, and advocate of creation-centered spirituality, who was condemned shortly after
he died.
“These quiet presentations of spirituality are remarkable for their immediacy and clarity.” --Publishers Weekly.
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Occupy Spirituality:
A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the
words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions."
--—Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of
Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods | |
A Spirituality
Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more
ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
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See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox as he leads a new course hosted by The Shift Network: Answer the Call for an Uncommon Life Through the Mystical Teachings of St. Hildegard. New 16-module video training with two live Q&A events starts Monday,
November 28, 12:00 PM 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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