The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic
Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily
Meditations with Matthew Fox
|
Merton on Repose, Silence,
and Advent, continued |
Merton says that silence is necessary and churches should provide plenty of it: Let there always be quiet, dark places in which people can take refuge. Places where they can kneel in silence. Houses of God,
filled with God’s silent presence....a place where your mind can be idle, and forget its concerns descend into silence, and worship God in secret. There can be no contemplating where there is no secret. |
We undergo silence and experience anew “man’s enormous want” when we encounter silence and a “house of nothing.” Fire, turn inward To your weak fort, To a burly infant spot, A house of nothing. O peace, bless this mad
place: Silence, love this growth. O silence, golden zero Unsetting sun Love winter when the plant says nothing. | Wandering and wondering in the midst of the dark and the silence of the journey. Photo by Lukas Godina on Unsplash. |
Sister Lentfoehr, a fellow poet and close friend to Merton, elaborates on what Merton, building on Eckhart’s understanding of nothingness and the dark night, is meaning. She writes: It is when we lose the ‘self,’ according to Eckhart, ‘the persona that is the subject of virtues as well as visions, that perfects itself by good works, that advances in the practice of piety—that Christ is finally born in us in the highest sense.' This is the pure, the perfect poverty, when one is no longer a ‘self,’ a concept that touches the ‘point of nowhereness,' a point of nothingness in the midst of
being. It is here where the Christ is born. |
A guided meditation on "creative silence" based upon the teachings of Thomas Merton. Originally posted to YouTube by Mile Hi Church. | There too, Eckhart tells us, we “return to our unborn self” and become as free “as they were when we were not yet” and “in this poverty, people attain the eternal being that we once were, now are, and will eternally
remain.”
|
Merton’s apologia for living in a hermitage in the woods incorporates the darkness of the night. Notice how important the silence is—it is “necessary” and “imperative” and invites aloneness. |
The silence of the forest is my bride and the sweet dark warmth of the whole world is my love and out of the heart of that dark warmth comes the secret that is heard only in silence, but it is the root of all the secrets that are whispered by all the lovers in their beds all over the world. | Silence requires courage and courage welcomes mystery. Photo by Amy Tran on Unsplash. |
Yes, nature is Merton’s bride. And with nature comes darkness—not only at night but also in the winter, in advent. |
| 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. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey, pp. 73-77, 60. Banner Image: Making space for creativity and integration, the children of silence and stillness. Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash. |
Queries for Contemplation How does it feel to you to hear Merton say the silence of the forest is his bride and how we learn of secrets heard only in silence and the root of those secrets are being whispered by all the lovers in their beds all over the world? What does that mean to you in this advent time? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
In A Way to God, Fox explores Merton’s pioneering work in interfaith, his essential teachings on mixing contemplation and action, and how the vision of Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced Merton in what Fox calls his Creation Spirituality journey.
“This wise and
marvelous book will profoundly inspire all those who love Merton and want to know him more deeply.” — Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar 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. Join Robert Holden and Matthew Fox for A WINTER OF IMAGINATION – a mystical journey in three 75-minute webinars that reveal the spiritual invitation and deeper meaning of Advent,
the Solstice, and Christmas time. Thursdays 12/15 ("Advent for Mystics"), 12/19 ("A Solstice Meditation"), and 12/22 ("Soul of Christmas"), 12 pm PT/3 pm ET/8 pm UK. 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. | |
Please share this post! Just click the buttons below.
OR share your insights on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #RevDrMatthewFox and tag Matt with @RevDrMatthewFox
|
|
|
|
