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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The Price of Democracy and
the Price of Compassion |
A few DM’s ago, we posed the question of whether the idea of democracy is a “sacred” term. |
What I think we can agree on is that justice and compassion are certainly sacred actions, for they respect the sacredness of individuals and, hopefully, efforts to bring about the common good. In an election time when hundreds of candidates refuse to say they will | Ukrainian and Russian humanitarian organizations, and a Belarusian humanitarian activist, are joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize 2022. BBC News. |
honor the election results, democracy is
clearly on the ballot. One of the signs of our times is that democracy is in peril, but we also see many courageous people stepping up to defend it and even die for it. We see Ukrainian citizens by the thousands fighting and resisting a
megalomaniac wannabe czar's invasion and effort to destroy their sovereign European country, a budding democracy. We remember the millions who died resisting Hitler and fascism in WWII. And the hundreds of thousands who died in
the Civil War for the sake of government “of, by and for the people.” |
| In recent DMs we have recalled the story of Albert Nolan, one of numerous persons such as Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu and others, who resisted courageously the forces of apartheid and who lived to see the official end of that regime of hatred and racism in South
Africa. |
Many were those who did not live to see the end of apartheid. We recognize the martyrdoms of MLK, Jr, Malcolm X, Archbishop Romero and Sister Dorothy Stang who also worked to create justice. Albert Nolan’s theology culminates with this promise: The beginning of faith in Jesus, then, is the attempt to read the signs of our times as Jesus read the signs of his times…..We would have to begin, as Jesus did, with compassion—compassion for the starving millions for those who are humiliated and rejected and
for the billions of the future who will suffer because of the way we live today. |
It is only when, like the good Samaritan, we discover our common humanity, that we
shall begin to experience what Jesus experienced. Faith in Jesus without respect and compassion for humans is a lie. | Speaker Nancy Pelosi interviewed by MSNBC‘s Andrea Mitchell: ‘Our Democracy Is At Stake’ in the 2022 Midterms |
To identify with Jesus is to identify with all people. Searching for the signs of the times in the spirit will mean recognizing all the forces that are working against humanity as the forces of evil….In the last analysis, it is we who must decide and act. This is what elections are: A time for decisions and acting. |
| 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 Albert Nolan, Jesus before Christianity, pp.
140f.
Adapted also from Matthew Fox, Original Blessing.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
Banner Image: KKK members beat Freedom Rider James Peck and others upon their arrival in Birmingham, AL, 1964. FBI
archive photo by a local journalist who was also beaten; from the National Endowment for the Humanities. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you agree with Nolan that everything begins with compassion and with discovering and rediscovering our common humanity? Can elections be a time for that to rise to the front of our minds and actions? |
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 In this book 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). Fox believes that the teaching of original sin—which Jesus never heard of (no Jew has) has served empire-builders very well but that original blessing—the awareness of the goodness of creation—must take precedence. The implications are profound for psychological as well as sociological and ecological transformation. Oppressed people everywhere will recognize the difference. Fox lays out the
ancient but often neglected (and sometimes condemned) creation spiritual tradition in Original Blessing. | |
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 | |
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 and other prominent leaders in The Grieving, Healing & Hope Retreat Project, Fall 2022, seeking to shift from the hurt and anger making us more susceptible to violence and trauma, to comfort, connection and healing. Tuesdays Oct 25 - Nov 15, 2022. Register HERE Note: This is a FREE event! |
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. |
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