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Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Speaking of Love, continued:
Sister Dorothy Stang 02/3/2023 |
Yesterday we remembered some important teachings from Oscar Romero, who died a martyr in the struggle for justice in his country of El Salvador, gunned down while celebrating Mass. He has been declared a saint by Pope
Francis. |
Another American who died a martyr in our time for causes of love and justice, the environment and the poor is Sister Dorothy Stang. The day of her martyrdom was February 12,
2005 and there is a gathering planned for February 11 on Zoom and/or in | The martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero became a saint in a ceremony at the Vatican on October 14, 2018, and is a patron of Caritas Internationalis. |
person at Belmont College which her
Sisters of Notre Dame operate. Learn more HERE. She attended our Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality and came to love Hildegard of Bingen and other creation mystics and activists. Like Oscar Romero, she too knew she was a target for powerful interests–powers trying to exploit the Amazon, the forest and its peoples. Forces like those that thrived under the recently defeated Bolsonaro regime in Brazil who tore vast amounts of rainforest down in order to
grow cattle and make fast bucks, devastating the lives, land and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon in the process. |
| The threats against her life did not deter Sister Dot and she went about her work supporting the peasant farmers and those defending the forest. One day, while walking alone down a dirt path in the forest, two hired assassins intercepted her. She had just enough time to pull out her Bible and read |
the Beatitudes to them before they gunned her down on the spot. Like Romero, she lived and died by the love Jesus had preached: “No greater love than this, to lay down one’s
life for one’s friends." Sister Dorothy’s friends included the peasant farmers and their families with whom she constructed schools for their children as well as the forest itself and Mother Earth. Shortly before her death she wrote a
letter to the two foundresses of her order which included this passage: |
Our mission is to be at the side of the people makes it urgent, as never before, to live the challenges of the Gospel and
together enter into the third millennium with plans for an alternative society that gives LIFE….May many courageous people join us. I ask that God deepen my faith so that I not lose my enthusiasm for the struggle of the people. | “They Killed Sister Dorothy.” Trailer of the documentary covering the trial of Sister Dorothy’s assassins and the issues behind her martyrdom. First Run Features.
NOTE: This video may take some time to load. |
She reported to authorities (who rarely did anything) names of loggers who were devastating the forest illegally and treating their workers like slaves. She testified before the State Senate: “Have you ever heard a monkey sobbing in pain as his trees are being burned?”* This too is love. This too is non-dualism. |
| 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.
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Queries for Contemplation Have you ever heard a monkey sobbing in pain as his trees are being burned? Is eating hamburgers and steak worth destroying the Amazon rainforest? What lessons do Sister Dorothy’s life and death teach you? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational
Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current
changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox and special guest Caroline Myss for a 6-part course, “The Fire Inside: How John of the Cross’s Creation Spirituality and Mystical Activism Inspires Our Own”
hosted by the Caroline Myss Educational Institute. Tuesdays & Thursdays, February 7-23, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. Please join Matthew Fox, Tom Stang, and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur for a Commemoration and Rededication to the Legacy of Sister Dorothy Stang, livestreamed from the SNDdeN Cunningham Chapel, Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont CA. Saturday, February 11 2:00-4:00 pm PT. For More Information & Livestream Link, email: Bvaughn@ndnu.edu Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Matthew Fox at the Center for Contemporary Mysticism discusses “Birthing a New World: Can Creation-Centered Spirituality Help Reclaim the Sacredness of the Earth?" | |
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