The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Exuberance, Exaltation, Belonging: Moving Beyond Shame 04/24/2023 |
My apologies for a mistake I made in my meditation on Earth Day. But it’s not so bad
a mistake--it’s sort of a positive Freudian slip if you will. I confused the words exuberant (from Thomas Berry) and exultant. |
It’s not so bad a mistake for two reasons: First, exuberant and exultant are almost synonyms. Here are their meanings: Exuberant: joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic; produced in extreme abundance; plentiful and profuse. The opposite is sterile. | “Ode to Joy Flash Mob” Video by CD Tube. |
Exultant: filled with or expressing great joy or triumph: Jubilant. Second, one enhances the other so we all got a two for one—we are charged to be both exuberant AND exultant over existence, over the news of our blessed home, Mother Earth, and the 13.8 billion year journey that brought us all here. We are invited to share our exuberance and exultation on behalf of the cosmos, our mother, as
well. |
One way our ancestors talked about celebration is honoring the Sabbath. An invitation to take a
day off for letting things be, tame our compulsion to control and always be in charge. Thomas Aquinas says the number one thing we celebrate on the Sabbath is: Creation. |
| We have been meditating lately on the topics of shame, shaming and being shamed, and the price we all pay when patriarchal culture leads with shame and not with gratitude and excitement about our existence. And that shame and aggression born of shame have a lot to do with deep feelings of not belonging.
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But we do belong. We belong to Mother Earth and to the universe that birthed her and us over a 13.8 billion year gestation period. We belong to the soil and the trees and the flowers that have fine-tuned the oxygen for us. We belong to the sun and
the moon and the tides that brought life from the ocean to the land. |
We belong with our pets and
four legged ones everywhere, to the birds that sing to us and strut their beauty that we can admire, to the rivers and lakes that invite us into their presence. And so much more. And we belong to one another, we are social animals, we want to get along | |
and need to get along, and joy and celebration is intrinsic to our celebrative nature. They are far
more natural than hating, projecting, lying, and packing guns out of fear of one another. |
See Matthew Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the
Earth. Banner Image: Papua New Guinea soccer fans enjoying the game in support of the Pacific Partnership 2011, a five-month humanitarian assistance initiative. U.S. Navy photo by Mass
Communication Specialist Seaman John Grandin. Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
2.0 |
Queries for Contemplation If feelings of not belonging are behind shame and aggression, how best to enhance our sense of belonging? How do you deepen your sense of belonging? |
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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 Charles Burack in an online conversation on “The Essential Writings On Creation Spirituality” hosted by The Aquarian Minyan. Thursday, April 27, 6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “The
Physics of Angels – Exploring the Realm Where Science and Spirit Meet” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, May 18, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE.
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Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Phil Goldberg of Spirit Matters: Conversations on Contemporary Spirituality interviews Matthew Fox on Opening to Original Blessing. To listen to their conversation, click HERE | |
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