The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Joy and Holiness, continued 05/01/2023 |
We are meditating on Joy as a sign of holiness. |
A patriarchal version of Divinity appears more occupied with judgement and denunciations than with joy. A punitive father God often lacks joy. Thomas Aquinas talks a lot about the joy of God. “Sheer joy is God’s and this demands companionship,” he tells us. This means that joy is the very reason for the existence of the | |
universe. The entire purpose of the universe is joy and spreading the joy. |
Aquinas is telling us that Joy reigns in the entire
universe. The universe in all its vastness—two trillion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars—and all of its 13.8 billion years of expanding—contains the history of joy. |
| Is this one reason humans have come into the universe: to recognize and name and celebrate the joy at work everywhere? Whose joy is this? God’s, the Creator’s joy. And our own. Who wants to be joyful alone? Sharing joy is intrinsic to joy. Aquinas is telling us how eager divinity is to share the joy. Celebration is the name we give that process of sharing the joy. Earth and the universe are
celebrations. A prime reason for rituals of celebration and the invoking of ancestors or the communion of saints is to remember the joy we |
have derived from them and with them. To be grateful together, to thank together with the living and the deceased ups the ante on joy. “Spread the joy” we are told. God did. |
Life is a lot of work and a lot of struggle—not just for humans but for all creatures—the birds and trees, dogs and cats, the whales and porpoises, the chimpanzees and forests—all struggle to flourish and survive and share their beauty and to pass on progeny. |
But are all beings joyful as well? |
It is as if joy lives on in the roots of our
being while all sorts of other struggles occupy us on the surface. Joy is deep and often quasi-hidden, silent and still. Sometimes it is expressed as celebration with others, but sometimes it is just present in silence upholding us in the midst of turmoil
and strife. Joy is deeper than strife. Some joy is red/orange and hot; some joy is blue/green and cool. Joy calls us to action; and to repose. It is bigger than us, thus “a gift of the spirit.” | |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 33-44. And from Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 99ff. Banner image: Joyful children, from Uganda. Photo by bill wegener on Unsplash |
Queries for Contemplation Do you think sheer joy is God’s? And that this demands companionship? Do you find lots of joy among the beings on earth and in the beauty of the universe? |
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The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit | |
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on
Creation Spirituality Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in
English (or Italian or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way.
“The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths
(Afterword). | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
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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. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “The A.W.E. Project – Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, June 15, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. |
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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