The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Kindness and Generosity, Lost Children Found in a Jungle & more 06/12/2023 |
The word “kind” as an adjective means affectionate, loving, gentle or agreeable, and derives from the terms “kin” and “kind” as nouns. To be kind goes naturally with
being family, with being related, with being kin or of a kind. Families survive by caring and by kindness. Kinship leads to kindness—or ought to. One can expect kindness to take on fuller expression as we live out our true sense
of family more fully, when we genuinely begin to live out the blessing of our shared flesh with all of its implications. |
As we grow in our understanding that, as today’s
science is reminding us, we are all kin with the rest of creation, will we grow in kindness and generosity? The recent dramatic story of four indigenous | |
Columbian children, the oldest 13 and the youngest just one year old, who survived a plane crash and then 40 days in the jungle, is a story we can all celebrate. We are eager to hear the story of caring that the
oldest daughter extended to her youngest siblings, that allowed them all to survive an ordeal in a dangerous setting like a jungle.* Our empathy is aroused because in one way we are all kin. |
| They were not alone, since lessons her tribe taught all of them, surely accompanied them in their survival. And the rescuers who kept up the search for so long and so diligently, are part of the cause for celebration. Kindness and generosity all around paid off with a happy ending. |
Jesus advised testing spirits this way, “by their fruits you will know them.” The fruits of healthy spirituality are the peace and joy derived from authentic kinship and kindness, generosity and genuineness. Truth is related to genuineness and genuineness derives from the same root as “generous” and “genus.” |
Part of generosity is sacrifice. This word has been badly abused during the patriarchal period when “sacrifice” often meant, “You sacrifice for me.” But it is a word worth redeeming. Etymologically, “sacrifice” means “to make holy.” Why throw out a word like that? | |
All lovers sacrifice, be they parents sacrificing for their children or children for
their aging parents, or spouses for each other, or artists and other workers sacrificing time and convenience for their work that brings joy and relief to others. Sacrifice is a kind of giveaway. It too is generosity in action and holiness in action. |
Queries for Contemplation What feelings are awakened in you by hearing of the survival and rescue of these four children? How do you see kindness, kinship, generosity and sacrifice at
work in that story? |
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Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception
of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single
science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox for an online lecture and Q&A on “Letting Our Minds be Remade Regarding Religion,” hosted by The World Community for Christian Meditation, Tuesday, June 13, 11:00am-12:30pm PT. Learn more: https://wccm.org/events/metanoia/ Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “The A.W.E. Project – Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human” in an online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, June 15, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for a Cosmic Mass and Panel Forum at the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions - A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom & Human Rights, August 14-18 in Chicago, IL Wed., 8/16,
7:00pm CT - The Cosmic Mass - Honoring Gaia, Solidarity for Our Earth Thurs., 8/17, 1:00pm CT – Panel and Response to The Cosmic Mass Register here: https://parliamentofreligions.org/ |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Tikkun Magazine releases a new Interview of Matthew Fox
by Andrew Harvey regarding Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality (Orbis, 2022) edited by Charles Burack. Read the interview HERE. | |
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