The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Week of 9/11-16/2023:
Divinization, Creativity, Inner Nobility
& a New Masculinity |
September 11, 2023: Divinization and Creativity
We are so near Divinity. Even our breath–inspiration–is from the root “spirit.” According to Aquinas, the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that “hovered over the waters at the beginning of creation,” hovers over us when we create and give birth. Matthew reminds us that “It is a habit of the universe to be birthing all the time, so as we tune in to the cosmos within and among us, we necessarily become more attuned to our own birthing
vocation.” |
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The Descent of the Holy Spirit. Stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany
in St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Irvington, NY. Photo by Robert Fertitta. Wikimedia Commons. |
September 12, 2023: Celebrating Our—and the Universe’s—Powers of Creativity
If God is Creator and he made us in his image, then we are also creators. This is one
of Dorothy Day’s teachings. Meanwhile, Dag Hammarskjold, the second secretary general of the United Nations, asks this very important question: “Do you create or do you destroy?” Hildegard of Bingen is one who modeled the creativity of Divinity in countless ways–music, poetry, books, mandalas, etc. September 13, 2023: Hildegard of Bingen on Our Divinization & the Cosmic Christ
Hildegard of Bingen said that “Every creature becomes illuminated by the brightness of his light.” And that, of course,
includes us. Do you see the radiance in others? Other humans? Trees? Stones? Galaxies? Winged ones? Waters and waterfalls? Can we use our light to work together to save our planet and all of creation? |
Photography and digital mandalas by contemplative artist, Stacy Wills, accompanied by “O Felix Anima” by Hildegard of Bingen. Inspired by The Abbey of the Arts. Stacy Wills. | |
September 14, 2023: Divinization, Radiance & Moving Beyond Anthropology
Hildegard says that just as we call every ray of sun the sun; so every ray of God we call
God. Thus we, too, are God (not all of God but a ray of God). Matthew reminds us: The challenge is to act like it as best we can. Love. Joy. Compassion. Justice. Wisdom. All are names for the divine. When we don’t recognize our divinity, we become as Biblical scholar Krister Stendahl says “more interested in ourselves than in God or in the fate of his creation.” When we remember our kinship with God and all of creation, we rise to the
occasion and take better care of the Earth. September 15, 2023: How Needy We Are for a
New Masculinity
Masculinity has become so distorted. The reptilian brain of dysfunctional patriarchy is on display everywhere: wars, invasion, ecocide, mysogny…. The compassion and wisdom of the divine feminine has been sidelined. As Meister Eckhart said, “There is no love where there is no equality.” We need more “power with” as opposed to “power over.” We desperately need a new kind of masculinity. | |
President Barack Obama
hugs Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., after his introduction during the event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches. Selma, Alabama, March 7, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza). Wikimedia Commons. |
September 16, 2023: Men and the Missing Nobility Inside
When Matthew teaches from his book The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, he often gets powerful responses. One notable one was from a
beautifully dressed Native American man. He said, “I have been working as a prison chaplain for over 12 years. It is very difficult to get men in prison to look at themselves—they are always projecting onto others. Yours is the first book I have ever used that got them to look and find the nobility inside.” This, then, is our challenge: to learn to look for and find our own inner nobility. |
Banner image: Native American men in touch
with their inner nobility. (Photo cropped.) Photographer unknown. Wikimedia Commons. |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world. “Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God |
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Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life
(biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
"Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead." --Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in
Sin |
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See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew
Fox and a speaker’s panel for brief Creation Spirituality presentations, music, songs, prayer, and refreshments in a free online and on-site Celebration of Matthew Fox's donation of papers to the University of Colorado, Boulder. University of Colorado Boulder Libraries – Center for British & Irish Studies – 5th Floor Thursday, September 21, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT RSVP HERE
for on-site attendance only. Virtual attendance link will be forthcoming. Join Matthew Fox online as he lectures and responds to questions on his book on Meister Eckhart, A Spirituality Named Compassion. The event is hosted by the Weber Retreat and Conference Center. Thursday, October 12, 2023 , 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Learn more HERE. |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, October 19, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. To register, click HERE. Join Matthew Fox for two days of learning and practice as he speaks at the online Stanford Medicine Contemplation by Design Summit, Wednesday and Thursday, November 1-2, 2023. Wed 4:00pm-5:30pm PT – Lecture, Q&A – Grounding & Expanding, Psyche & Cosmos, Friendship with Self, Others, the Universe: Toward a “Cosmic Religion” (Einstein) and Human/Planetary Survival Thu 7:30am-8:15am – Guided Practice – Finding the Divine (the “I am”, the Christ, the Buddha Nature, the Tselem or
Image of God) Within Thu 12:00pm-1:30pm – Workshop – Recovering the Sacred Masculine and the Divine Feminine Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Aaron Perry hosts Matthew Fox on the Y On Earth podcast, on “Hildegard von Bingen & Her “Viriditas,” sharing profound wisdom and deep insights about the essential
importance of our relationship with Mother Earth, our celebration of the Divine Feminine, and our connection with Creation Spirituality, drawing upon centuries of knowledge and wisdom from indigenous and mystical traditions world-wide… particularly from the Rhineland Mystic Movement of the medieval European Renaissance, and a most extraordinary woman at its helm: Hildegard von Bingen. |
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