The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Francis Balancing Masculine & Feminine in Father Sky, Mother Earth 10/04/2023 |
As I write this, it is October 4, the Feast Day of St. Francis, beloved by many the world over. Putting aside any temptations to sentimentalize him and lock him up in bird baths, he stands out as a fine model of healthy
masculinity. |
His well-known love of birds, animals, fishes, flowers and bushes as well as caves qualify him as a Green Man for sure. A cave is of course a feminine image of returning to the womb of Mother Earth and caves were his favorite place to retreat to. He was also very observant about the new world that was arising |
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around him. A post-feudal and post-monastically dominated religious world included freed serfs and commune living that inspired his ideas for a new kind of community. Medieval
scholar Père Chenu reminds us that Francis’s spirituality of poverty was not just a personal vow but part of a “social evolution” that turned its back on an “obsolete” monastic sense of economics that was thoroughly tied up with the dying feudal regime. Chenu also tells us that Francis’s sense of Joy changed a civilization more fully than did kings and power brokers of the time. |
St. Francis’ “Canticle of Creatures” – also known as the Canticle of the Sun, in the original Umbrian + English. Auxilium Christianorum | Francis’s greatest poem is a Cosmic Christ poem. Most high, all-powerful, all good Lord!
All praise is yours, all glory, all honor
And all blessing. He sings praise and blessing back to their source. |
To you
alone Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy
To pronounce your name. He invokes the apophatic Divinity, our inability to name the mystery that is
divinity. Yet, the divine is incarnated in nature: All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made,
And first my Lord Brother Sun,
Who brings the
day; and light you give to us through him.
How beautiful he is, how radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness. To be continued. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, p. 114. Banner Image: “Mural of St. Francis of Assisi
and the Wolf of Gubbio at the St. Francis Inn in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, Pa.” Photo by Jim McIntosh on Flickr. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you recognize Francis as a Green Man and a model of a healthier masculinity? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down
to the Comments field. |
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of
worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine. “The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The
Universe Story and Journey of the Universe. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE 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 and other speakers in the 27th Howard Thurman Convocation and Reception, recognizing the recent designation of The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples as an
historical San Francisco landmark, founded by Dr. Howard Thurman and Dr. Alfred Fisk as the nation’s first interracial, interfaith congregation. Sunday, October 15, 2023, 3:00pm PT. Learn more HERE. Matthew Fox will be featured as the guest speaker at the Creation Spirituality Communities online course, Introduction to Creation Spirituality 6-Week Course, led by Instructor Rev. Mary Reaman. Tuesday, October 17, 4:00 PM 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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Inspired by this post? Share your insights on Universeodon, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #RevDrMatthewFox and tag Matt with @RevDrMatthewFox FOLLOW MATTHEW FOX: |
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