The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Week of
10/16-21/2023:
In the Face of War, the God of Compassion and Fellowship 10/22/2023 |
October 16, 2023: Real Men vs. Strongmen, Netanyahu
and his Kind
When Netanyahu was re-elected prime minister, created an uber-right cabinet and sought to upend the Supreme Court of Israel while he faced allegations of fraud and bribery, unprecedented protests broke out in Israel. No doubt this took a toll on the armed forces' morale and preparedness, paving the way for the horrible surprise attack of Hamas on Israeli civilians. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an
historian and expert on fascism, says: The lesson of authoritarian history is that when strongmen leaders normalize extremists, lawless and violent people are elevated to positions of extreme power, accelerating the assault on democracy and bringing unrest and instability.* |
Around 200 peace advocates organized by Jewish Voices for Peace rallied in front of the White House on 10/16/23 to protest the collective punishment of civilian Gaza for the horrific terror attacks by Hamas against folks in Israel. Photo by Stephen Melkisethian on Flickr. |
October 17, 2023: An Elegant Day at
the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples
The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples was recently honored as an historical landmark by the city of San Francisco. It was the first church to explicitly declare itself interracial and interfaith. it was inaugurated in 1944 by Drs. Howard Thurman and Alfred Fisk. Matthew spoke at the recent commemoration, invoking how Howard Thurman updated St. Paul
when he wrote: It is my belief that in the Presence of God there is neither male nor female, white nor black, Gentile nor Jew, Protestant nor Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, nor Muslim, but a human spirit stripped to the literal substance of itself before God. |
October 18, 2023: Howard Thurman’s Vision for the Fellowship of All Peoples, continued
In his talk at the ceremony honoring the Church of
the Fellowship of All Peoples, Matthew said: To do this letting go... we need to look at our mistakes and misdeeds–-personal and communal–-over the centuries. Slavery, genocide, hatred, lynchings, injustice of an economic kind, racial kind, gender kind, homophobic kind, hatred of Mother Earth–-creation itself, ecocide and matricide looming so large in our growing awareness today—all this very often in the name of religion. About the latter, Howard Thurman wrote: “the collective psyche
shrieks with the agony that it feels as a part of the death cry of a pillaged nature.” The very name of this church promises how all peoples can come together. Singer Yael Deckelbaum tours the world with a tune composed by an ensemble of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women. |
October 19, 2023: The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples as a Landmark, continued
In today’s world sometimes true elegance seems
displaced by an “I win/you lose” mentality. This spiral of violence and separation is on full display now in the Middle East. Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, we have a beautiful church now celebrating its 79th year in San Francisco: The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. May there be more interracial and interfaith gatherings of people on this planet.we have a church designated as a "landmark" in its 79th year in San Francisco. Mark this land--remember it--a gathering or
church of all peoples is possible; it is an aspiration essential to our survival as a species. The Fellowship of All Peoples, all races, all faiths. |
October 20, 2023: Where is Compassion, & the Kissing of Peace & Justice?
While writing his book A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew was thrilled to discover that, in
Judaism, “compassion is the secret name for God.” It gives new meaning to the (Jewish) Jesus’ words: “Be you compassionate as your Creator in heaven is compassionate.” (Luke 6:36) Meister Eckhart reminds us that “compassion means justice” but also he wonderfully names the union of action and contemplation, of justice and love, when he cites the (Jewish) psalmist: “Compassion is where peace and justice kiss.” |
“Israeli Amir and Palestinian Amjad: ‘we are no enemies!’” He says, “It’s normal to help each other. Forget about bloody politics. Think about humanity.” By Nieuwsuur |
October 21, 2023: Funding Solidarity and Compassion, Not War
Matthew reminds us that Compassion is the most important energy on earth. We all need to devote ourselves to
compassion at this perilous time in human and planetary history. One example of compassion in action is the attendance of five rabbis at the funeral of a young Palestinian-American boy who was stabbed to death in an anti-Muslim hate crime. (Another is evidenced in the video above.) Now is the time to stop funding war and instead finance ways to deconstruct hatred, defuse violence, and eliminate poverty like that which Gaza has been mired in for
generations. |
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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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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 |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar 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. |
Join Matthew Fox as he delivers a Lecture and Q&A: “Towards a New Mythology: New & Ancient Names for God from Mystical Ancestors and Contemporary Science (& Fit for Some Atheists too)” as part of the Unitarian Universalist of Berkeley Lawrence Lecture Series. Friday, November 10, 2023, 7:00pm-8:30pm PT. 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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