The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Week of 8/28-9/2/2023:
Celebrating the Cosmos 9/03/2023
By Daily Meditation Team |
August 28, 2023. The Original
Blessing of the Cosmos
In this meditation we reflect upon the idea that the cosmos is an Original Blessing, for without the cosmos, we would not exist, nor would the animals, trees, mountains, rivers, etc. The images coming from the Webb telescope help us to explore our origins, something that is an innate curiousity among human beings, as Howard Thurman reminds us. Contemplation concerning origins is a part of the curiosity of the race.
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Creation and ecological balance is reborn through the Re-Wilding efforts
in places that once had heavy industrial farming. Here, in
Britain.
Photo by Ray B’s world. Wikimedia Commons. |
August 29, 2023. Worthwhile Thoughts on the Original Blessing of the Cosmos
Nineteenth-century French poet and translator, Gerard de Nerval, noted our lack of awareness of the universe in the modern era. He said, Free thinker, do you think you are the only thinker on this earth in which life blazes inside all things? Your liberty does what it wishes with the powers it controls, but when you gather to plan, the universe is not there. Matthew adds, We think we can be a-cosmic. Whereas the cosmos birthed us
all. |
August 30, 2023. Teilhard, Einstein,
Aquinas, Ricoeur & Simone Weil on Cosmic Awareness
Albert Einstein tells us: “The most important function of art and science is to awaken the cosmic religious feeling and keep it alive.” Meanwhile Teilhard de Chardin says: It is almost commonplace today to find people who… live in the explicit consciousness of being… a citizen of the universe. This collective awakening must inevitably have a profound religious reaction on the mass
of mankind—either to cast down or to exalt. Aquinas says that each one of us is “capax universi,” capable of the universe. But are we taught that greatness? |
“Meditation.” Image by Geralt on Pixabay |
August 31, 2023. Aquinas’s Invite to Get Drunk on Cosmic Awareness & Beauty
We have become such a narcissistic species, completely unaware of the magnificence of the cosmos that makes our life possible. Aquinas cites the psalmist when he says, “’They shall be drunk with
the beauty of thy house’ — that is, the Universe.” When Aquinas tells us that we are “capable of the universe,” he is urging us to get beyond our own hurts and wounds and petty agendas and look at the big picture. As Matthew says, “It is not enough to live in the worlds we make. We need to consider the world that makes us.“ |
September 1, 2023. Aquinas on Consciousness, Cosmos, Creativity & Enlarging Our Souls
When we
reflect upon creation, cosmology and cosmogenesis we grow our souls. And, as Meister Eckhart put it, “God is delighted to watch your soul enlarge.” And not only our souls, but our minds are capable of great things. Aquinas said, "There is nothing that the human mind cannot understand potentially. It is capable of knowing all things.” Our creativity and imagination too expand our limits. |
September 2,
2023. From Aquinas to Sunken Ship Rescue: The Amazing Ingenuity of Humanity
There is a documentary about the raising of the cruise ship Costa Concordia from the place that it had sunk off the coast of Italy in 2014. Matthew was moved by the extraordinary effort and ingenuity it took to accomplish this gargantuan task. It was an example of how we are capable of solving many problems when we work together and use our minds and our
skills for the common good. Can we now take this ability and apply it on a large scale in order to heal and save our planet? We must do the inner work of putting aside hatred, injustice and preparing for war against others to do the job. |
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa,
Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story | |
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).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, September 14, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. To register,
click HERE.
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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 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.
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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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