The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Watch for Matthew Fox's video meditation -- now appearing every Monday! |
Mysticism, Love & the Curing of Self-Hatred & Therefore Fascism 05/15/2024 |
The cure for self-hatred is self-love. It is mysticism therefore. The mystic in us is the lover in us. Love includes loving oneself and loving creation which birthed us. |
Hear what Thomas Aquinas says about self-love: Self-love is the form and root of all friendship. Well-ordered self-love is right and natural—so much so that the person who hates himself or herself sins against nature. To know and to appreciate your own worth is no sin. What follows from healthy self-love? It is natural for human beings to love their neighbor and the truth. |
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Creation brought us here loving us—even if sometimes parents or others failed to do so. Says Aquinas: In the Book of Genesis it says: ‘God saw all the things that God had made and they were very good,’ each one of them having been previously said to be good. For each thing in its nature is good,
but all things together are very good, by reason of the order of the universe, which is the ultimate and noblest perfection in things. Notice: If each thing is good, –that means YOU too! Born good, born an Original Blessing. |
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” Excerpt from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. Read by Tom O’Bedlam on SpokenVerse. | Hurt? Wounded? Even abused? Maybe. But deep down, you are good. Good therapy returns a wounded person to awareness of one’s goodness again. Original Blessing. Friendships and art and beauty and ritual and good work do the same. Returning |
blessing (goodness) for blessing (goodness). Regarding self-love, Meister Eckhart teaches this: “Compassion begins at home with one’s own body and one’s own soul.” Are you loving and appreciating your body, thankful for it, protecting it from bad food and poisonous corporate versions
of foods and environmental hazards? Are you thankful for it with its 13.8 billion-year history and coming to be born on this special planet at this special moment in history? Is your body an original blessing for you? |
Why is there so much self-hate in the world that in turn becomes hatred of others with compulsions to control others, i.e. fascism? Why is such compulsion seeping into our politics at this time in history? Time to recover the original blessing that each of us is. |
Ben Bochner performs “Give Thanks For Unknown Blessings,” reflecting on the Occupy movement, accompanied by Rob Tobias on harmonica and Brook Adams on guitar. Northwest Showcase. |
This is one reason the new creation story from science is so valuable and thrilling and needed at this time. And creation spirituality. Because the universe is the ultimate and noblest perfection in things. An original blessing indeed. |
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| In Case You Missed It: Our 5th Anniversary Survey continues for the rest of this week! We are eager to learn more about what
the DM means to you, and how we can improve it as we go into our sixth year. In appreciation for your feedback, you’ll receive a 25% discount code that you can apply to any purchase from Matthew’s store. This opportunity is good until this Friday (May 17), so participate in the survey
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See Matthew Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 98f.
See also: Fox, Meditations with Meister Eckhart, p. 105.
See also: Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Banner Image: Messages from the universe, found at a 7-11 gas station, Salem, Oregon, USA. Photo by Dan Meyers on
Unsplash
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Queries for Contemplation |
Has anyone ever taught you before that to hate oneself is to sin against nature? Do the fascists of the world hate themselves and sin against nature? How can they be helped? |
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
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Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
A centering book by Matthew Fox. This book of simple but rich meditations exemplifies the deep yet playful creation-centered spirituality of Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart
was a 13th-century Dominican preacher who was a mystic, prophet, feminist, activist, defender of the poor, and advocate of creation-centered spirituality, who was condemned shortly after he died.
“These quiet presentations of spirituality are remarkable for their immediacy and clarity.” –Publishers Weekly.
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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 |
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In the Beginning There Was Joy: A Cosmic Celebration for Kids of All Ages
The first book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series tells the story of the big bang and how humans fit into the awesome, fantastical,
cosmic picture! With artwork curated from illustrators around the world, this book expresses the joy and wonder of all peoples and cultures, planting seeds of respect, cooperation and hope to work together for the healing of our planet. "Matthew Fox has created a narrative, for every parent and grandparent, both spiritual and
scientific, that is a gift for all elders who recognize their responsibility in initiating the young ones into the grandeur of existence." Cosmologist Brian Swimme, Author of Cosmogenesis and The Universe Story "Matthew Fox has given all of us, children included, a wondrous and enchanting view of creation
and all that humanity should aspire to." - Caroline Myss, Author of Anatomy of the Spirit and A Time for Grace |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a new, live, 7-week video course hosted by the Shift Network, Cultivating Compassion in Spirituality: What Meister Eckhart & Other World Mystics Can Teach Us About Navigating Collective Turmoil. Tuesdays, May 7 – June 25, 5:00pm - 6:30pm PT. Register HERE. |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book with scientist Rupert Sheldrake, Natural Grace: Dialogues on Creation, Darkness and the Soul in Spirituality and Science in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, May 16, 4:00-5:30 pm PT.
Register HERE. |
Join keynote speakers Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme at the 2024 Creation Spirituality Communities Gathering on “Reimagining Our Story, Hope for Humanity,” live at Cape Cod, MA and by livestream. Friday, May 31 – Sunday, June 2. Learn more and register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Matthew Fox speaks on "Preserving Things in the Good" at the Unity of Walnut Creek Earth Day worship service held on April 21, 2024. |
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