The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Today's the day: Matthew Fox's video meditation is below! |
On the
Origins of Joy: Who Is Our Beloved? 05/27/2024 |
Recently, I sat for an interview with Andrew Harvey for a course he is teaching on Joy. I have great respect for Andrew, who is busy bringing forth a Christ Path that incorporates essential wisdom from Christianity and other world spiritual traditions. |
Andrew was very close to the monk Father Bede Griffiths, and was with him when he died. They had a lot in common since Andrew grew up in India and Bede adopted India as his home for 50 years of his life. In our conversation about Joy, he stressed how my teachings on |
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moving from theism to panentheism, ground Joy in an intimacy which is so needed in this time of a global dark night. Our conversation built along the way. I shared an insight from Thomas Aquinas that “love is the cause of joy.” He gives this example, “everyone takes joy in their beloved.” |
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| So Who, What is our beloved? Is it another person? Can it also be Mother Earth that sustains and nurtures us? The Universe that
birthed even Mother Earth? The Creator who births the universe, Earth and all creatures on it? Can it be a dog or cat or horse with whom |
we
live closely? A friend? How many beloveds do we have? Can it be a poem or poet? A song or piece of music or musician? A painting? A tree or rock or bird or animal? If “everyone takes joy in their beloved,” then we can say that “Our beloved is that in whom we take joy.” |
For Aquinas, love and joy constitute the basis of all attraction—love is the origin and joy is the end result. Who is joyful? The only person who truly has joy is one who lives in love. Are we living in love? Is our culture instructing us to do so? Or is hatred more a sign of our times in culture,
politics and media currently? |
The joy of walking in a beloved garden: Lily Pons Water Gardens, Buckeystown, Maryland USA (named after the beloved opera singer). Photo by Craig Shipp on Flickr. |
In
a previous DM, we spoke of playing with dogmas as in a sandbox. We offered the Trinity as one example of a universal and everyday archetype. Here lies another Trinity: Goodness, Love, Joy. Love after all is triggered by goodness and Joy is born of Love. A call to love is a call to joy. A call to join
this 13.8-billion-year creation is an invitation to both joy and love. How are we doing? |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas, pp. 37f. See also Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 116, 118, 120, 433.
Banner image: Who wouldn’t feel Joy upon seeing these best friends? Photo by Pankajdhiman2310. Wikimedia Commons.
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| | To view today's video, please click the
image. You will be taken to today's post on the Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox website, where you can see the meditation in a larger version and also view and post your Comments. In the sharing that follows, a kind of community is developing around the DM. If you can't reach today's post on the website directly, click HERE. If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE. |
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Responses are welcomed. To add
your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialog, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Queries for Contemplation |
How do you ground yourself in a Trinity of Goodness, Love and Joy? And how do you bring that forward in your work and citizenship and what you are leaving behind? |
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and
action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author
of Anatomy of the Spirit |
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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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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. "This delicious book for children of all ages celebrates joy as the essential truth of
reality." - Andrew Harvey, Author of The Hope and Radical Regeneration "I absolutely LOVED reading this beautiful, creative, stirring story—a charming, whimsical, powerful, parable." -
Robert Holden, Author of Happiness NOW! and Higher Purpose |
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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 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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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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