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! |
Happy
Father’s Day 2024—One Day Late! Aquinas as Spiritual Father 06/17/2024 |
I
am writing this on Father’s Day, but you will receive it a day late. But I have a good excuse as I was on a plane for 12 hours yesterday coming home from Orvieto, Italy, where about 55 of us gathered to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Aquinas and the 750th anniversary of his death. |
He spent several fruitful years teaching in Orvieto. It was an important city of 30,000 people in the Middle Ages (today it is 20,000). Popes would come here, both to escape Rome’s hot summers and to be safe from military attacks, since it is on a high hill which is very difficult to assault. |
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My
final talk was on “Hope,” since one of the participants told me the week had brought a lot of hope back to her in the midst of the darkness of our times. Aquinas does that. He is basically an optimist because he sees so directly the beauty and wonder of existence. I am going to let him speak in the next few daily meditations in his own words,
as I tried to do in my morning teachings at Orvieto. |
Claire Osborne shows one example of how to do a movement meditation. Video by Ekhart Yoga. | “Art As Meditation” teachers, as is
my pedagogy, steered the students to find their voices through body prayer or making haikus, doing movement, circle dancing, or imaging in the afternoons. These are all ways to process rational information via intuition, to arrive at a fuller expression of truth.
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Thomas Aquinas is my spiritual father in so many ways. I first met him when I was 15 years old and my parish priest, a Dominican, gave me G.K. Chesterton’s book, The Dumb Ox, and some of Aquinas’s writings. This was in response to philosophical questions raised by my public high school friends who were Protestant, Jewish or agnostic. |
And
now, at 83 years old, and many books later, I am still learning from Aquinas. Truth is in such demand these days, as politicians and their kept media run from it so readily. Aquinas says there is no justice and no compassion without truth. In his Commentary on the Psalms, he cites Proverbs: “Compassion and truth guard a king,” and comments: Through justice subjects are defended. Take justice away, and no one will be secure and happy. Likewise, without compassion, all are fearful and do not love. Among all the things that cause |
Aethelstan, a pre-Norman king of England between 925 and 939, was reputed to be a very just and compassionate
king. Artist unknown. Wikimedia Commons. |
enjoyment concerning the Lord, there are two—namely, compassion and justice. To be continued. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 390f. See also “The Proper objects of the heart are truth and justice,” in Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 101-108.
Banner image: The valley surrounding the walled city of Orvieto, Italy. Photo by Trolvag. Wikimedia Commons.
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Queries for Contemplation |
Do you agree with Aquinas that Compassion and Justice cause enjoyment to God and the rest of us? Might that be why Eckhart says God is “tickled through and through” by our acts of justice? |
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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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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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 Matthew Fox and 11 other speakers for a 6-week course on Cosmic Water: The Radical Roots of Mystical Christianity hosted by Advaya.Life (Matthew speaks on June 18). Tuesdays, May 28 - Thursday, July 4, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PDT Register HERE (for 10% discount use code
FOX-WOW) |
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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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