The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
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Recovering a Sense of the
Sacred 09/24/2024 |
PLEASE NOTE: With the days ticking down to 11/5, learn the deeper stakes in this year's election. Get your copy of Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election today! Choose your format in the book block below. |
The health and future of Mother Earth are in rapid decline due to Climate Change, which is in turn caused by human arrogance and indifference and greed. |
At the same time as it is becoming ever more clear humanity is bringing about such destruction, we are also being gifted with a new creation story from science. One that underscores the very sacred reality that is our universe, our home, and our place in it. This story can unite all peoples, |
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irrespective of religious, political or cultural differences. The late, celebrated student of the universe, geologian Thomas Berry, told us how to recover a sense of the sacred when it has been lost. He begins with the observation that it has been lost—for he talks about recovering our
sense of the sacred. What is more important if humanity is to wake up and get up and choose to survive as a species? Here are Thomas Berry’s instructions: |
Professor Lani Shiota shares how awe is involved in her research. Learn more HERE. | We will recover our sense of wonder
and our sense of the sacred only if we appreciate the universe beyond ourselves as a revelatory experience of that numinous presence whence all things come into being. |
Indeed, the universe is the primary sacred reality. We become sacred by our participation in this more sublime dimension of the world about us. Notice how he identifies a sense of wonder with a sense of the sacred. How important this is! Once again, we are being told to pay attention to the Via
Positiva. Awe. “Awe is the beginning of wisdom,” Heschel reminds us again and again. And in our pursuit of knowledge, we have often put aside or even run over the quest for wisdom. |
Wisdom of course is feminine in the Bible and around the world. She is reasserting herself in our time for her neglect has been devastating for millions of species and the Earth herself. Awe. Wonder. Reverence. Gratitude. Here is the springboard for all spiritual growth. This is why moving from an original sin consciousness to an original blessing consciousness lies at the heart of our survival as a species today. |
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Our origins, as Hildegard of Bingen reminds us, are Love. And Goodness. And Joy, which derives from both. So is our destiny. Berry again: The human venture depends absolutely on this quality of awe and reverence and joy in the Earth and all that lives and grows upon the
Earth….In the end the universe can only be explained in terms of celebration. It is all an exuberant expression of existence itself….. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics, pp. 361, 365.
See also Fox, Hildegard of Bingen, a Saint For Our Times, p. xiii.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Banner Image: A sunlit glade in Muir Woods. Photo by Zetong Li on Unsplash. |
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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 |
Do you agree with Berry that the human venture depends absolutely on awe, reverence and joy in the Earth returning? And that the universe is the primary sacred reality? How do we best assist that recovery of the Sacred? |
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in
Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion
and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless
Youth. |
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Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this amazing woman and what we can learn from
her.
In an era when women were marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial figure. Yet so visionary was her insight that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for advice.
“This book gives strong, sterling, and unvarnished evidence that everything – everything – we ourselves become will affect what women
after us may also become….This is a truly marvelous, useful, profound, and creative book.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism. |
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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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Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s
rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color
prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with
black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download. |
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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 does it again, here for our young ones, who so need a positive, cosmic vision
to thrive, or even survive, in a sad time." - Father Richard Rohr, Author of The Universal Christ "Matthew Fox offers a resounding affirmation of what our souls have always suspected: we are made for joy." - Mirabai Starr, Author of God of Love and Wild Mercy |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox, Mariko Middleton, and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT.
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88665302478
Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478 Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org |
Join Matthew Fox and others in a panel discussion on “Mysticism, Spirituality and Psychedelics” at the Portland 2024 Psychedelic Symposium: Illuminating Visions, a hybrid virtual/on-site event. Panel discussion (online): Friday, October 4, 10:30 am - 12:00 noon PT; Symposium (on-site): Friday, October 4 - Sunday, October 6. Register HERE. ConvergenceCoLab hosts Matthew Fox, Margaret Wheatley, and Brian McLaren in an online
conversation on “Post-Doom Spirituality," Wednesday, October 16, 6-8:30 PM ET. Register now with an EARLY BIRD rate of $30, HERE. |
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Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his two books, In the Beginning There was Joy and The Return of Father Sky, in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, October 17, 4:00-5:30 pm
PT.
Register HERE. |
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Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Bannon, former Trump advisor and former Executive Chairman at Breitbart News. He explains how Cardinal Burke and other neofascists in the Catholic Church opposed the Second Vatican Council, which sought to update the Catholic Church. He then explains how both Leonard Leo (co-chairman of the Federalist Society board of directors, who drew up lists of potential conservative judges who were then appointed to the Supreme Court) and Kevin Roberts from the Heritage
Foundation, share a right-wing Catholic ideology. |
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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