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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox 

11/28/2024

As the results of the election ripple out, learn the deeper stakes involved. 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. 

One shudders and grieves and rages and fears about what is in store for America and the Earth and other countries when an elected antichrist and serial liar and man-committed-to-Project-2025 takes over the reins of government. Already, many of the choices for cabinet positions are scarier than a whole year of Halloweens.

“The wars they linger on/The darkness overcomes/
We need not stars but sun/Break in O Coming One/ Sometimes we cannot tell/That You will make all well.” Ordinary Time, “All Shall Be Well.”

To find reasons to give thanks, we have to dig deep and “seek the deepness,” as Julian of Norwich puts it. She writes:

Be a gardener,
dig and ditch,
toil and sweat,
and turn the earth upside down
and seek the deepness
and water the plants in time.

Continue this labor and make sweet floods to run
and noble and abundant fruits to spring.

So let us make a prayer of what it is we are digging for when we “dig and ditch” into our souls to say “Thanks” on this Thanksgiving Day, 2024. “This is the holiest prayer—the loving prayer of thanksgiving,” Julian reminds us.

Hildegard of Bingen, “Cultivating the Cosmic Tree,” Scivias.

Let us give thanks for …

Our existence.

The “miracle of our existence.” (Rilke)

Isness—“Isness is God.”(Meister Eckhart)

Creation. The universe. The cosmos. All that is and all that brought us here, “us” being the Milky Way, our sun, our moon, our Mother Earth, our soil, our waters, 

our rivers, lakes, oceans, waterfalls. And the Beauty thereof.

For all the Original Blessings over 13.8 billion years that preceded human existence and persist to this day.

For all the non-two legged creatures, each of whom Thomas Merton calls “saints.”

And that includes rocks and trees, forests and fields, flowers, animals, fish, birds—with their music—reptiles, insects, butterflies, bees, wolves, giraffes, elephants, dolphins, whales, chimpanzees, dogs, cats, horses. The four-legged and winged ones, the slithering and finned ones. All original blessings.

And our human ancestors who have preceded us and instructed us and made our existence possible.

May we humans, so late on the scene, honor and respect and reverence our time and place in creation and evolution,13.8 billion years in the making. 

A Thanksgiving meditation based on Julian’s vision of the hazelnut. You’re invited to hold a small object the size of a hazelnut while taking part. Salem Baptist Church.

May we also live up to being Original Blessings ourselves who bring goodness into the holy circle of existence, the holy circle called “very good” on the first page of the Bible when humans also came aboard.

Julian tells us that Thanksgiving leads to action when she says, Charged with the quality of reverence and loving awe, we turn ourselves with all our might toward the actions to which we are guided. 

Amen.

Adapted from Matthew Fox, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond, pp. 101f., 20-33.

See Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations.

And Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 41-52.

Banner Image: The biosphere of Planet Earth: On land, vegetation appears on a scale from brown (low vegetation) to dark green (lots of vegetation); at the ocean surface, phytoplankton are indicated on a scale from purple (low) to yellow (high). This visualization was created with data from satellites including SeaWiFS, and instruments including the NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. Wikimedia Commons.

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Queries for Contemplation

Thomas Aquinas defines religion as “supreme thankfulness or gratitude.” What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Will you “turn your reverence and loving awe to action” as Julian proposes? What kind?

Recommended Reading

Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic–and Beyond

Julian of Norwich lived through the dreadful bubonic plague that killed close to 50% of Europeans. Being an anchoress, she ‘sheltered in place’ and developed a deep wisdom that she shared in her book, Showings, which was the first book in English by a woman. A theologian way ahead of her time, Julian develops a feminist understanding of God as mother at the heart of nature’s goodness. Fox shares her teachings in this powerful and timely and inspiring book.
“What an utterly magnificent book. The work of Julian of Norwich, lovingly supported by the genius of Matthew Fox, is a roadmap into the heart of the eco-spiritual truth that all life breathes together.”  –Caroline Myss
Now also available as an audiobook HERE.

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

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.

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

The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages

The second book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series, The Return of Father Sky helps boys and girls to celebrate a new relationship with the masculine by way of Father Sky, whose return excites joy and wonder and possibility that enlarge the soul to welcome others and all creation. Written in a rhyming Dr. Seuss-like style, this full-color, beautifully illustrated book, written by world- renowned theologian Matthew Fox weaves together modern science and classic spirituality in a whimsical, entertaining format to illustrate important truths to readers aged 4 and up. 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.

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.

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, Rev. Nóirín Ní Riain, and celebrated Irish performers Owen Ó Súilleabháin, and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin in an Interfaith Advent celebration of Irish sacred music and storytelling to honor the varied Festivals of Light and explore the mysteries they reveal. Saturday, December 7, 9:00am – 11:00am PT. Register HERE.

Join Matthew Fox for an on-site and online Advent Retreat titled “A Great Coming: Creation Spirituality and the Renewal of Religion, Humanity and Holy Mother Earth,” hosted by Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles. Saturday, 12/14, 9 AM -5 PM; Sunday, 12/15, 9-11 AM. 
Register HERE.

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