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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video meditation -- now appearing every Monday! |
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Susan Griffin, Eckhart,
Gandhi: Lessons from The Dark Night 12/19/2024 |
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. |
Susan Griffin says that “Nothingness spreads around us. But in this nothing we find what we did not know existed.”* The Dark Night has much to teach us. |
Meister Eckhart teaches that the Dark Night increases our sensitivity including our sensitivity to the suffering of others. What is this darkness? What is its name? Call it: an aptitude for sensitivity. Call it: a rich sensitivity which will make you whole. Call it: your
potential for vulnerability. |
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Is it your experience that the dark night and the tasting of ashes and the truth of nothingness actually result in an increased aptitude for sensitivity? Sensitivity to suffering, but also sensitivity to beauty and its omnipresence? Sensitivity to Joy even when one is being “stripped down to the very substance of oneself before God” as Howard Thurman puts it? Does this rich sensitivity actually make you whole? In what ways? Does it include putting your vulnerability forward? Is that a good thing? |
Nothingness before God. Photo by Ruel Calitis on Unsplash. | There is a special relationship between the via negativa and the via transformativa, for as we learn more sensitivity from our suffering, we are more tuned to the suffering of others. When this occurs, moral imagination (the via creativa and via transformativa) can kick in to assist in the relief of the suffering of others. Including changing structures and institutions and thought habits that contribute to the suffering of
others. |
One example of transforming a thought habit that oppresses is how introducing the concept of “original blessing” can offer medicine to those whom “original sin” has kept down. Gandhi connects the via negativa and via transformativa with this practical advice: To make any progress we must not
make speeches and organize mass meetings but be prepared for mountains of suffering. Is this what awaits the time of resistance beginning officially on January 20? How do we prepare for “mountains of suffering”? One way is to meditate on those who have preceded us, our ancestors, and how they dealt with
mountains of suffering. Jesus is one such person who countenanced putting love above fear. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews said this: “Suffering is part of your training. God is treating you as his sons or daughters.” Jesus suffered. That is what the cross represents and why many can identify with it. Suffering can be redemptive. |
Birth pangs accompany giving birth to something new: A newer democracy; new ways of deriving energy from the earth without poisoning it altogether. A co-creation with Spirit and a new political imagination exploding to bless the earth anew so that humanity can be its better self and abide
by its “better angels” (Lincoln) in order to hand on to future |
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generations a healthy and peace-filled existence worthy of the beauty we have inherited. Is there time for that to happen? The only way to answer that question is to find allies and to try. |
| A Caring Note from the DM
Team: The results of the U.S. election are affecting us all in a variety of ways, and challenging times certainly lie ahead. If the burden becomes overwhelming, we urge you, please, to seek support. Here are a few resources that can help: National Helpline for essential
services: 211 or 211.org National Suicide/Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255 LGBTQ Youth Lifeline:
Call 1-866-488-7386 or text START to 678678. Trans Lifeline: Call 877-565-8860 National Sexual Assault Hotline: Call
800-656-4673 |
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 |
Is it your experience that the Dark Night has much to teach us that is important? And sensitivity, vulnerability, moral imagination and creativity can increase during a Dark Night? And service too, while “dwelling in the desert”? |
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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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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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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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. |
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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 cosmologist Brian Thomas Swimme in a new 7-week live video course hosted by The Shift Network: “The 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality: Embracing Awe, Chaos, Creativity & Transformation With the Universe as Your Guide.” Tuesdays, December 3 –
January 28 (except Dec 24 and 31), 5:00pm - 6:30pm PT Register HERE. |
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Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his two children’s books, Father Fox's Fantastical Fables – In the Beginning There was Joy and The Return of Father Sky in an Our Lady of the Prairie
Retreat, online. December 19, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT Register HERE. |
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Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Hear a conversation between Matthew and Ana Otero of The Desert Rose Mystery School in "Mystical Pathways. A Sacred Talk with Matthew Fox, founder of the Creation Spirituality Movement." |
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Inspired by this post? Share your insights on BlueSky, Instagram, Universeodon, or Facebook using the hashtag #RevDrMatthewFox and tag Matt with @RevDrMatthewFox FOLLOW MATTHEW FOX: |
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