The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Watch for Matthew Fox's
video meditation — now appearing every Monday! |
Week of 7/28-8/2/2025: Honoring “Everyday Saints” and the Great WorkBy the Daily Meditations Team 8/3/2025 |
This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Three of them are penned by Matthew Fox (MF), and three by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG). On Monday, we will also continue to offer a video teaching by Matthew. |
July 28, 2025: Fighting Despair with Action: A Fruit Tree Planting Project in Nepal (MF)
Marianne Grosspietsch, who founded an orphanage named Shanti for the poor in Nepal, recently wrote to Matthew. Her email was titled “Let us not give up despite the Anti Christ’s painful activities.” With Trump’s abolition of USAID, thousands of children in Nepal are at risk of hunger and malnutrition. Marianne organized a project to address both hunger and climate change. Shanti has purchased and distributed 7,600 fruit trees, each a minimum of five feet tall. So
far, 90% have survived. Currently, in spite of Nepal’s favorable climate, almost all fruit is imported from China and India, and it is usually toxic. This project is a win/win for the people and the Earth. One fruit tree costs $10. Donations can be made to this worthy cause HERE (US dollars) or HERE (euro and
other currencies). |
Two Nepalese fruit tree planters. Photo by Marianne Grosspietsch, used with permission. |
July 29, 2025: Saints I Have Known and Worked With (MF)
Reflecting on the recent death of Joanna Macy has
caused Matthew to reflect on the many saints he has been blessed to know and work with over the years. In order to uplift ourselves during this dark time, let’s acknowledge and celebrate them! Besides Joanna Macy, others on Matthew’s list include: Matthew’s mentor Père Chenu, Sister Dorothy Stang, Sister Jose Hobday, Buck Ghosthorse, and potter and poet MC Richards. What a blessing these people are to our lives and to the planet. July 30, 2025: Fighting Despair with Understanding (GG)
Last Sunday night, in Italy, churches all over the country, rang their bells at 10pm to signify solidarity with the Palestinians who are being killed by an engineered famine. As a friend put it, “At least we feel we are a portion of a hurting whole.” We are beginning to realize that we are interconnected. We are all organically interrelated. As Anglican priest John Donne famously wrote: No man is an island…. Each man’s
death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. |
July 31, 2025: Attuning to the Great Work (GG)
Last year Gianluigi translated into Italian Matthew’s
book The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time. In Italian, “work” can be translated as “lavoro” (labor) or as “opera,” as in “l’opera della vita” (the work of life). Says GG: There is a true metanoia (mind/heart change) that is required to understand the book: leaving behind the equation between work and job that has been hammered into our minds. At this time, when we may feel impotent in our social action, and when there may
be less job security, it is especially important that we recognize that our work is not about a job, but about the Great Work. August 1, 2025:
Emptiness and Work (GG)
Recently, GG led a workshop on the themes in Matthew’s book, The Reinvention of Work. Many of the participants were stunned by the poems that Matthew shared in the book. They were especially moved by the following concept from one of Rumi’s poems: “Every craftsman searches for what’s not there to
practice his craft.” The notion that the engine of our activity is found in the lack thereof, or that, as the Tao Te Ching puts it, being originates from non-being, is not only unfamiliar to most of us, but is paradoxical and hard to understand. Rumi’s poem concludes: Dear soul, if you were not friends with the vast nothing inside, why would you always be casting your net into it, and waiting so patiently? Matthew clarifies: Emptiness and nothingness are part of the Great Work
of the universe and, indeed, feed our yearning for work. |
Matthew Fox's The Reinvention of Work and its Italian translation, by Gianluigi Gugliermetto. August 2, 2025: Saints I Have Known, continued (MF)
Matthew asks, Why is it good spiritual practice to pause and meditate on saintly people we have known and worked with? Because we must combat the flood of
news about the evil deeds of people that is pouring out from the media daily. Some others whom Matthew wants to honor include: Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Daniel Ellsberg, liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, Dominican Father Schillebeeckx of Holland, Father Albert Nolan, a South African Dominican priest active in the anti-apartheid movement, and Thomas Merton. Also, if Thomas Merton is correct that “every non-two-legged creature is a saint,” then I must also acknowledge Tristan, my dog
and spiritual companion of 15 years. Banner image: “The Blue Cave Temple.” Image by Daniel Arrhakis on Flickr, who writes “The greatest treasure of mankind is the power to share love and to protect life in all its
forms..” |
Mystic-Warriors at the Roof of the World In Monday's DM, we shared the story of Marianne Grosspietsch and the Shanti Leprosy Aid organization of Nepal: faced with the loss of food from USAID, her community is planting thousands of fruit trees to nourish the hungry in the region while mitigating the effects of climate change.
We invite you to consider supporting this work HERE (US$) or HERE (€ and other currencies) |
|
Responses are welcomed. To add
your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time
Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of
daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic
Reporter |
|
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to
teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John
Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin |
|
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. |
|
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 |
|
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South
American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality
and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang. |
|
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more
than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each. “Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can
fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit. |
|
Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart
Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of
true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.” — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author
of Kissing Sleeping Beauty Goodbye. |
|
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a new 6-month program of mystical wisdom for a new world.
In this 6-month immersion program with Matthew, you’ll explore what it means to be a modern mystic and prophet, integrating this sacred knowledge into your life through the authentic teachings of Jesus and other wisdom keepers. This journey births what Matthew calls Christianity 2.0 — based not on dogma, but on a spirituality that recovers the sacred sense of original goodness. By Application only - apply HERERegister for a free information session HERE |
|
|
|
|
|
Matthew Fox offers an online lecture and Q&A to the Association of Pittsburg Priests on “Pere Chenu: Father of
Liberation Theology, Creation Spirituality, and Much of Vatican II”. Wednesday, August 6, 4:00pm – 5:30pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book, Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs, in an online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, August 21, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox 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 HERE, Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478 Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
GMU President Dr. Gerald Grudzen, along with Father Augustine Pamplany, Dean of the GMU Religion and Science graduate degree program, hosts the Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox for a presentation on "Creation Spirituality and Science," July 11,
2025. |
|
|
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: |
|
|
|
