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! Are you missing half the DM? If you're not seeing Queries for Contemplation, Recommended Reading,
Upcoming Events, Creation Spirituality Conversations, and more, look at the very bottom of the email for "..." Click the ellipsis, and enjoy! |
Prayer and the Body – Part 4By Gianluigi Gugliermetto 9/4/2025 |
I just came back home from leading a retreat in the beautiful city of Verona, Italy. As always — following Matthew’s teaching — my retreats include one portion of intellectual learning, questioning, and debate (left brain engagement) and one portion of art as meditation, creativity, silence, and prayer (right brain engagement). |
As in previous retreats, two things impressed me the most about the experience, and do not cease to amaze me: the “Aha!” moments of enlightenment, when the mind puts together different bits of information and reaches a new synthesis, and the instances of melting of psychic defenses, which happen invariably in connection with the body. Even though I love the “Aha!” moments, I believe that they can remain merely mental and thus ineffective in the long run, unless they are accompanied |
Retreat participants experiencing the stations of the Cosmic Christ at the Monastery of the Common Good in Verona, Italy. Photo by Gianluigi Gugliermetto, with permission. |
by a relaxation of the body and the release of psychic energies. Let me give one example. At one point during the retreat, participants were invited to walk and observe closely the sixteen Stations of the Cosmic Christ, which — following Matthew’s suggestion — consist of artworks representing the
seven “I am” statements in the Gospel of John (such as “I am the light of the world”) plus several cosmic moments in the life of Jesus (such as his nativity surrounded by angels). Each participant was then asked to choose one of the Stations and listen to the voice of the Cosmic Christ addressing them individually.
Everybody came up easily with one sentence — a proof that the depths of our soul contain already the divine voice. But that was not enough. Through the next meditation, I invited people to perceive where in their body there was tension blocking the flow of energy. Then I asked them to whisper to themselves the sentence
coming from the Cosmic Christ, from the Wisdom within. And… voilà! Bodily tension melted away, shoulders felt relieved of burdens, hearts felt alive again! Only when the body is involved, is there change, because only when the body is involved is there prayer. I submit to you that when the mind alone is involved there is no prayer at all. Words are depotentiated and become harmful when they are not filtered through the heart and through the body. |
Chapel inside of the Monastery of the Common Good in Verona, Italy. Photo by Gianluigi Gugliermetto, with permission. | Our retreat continued, that very night, with a ritual inside the chapel of the monastery hosting us. We began the ritual by walking around in the space — a powerful symbol of our psyche and its spaciousness — each of us whispering repeatedly our mantras, the ones
we |
individually received from the Cosmic Christ. In this way, we created waves of powerful Wisdom intertwining with each other in the space. At some point in the ritual we began dancing freely in the same space. One participant later said: “We reclaimed for Cosmic Wisdom a space that many of us felt oppressive
because of dogmatism.” Another participant said: “We weaved through symbols and our bodies those truths that cannot be expressed by words.” We did not speak words during this ritual, except for a Wisdom reading from the book of Proverbs which was recited as an art performance, not to communicate notions or
dogmas. |
See Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus, Stations of the Cosmic Christ
See also Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
And Fox, Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
And Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
And Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
Banner Image: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” by artist Paola Pisani, Courtyard of the Cosmic Christ at the Monastery of the Common Good in Verona, Italy. Photo by Gianluigi Gugliermetto, with permission. |
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). |
|
Queries for Contemplation What is your experience with creating rituals
with others? |
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. |
Stations of the Cosmic Christ
By Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.
This is a book of meditations on the
Cosmic Christ, accompanying the images of 16 wonderful clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Together, these images and meditations go far beyond the traditional Stations of the Cross to inspire a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the image of God in all beings, so needed in our times.
“A divinely inspired book that
must be read by every human being devoted to spiritual and global survival. It is cosmically brilliant.” — Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit |
|
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 |
|
Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality Years ahead of its time when first published
in 1976, this book is still bold and relevant today. Perfect for anyone who thinks mysticism needs to get out of the head and into the body. Matthew Fox begins the Preface to this book by stating, “This is a practical book about waking up and returning to a biblical, justice-oriented spirituality. Such a spirituality is a way of passion that leads to compassion. Such a way is necessarily one of coming to our senses in every meaning of that phrase.” One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, this title
explores the importance of ecstasy in the spiritual life. Fox considers the distinction between “natural” ecstasies (including nature, sex, friendship, music, art) and “tactical” ecstasies (like meditation, fasting, chanting); he goes on to consider that a truly authentic mysticism must be sensuous in its orientation, so to cultivate the maximum amount of ecstasy for the maximum amount of people. |
|
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 |
|
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
How do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that includes our “Yes” to
life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that combat life (prophecy). How do we define adult prayer? And how—if at all—do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, originally published under the title On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of how to pray. Called a “classic” when it first
appeared, it lays out the difference between the creation spirituality tradition and the fall/redemption tradition that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A practical and theoretical book, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works.
“One of the finest books I have read on contemporary spirituality.” – Rabbi Sholom A. Singer |
|
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the
most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth. |
|
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book, Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality, in an online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, September 18, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book, Meditations with Meister Eckhart in an online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, October 16, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. Join spiritual pioneers Dr. Matthew Fox and Rev. Cameron Trimble for “In Search of a New Story: Reimagining What Comes Next,” a timely and transformative 4-part series featuring conversations with some of the most compelling wisdom voices of our time: Carolyn Myss, Diana Butler Bass,
Luther Smith, and Ilia Delio. Thursdays, October 23, 30, and November 13, 20, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT Register 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 |
|
|
|
|
|
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 |
Matthew Fox and Fr. Bede Griffiths each lecture for approximately 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes of dialogue. 91 minutes. 1990. You will receive a secure link to the file to download. |
|
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: |
|
|
|
