The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Dear friends, We are sorry to say that our teammate Gianluigi Gugliermetto, who has been writing three DMs each week to help lighten Matthew's workload, will be stepping back temporarily due to health challenges. He is planning to return the first week of March. Please join us in sending prayers for his full
recovery! ~~The DM Team |
Leonard Cohen on Saintliness By Matthew Fox 2/07/2026 |
Buddhist and Jewish musician and sage Leonard Cohen asks the question: What is a saint?* |
He answers his question this way in his 1966 novel, Beautiful Losers: A saint is someone who has achieved a remote human possibility. It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love. |
“There is a crack in everything / that’s how the light gets in” – Leonard Cohen sings “Anthem” (Official Live in London 2008) |
Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence. A saint does not dissolve the chaos; if he did the world would have changed long ago. I do not think that a saint dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is something arrogant and
warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe in order. It is a kind of balance that is his glory. He rides the drifts like an escaped ski. His course is the caress of the hill. His track is a drawing of the snow in a moment of its particular arrangement with wind and rock. Something in him so loves the world that he gives
himself to the laws of gravity and chance. |
“And even though it all went wrong / I’ll stand before the lord of song / With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah” – Leonard Cohen sings “Hallelujah” (Official Live in London 2008) | Far from flying with the angels he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape. His house is dangerous and infinite, but he is at home in the world. He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. |
It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love. Allow me to attempt an exegesis of Leonard Cohen’s rich effort to define a saint. Others are invited to create their exegesis as well. What is a saint? A saint is someone who has achieved a remote human possibility. So a saint takes us to the edge of what it is to be human; a saint does not live safely in a box. There is something edgy, or “remote,” or wild, or different, or extreme about saintliness. The edge has something to do with possibility, potential or greatness. Aquinas says hope is about the possible, despair about the impossible. Saints bring hope, bear hope, carry hope and possibility. They stretch the boundaries of what it is to be human, for it is a “remote human possibility.” Saints speak to humanity’s capacity to grow. |
It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love. There is a mystery, something beyond words, impossible to articulate what that possibility or hope is. We can only walk around it and observe it, but not nail it or name it or own it. There is mystery involved. |
“Love Always – Love Often – Love Anyway” Artwork on a street memorial to ICE victim Renee Good, Minneapolis. Photo by Ken Fager on Flickr. |
But we can surmise that “it has something to do with the energy” we call love. Love is at its center; love inspires it and energizes it and keeps it going in good times and bad. In the streets of Minnesota and beyond. To be continued. |
Queries for Contemplation What are you learning from Leonard Cohen about saintliness or holiness? Is
he speaking to you about yourself and others whom you know? |
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. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! CREATION SPIRITUALITY CONVERSATIONS |
Podcaster Jon Wilson speaks with Matthew Fox about Creation Spirituality: how Matthew became a Dominican priest; his studies in Paris, Original Blessing versus the Fall-Redemption tradition; the Four Paths; mystics Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and Otto Rank; Eros, ritual and how ‘this is
wisdom to love life’. Listen HERE. |
|
|
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox for a Lecture, Discussion, and Q&A on “Manifesto! For a Global Civilization; & Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart’s Creation Spirituality, ” an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, February 19, 2026, 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 |
Awakening the Divine Human: An Immersion in the Living Wisdom of Creation Spirituality …a week-long retreat in Sardinia, Italy, May 25-30, 2026 Join us on the sacred
island of Sardinia for a deeply immersive 6-day retreat rooted in the teachings of Matthew Fox, C.G. Jung, and the ancient wisdom of the land. Set along the turquoise shores and among the Neolithic sites of this timeless Mediterranean island, this retreat invites you into a transformative journey of reconnection—with Earth, Self, Gender, and the Divine. Learn more HERE. |
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: |
|
|
|
