A Prayer on Thanksgiving Day, 2024, a la Julian of Norwich

That is absolutely probably the most troublesome Thanksgiving of my 83 years of spinning across the solar. 

One shudders and grieves and rages and fears about what’s in retailer for America and the Earth and different international locations when an elected antichrist and serial liar and man-committed-to-Venture-2025 takes over the reins of presidency.  Already, lots of the selections for cupboard positions are scarier than an entire yr of Halloweens.

To search out the explanations for our thanks, we’ve to dig deep and “search the deepness”—as Julian of Norwich places it.  She writes:

Be a gardener,
dig and ditch,
toil and sweat,
and switch the earth the wrong way up
and search the deepness
and water the vegetation in time.

Proceed this labor and make candy floods to run
and noble and plentiful fruits to spring

So allow us to make a prayer of what it’s we’re digging for once we “dig and ditch” into our souls to say “Thanks” on this Thanksgiving Day, 2024.  “That is the holiest prayer—the loving prayer of thanksgiving,” Julian reminds us.

Allow us to give thanks for …

Our existence.

The “miracle of our existence.” (Rilke)

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

Creation.  The universe. The cosmos.  All that’s and all that introduced us right here, “us” being the Milky Manner, our solar, our moon, our Mom Earth, our soil, our waters, our rivers, lakes, oceans, waterfalls.  And the Magnificence thereof.

For all of the Unique Blessings over 13.8 billion years that preceded human existence and persist to at the present time.

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

And that features rocks and bushes, forests and fields, flowers, animals, fish, birds—with their music—reptiles, bugs, butterflies, bees, wolves, giraffes, elephants, dolphins, whales, chimpanzees, canines, cats, horses.  The 4-legged and winged ones, the slithering and finned ones.  All  authentic blessings.

And our human ancestors who’ve preceded us and instructed us and made our existence doable

Might we people, so late on the scene, honor and respect and reverence our time and place in creation and evolution, 13.8 billions years within the making. 

Might we additionally stay as much as being Unique Blessings ourselves who deliver goodness into the holy circle of existence, the holy circle referred to as “excellent” on the primary web page of the Bible when people additionally got here aboard.

Julian tells us that Thanksgiving results in motion when she says, Charged with the standard of reverence and loving awe, we flip ourselves with all our would possibly towards the actions” to which we’re guided. 

Amen.

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Tailored from Matthew Fox, Julian of Norwich: Knowledge in a Time of Pandemic—and Past, pp. 101f., 20-33.

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

And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations.

And Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Knowledge for Onerous Instances, pp. 41-52.

Banner Picture: The biosphere of Planet Earth: On land, vegetation seems on a scale from brown (low vegetation) to darkish inexperienced (numerous vegetation); on the ocean floor, phytoplankton are indicated on a scale from purple (low) to yellow (excessive). This visualization was created with information from satellites together with SeaWiFS, and devices together with the NASA/NOAA Seen Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite and the Average Decision Imaging Spectroradiometer. Wikimedia Commons.

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Queries for Contemplation

Thomas Aquinas defines faith as “supreme thankfulness or gratitude.”  What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?  Will you “flip your reverence and loving awe to motion” as Julian proposes?  What sort?

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Beneficial Studying

Julian of Norwich: Knowledge in a Time of Pandemic–and Past

Julian of Norwich lived by way of the dreadful bubonic plague that killed near 50% of Europeans. Being an anchoress, she ‘sheltered in place’ and developed a deep knowledge that she shared in her e-book, Showings, which was the primary e-book in English by a girl. A theologian method forward of her time, Julian develops a feminist understanding of God as mom on the coronary heart of nature’s goodness. Fox shares her teachings on this highly effective and well timed and provoking e-book.
“What an completely magnificent e-book. The work of Julian of Norwich, lovingly supported by the genius of Matthew Fox, is a roadmap into the center of the eco-spiritual fact that every one life breathes collectively.”  –Caroline Myss
Now additionally obtainable as an audiobook HERE.

Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out an entire new route for Christianity—a route that’s in reality very historical and really grounded in Jewish considering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is usually uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed method.
“Unique Blessing makes obtainable to the Christian world and to the human group a radical remedy for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these could have originated.” –Thomas Berry, writer, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an getting old Albert Einstein was requested if he had any regrets, he replied, “I want I had learn extra of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics symbolize a wide-ranging sampling of those readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no religion. The visionaries quoted vary from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in disaster, and we want street maps that may floor us in knowledge, encourage us to motion, and assist us collect our abilities in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary e-book does simply that. Matthew Fox takes a few of the most profound non secular teachings of the West and interprets them into sensible each day mediations. Research and apply these teachings. Take what’s on this e-book and educate it to the youth as a result of the brand new era can not afford to undergo the spirit and moral illiteracy of the previous.” — Adam Bucko, non secular activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Basis for Homeless Youth.

The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Knowledge for Onerous Instances

A shocking non secular handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, providing a chic roadmap for spirituality and motion.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a beautiful e-book!  Solely Matt Fox might deliver to life the knowledge and brilliance of Aquinas with a lot creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, writer of Anatomy of the Spirit

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