[ad_1]
June 10, 2024: From Orvieto: Aquinas and Teilhard
Matthew is in Orvieto, Italy marking the 800th anniversary of the delivery of Thomas Aquinas, main a weeklong retreat which additionally options three art-as-meditation academics. Final week we mirrored on Teilhard de Chardin. Each Teilhard and Aquinas had been lovers of each nature and science. Matthew asks himself, How would Thomas Aquinas reply to immediately’s science? The reply? He’d be ecstatic, intoxicated, beside himself, thrilled, and deliriously joyful. He can be head over heels in love with the world and the cosmos as we’re attending to realize it. And so, it’s a pleasure to be in Orvieto, a spot of morphic resonance, the place Aquinas wrote and taught.
June 11, 2024: Teilhard, Aquinas and Creation Spirituality
Teilhard was accused of being “too pagan;” Matthew was accused of working too carefully with Native Individuals; and Aquinas was criticized for bringing “pagan” scientist Aristotle into the Christian religion. Aquinas’s response? “Revelation has been made to many pagans” and “the previous pagan virtues had been from God.” Teilhard talked about “tips on how to see God all over the place.” Matthew says, If that isn’t creation spirituality, I don’t know what’s. Teilhard additionally criticized organized faith and noticed a distinction between faith and spirituality. He warned in regards to the “enfeeblement” of faith. Matthew says: An answer is present in reconnecting to the Earth, the work of the primary chakra.
June 12, 2024: Teilhard and Aquinas Battling Dualism
Teilhard, like Thomas Aquinas earlier than him, waged an incessant battle in opposition to dualism. Teilhard stated: Matter and Spirit: These had been not two issues however two states or two points of 1 and the identical cosmic Stuff…. Matter is the Matrix of Spirit. Spirit is the upper state of Matter. Teilhard got here to understand that Spirit was “the very coronary heart” of matter which advanced and morphed into Psyche. Psyche was born of matter and, by means of all this evolving, Spirit was current on the core of issues.
June 13, 2024: Inexperienced Man Jesus Evokes Eco-Martyr Sister Dorothy Stang
[FROM THE ARCHIVE: 5/28/2019] We meditate on how the Inexperienced Man archetype challenges immediately’s poisonous masculinity. Hildegard of Bingen known as Jesus a “inexperienced man.” …This exhibits how conscious Hildegard was to the indicators of her occasions, for the reason that Inexperienced Man was alive and effectively within the twelfth century. Additionally, Hildegard developed her whole theology across the theme of greening energy which she in comparison with our blood or to the sap of the tree or to the Holy Spirit at work in us. She was a champion of the Earth and of preserving and defending the Earth. Jesus is, for her, a inexperienced prophet, absolutely alive, absolutely dedicated, absolutely in love with life. In the meantime, Sister Dot demonstrates the braveness and dedication that defending Mom Earth requires. She is one in every of hundreds who had been—and proceed to be—martyred defending the Amazon. Matthew sees her as a patron saint to resisters and Earthkeepers all over the place.
June 14, 2024: Eco-Martyr Sister Dot & the Sacred Masculine
[FROM THE ARCHIVE: 5/29/2019] We discover extra absolutely the story of Sister Dot and her martyrdom on behalf of Mom Earth. At Sister Dot’s funeral one of many indigenous farmers she had served stood up and declared: “Sister Dot, we’re not burying you; we’re planting you.” When Sister Dot knew her life was in peril, many suggested her to depart Brazil. She wrote: I don’t wish to flee, nor do I wish to abandon the battle of those farmers….They’ve the sacrosanct proper to aspire to a greater life on land the place they’ll reside and work with dignity whereas respecting the atmosphere. Sister Dot stored a replica subsequent to her mattress of the e book Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen by Franciscan Sister Gabriel Uhlein. Sr. Dot’s brother kindly gave that e book to Matthew after she was killed. It’s stuffed with sketches and doodles that Sr. Dot made. Sister Dot, like Saint Hildegard, resides proof of the facility of artwork as meditation to feed and nurture prophets and religious warriors.
June 15, 2024: Extra Knowledge from Artist-Shaman David Paladin
[FROM THE ARCHIVE: 4/29/2021] One other inspiring individual speaks in regards to the energy of artwork and creativity: Navajo painter David Paladin. Like Sr. Dorothy Stang, he confronted forces of evil however didn’t let it forestall him from stepping up and serving humankind. David was captured throughout WWII and put right into a focus camp the place he was mercilessly tortured. When he was liberated, he was emaciated, paraplegic, and in a coma. He awoke from the coma after two years. Elders advised him he might stay in his wheelchair in a VA hospital or heal within the historic methods. He selected the latter. They threw him into an icy chilly river. Miraculously, he recovered. He was capable of stroll once more. He subsequently grew to become an artist, a shaman/healer, and a police chaplain. He tells us: Take a look at your self as magicians, as healers, as lovers of humanity, as givers and sharers. From that perspective dwelling turns into an artwork in itself. Then every little thing you do turns into magic!
Banner picture: “Emergence.” Sand portray by Navajo artist David Paladin. (cropped) Used with permission.
Really helpful Studying
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an growing older 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 signify 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’d like 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 number of the most profound religious teachings of the West and interprets them into sensible day by 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 endure the spirit and moral illiteracy of the previous.” — Adam Bucko, religious activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Basis for Homeless Youth.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Items for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the therapeutic and liberation present in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of each non secular and political persuasion to unite in a brand new imaginative and prescient by means of which we study to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the present of an excellent and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that provides a typical floor for non secular seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Apply.
Creativity: The place the Divine and Human Meet
As a result of creativity is the important thing to each our genius and sweetness as a species but in addition to our capability for evil, we have to educate creativity and to show methods of steering this God-like energy in instructions that promote love of life (biophilia) and never love of dying (necrophilia). Pushing effectively past the bounds of standard Christian doctrine, Fox’s give attention to creativity makes an attempt nothing lower than to form a brand new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Numerous numbers can be comfortable to observe his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, creator, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Residing in Sin
[ad_2]
Leave a Reply