Week of three/24-29/2025: The Annunciation, Good vs. Evil, and Artwork

March 24, 2025: Good Information within the Midst of Evil Information: The Feast of the Annunciation
The mystics name this a time of the “Darkish Night time of the Soul,” which Rabbi Heschel modified to the “Darkish Night time of Society.” Matthew suggests we name it the “Darkish Night time of our Species.” The story of the annunciation, at its most simple, is thus: Across the 12 months 5 CE, an angel got here to a easy younger Jewish lady whose folks have been struggling underneath the may of the Roman Empire, and instructed her that she was to bear a really particular youngster who would bless the world. This story has attraction to anybody who want to see evil overcome, empires dissolved, hate changed with love, and despair changed with hope. On this time of ethical, political, and Earth upheaval, let’s maintain onto what this story guarantees. That youth, womanhood, motherhood, and delivery will help flip the tide.

March 25, 2025: Annunciation 2025: A Metaphor for Spirit Birthing Inventive Resistance
Yesterday, we noticed some work of the Annunciation. They’re an amazing supply of inspiration for us. The truth is, creativity is one in every of humanity’s biggest presents. We’re all artists. The Holy Spirit works on and thru us all.  The By way of Creativa is integral to everybody’s non secular journey. Aquinas mentioned, “The identical Spirit that hovered over the waters in the beginning of creation hovers over the thoughts of the artist at work.” At present, we rejoice a brand new Annunciation portray by Javier Garcia Lemus. Why do we discover such hope within the Annunciation story? In darkish instances, dire instances, people require hope to outlive. 

March 26, 2025: The Annunciation: One Artist’s Tackle the Occasions We Stay In
Matthew interviewed Javier Garcia Lemus about his new portray of the Annunciation of Mary, known as “Virgin.” Javier mentioned that he painted this in homage to Mary who saved him when he was a 16-year-old boy. He additional explains that whereas he and his father have been swimming, his father had a coronary heart assault and died in Javier’s arms. Javier started sinking deeper and deeper. He realized he was drowning and prayed, “Mary, assist me!” She appeared to him beneath the ocean, as a being of sunshine, and Javier all of a sudden shot out of the ocean, saved from loss of life. The three bins, says Javier, symbolize the Trinity, who existed each earlier than Mary. When requested in regards to the political turmoil we’re immersed in, Javier responded that we will “change the vibrations of the earth” by the sweetness we make.

March 27, 2025: The 4 Paths As Non secular Practices For Arduous Occasions
The 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality are themselves non secular practices that result in bringing compassion into the world. This isn’t compassion which is seen as pity, however compassion coming from a spot of “interdependence.” The By way of Positiva is about marvel and awe and falling in love with life. The By way of Negativa is about emptying, silence, and stillness, in addition to present process grief and struggling.. “Be nonetheless and know I’m God.” The By way of Creativa is the place the human and Divine meet. And the By way of Creativa spawns the By way of Transformativa, which calls all of us to be non secular warriors on behalf of  compassion and justice. 

March 28, 2025: Angels, Demons, and Information of Our Time
Evidently each angels and demons are within the information this week. Just lately in Substack, two brilliantly satiric items have been written by Patrice Mersault. They’re entitled: “My Debate with Devil: Is Trump Your Masterpiece, or Your Alternative?” and “My Debate With Devil, Half II: The Last Fight, A Diabolical Confrontation On Inferno Politics: Standing In opposition to Trumpism With out Shedding Your Soul.” You may click on on the titles to learn the articles. In every, the writer engages in a dialogue with the satan or, as he calls him, “My Dearest Lord of the Pit.” The satan, in flip, addresses him as “Mortal.” In the meantime, subsequent week Matthew simply occurs to be main a new course, an inquiry into angels (and demons). The course will embrace two visits from British biologist Rupert Sheldrake primarily based on the e book he and Matthew co-authored, The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm The place Science and Spirit Meet. 

March 29, 2025: Speaking about Evil
Usually folks really feel they don’t have the language at present to cope with the acute darkness they’re witnessing and feeling. That is the place artwork might be very useful. The author we referred to yesterday, Patrice Mersault, masterfully—and playfully—imagines a dialogue with the satan about at present’s instances. Satire and laughter can typically attain us at instances when different avenues can not. As for the satan, Matthew proposes that the acquainted names of Lucifer, Devil, and Beelzebub may simply get replaced with different phrases reminiscent of racism, sexism, fascism, or Christian Nationalism. Artwork and creativity are among the many many instruments {that a} non secular warrior can use when preventing evil.

Banner picture: Mild vs. Darkness. Picture by Tom Barret on Unsplash

Really useful Studying

The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm The place Science & Spirit Meet
By Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake

When was the final time a scientist and a theologian mentioned angels collectively? What are angels? Many individuals imagine in angels, however few can outline these enigmatic spirits. Now visionary theologian Matthew Fox and acclaimed biologist Rupert Sheldrake—pioneers in fashionable non secular pondering and scientific idea—launch a groundbreaking exploration into the traditional idea of the angel and restore dignity, which means, and pleasure to our time-honored perception in these heavenly beings.

Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had all the time shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so usually used to unfold management and worry. Nonetheless, given at present’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this e book using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for analyzing the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this e book with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, writer of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For fast entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white photos, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for fast obtain.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Remodeling Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling writer Matthew Fox gives a brand new theology of evil that essentially modifications the normal notion of excellent and evil and factors the best way to a extra enlightened therapy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Jap custom of the 7 chakras to the Western custom of the 7 capital sins, Fox permits us to suppose creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we will do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a greater imaginative and prescient and depth of notion far past the grasp of anyone single science.  A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, writer of Quantum Theology: Non secular Implications of the New Physics