Tag: Matthew Fox

Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox: Men in Search of the Divine Feminine

Recently, while lecturing (on Zoom) about the need to balance the sacred feminine with the sacred masculine, a man asked me: “How do you recommend men entertain more the divine feminine?”
It is a good question.

photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

I offered one answer yesterday in my sharing on Francis of Assisi because he truly stands out as a man who had an amazing balance of the feminine and the masculine.  It is so much in evidence in his poem on Brother Sun as I indicated in the video where I read much of the poem.  He found the divine feminine (but also the masculine) in nature.

So that is one answer: Check nature out.  And look for its feminine aspects—which are everywhere.

It is important to put our hunting-gathering instincts into answering that question, for a patriarchal culture has so flooded us with the uber masculine that we can find, in such a fog, neither the healthy masculine nor the feminine.

This is where praying the feminine names for divinity such as we have been meditating on for weeks becomes a meaningful—and important—exercise.

Such a practice brings the feminine back to one’s own consciousness.

So too is realizing our own mysticism.  Mysticism itself is feminine, as Dorothee Soelle described it.  Mysticism “comes closest to overcoming the hierarchical masculine concept of God….The mystical certainty that nothing can separate us from the love of God grows when we ourselves become one with love by placing ourselves, freely and without guarantee of success, on the side of love.”

The male mystics are very good at this (as are women mystics)

Continue reading “Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox: Men in Search of the Divine Feminine” →

A Conversation with Matthew Fox

A fascinating chat with Matthew Fox, renowned spiritual theologian, popular speaker, author of over 35 books, and an early and influential proponent of Creation Spirituality.

Matthew Fox is an internationally acclaimed spiritual theologian, Episcopal priest, and activist who was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years. He holds a doctorate, summa cum laude, in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality, which is Continue reading “A Conversation with Matthew Fox” →

Meditations with Matthew Fox: The Tension between Inner and Outer Work

Recently a reader wrote that she felt troubled hearing about contemplation when there are so many people facing crisis including kids who don’t have food…for whom school was their place of safety and where they received hot meals. I think of women stuck home with their abusers. I think of all the people facing eviction, unable to pay bills because our society never believed their lives to be valuable. I think about the farm workers…. 

She asked: “How do we incorporate this tension?”

She is right of course. A moment of apocalypse like we are living through brings plenty of tension with it.  Contemplation needs to lead to action; yet action needs to flow from a deep place of love, goodness and Source.

A crisis like the pandemic becomes a watershed for all the “tensions” we as a society may have refused to face over the years and centuries.  The “sins of our fathers” (and mothers) can pile up—and spill over.

Take slavery and genocide and racism as examples along with ecocide and our neglect and abuse of Mother Earth.

Observe how the rugged individualism mythos that characterizes so much of our value systems can easily take precedence over a sense of the common good. Continue reading “Meditations with Matthew Fox: The Tension between Inner and Outer Work” →

Resurrection and Our Coronavirus Times

Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox

Recently, in response to my DM’s on resurrection, Easter, and our current coronavirus emergency, I received a tweet from a reader in the UK who asked  “Why the current situation does indeed bring a resurrection?”   I believe it brings resurrection if it wakes people up to:

Father and daughter washing hands. Photo by CDC on Unsplash

1) Our interdependence–which is much deeper than our apartness or differences;

2) Learning not to take basics for granted such as good health–and the health of our planet;

3) Honoring the good work that people do and can do when they get themselves trained to serve;

4) The holes in our so-called ‘safety-nets’ and how to remedy them;

5) Getting out of denial about climate change, which will make this pandemic seem like  a picnic compared to the changes to come if we don’t change deeply in the next 9 years;

6) How we can all live more simply on this planet;

7) How we ought to celebrate more deeply while we are healthy;

8) How we can–when we have to–take radical life-changing decisions as a group and must do re. climate change bearing down on us;

9) How much generosity and willingness to sacrifice resides in the human heart–a lot more than we are often aware of;

10) Lessons in how precious life and existence are for all of us born of the 13.8 billion years of the Universe’s unfolding;

Continue reading “Resurrection and Our Coronavirus Times” →

Meister Eckhart: “We are all mothers of God”

In this a pre-Covid19 lecture, theologian Matthew Fox discusses German 13th century mystic Meister Eckhart in context of global crises of global warming, “authentic” education, economic inequalities, and ecumenism.

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1328) was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha,

Eckhart came into prominence during the Avignon Papacy, at a time of increased tensions between monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscan Order, and Eckhart’s Dominican Order of Preachers. In later life, he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII. He seems to have died before his verdict was received.

Since the 19th century, he has received renewed attention. He has acquired a status as a great mystic within contemporary popular spirituality, as well as considerable interest from scholars situating him within the medieval scholastic and philosophical tradition.