Today marks the 100th Daily Meditations in our series. Thanks to all those who are assisting and all those who are reading and meditating! A special shout out to Phila Hoopes and Rick Reich and Gail Ransom and Dennis Edwards who are daily at work with me. And to you readers for spreading the word—keep doing it please! About a week from now we will move on to the Via Negativa.
Some readers have wondered if we seem to be spending too much time on the Via Positiva—they are eager to move on to the Via Negativa, the suffering of the world, and eventually the Via Transformativa—what we can do about that suffering.
I fully understand the eagerness to move on to climate change and so much else that needs correcting. BUT—and this is a big BUT—we cannot just charge in with our reptilian brains firing as we have tended to do in the past (consider wars for example) as if we are going to solve the problem in the same mindset with which the problem took root. Einstein warned us of that, didn’t he? That we need a different consciousness than that which gave birth to our deepest problems to solve them.
And this is just one of many ways in which the VP plays a decisive role today. It is the difference between cynicism and goodness, despair and hope, vitality and apathy, biophilia and necrophilia, and patriarchy and feminism. We really have to lead with love and with joy and with gratitude and not with panic or “I will fix it” or “let’s kill the bastards.”
Many people in the past, when asked why they go to war, will say “for my family” or “for my country.” That is not enough for today’s issues that beset our species. Today we must be responding on a larger, more cosmic, scale. Today the struggle is “for our planet” or “for our species and the many other species that are threatened today” or for “seven generations to come.” We struggle for the air and the waters and the forests and the soil and the oceans and the animals and the fishes and the trees and the insects and so much more.
But first we have to love all these beings. Thus, the VP. The crisis we face today is opening up our minds and hearts far beyond the human agenda (read: one’s family and/or one’s country). For neither family members nor countrymen and women will be served or saved if the other species are lost.
More than ever, then, we need to stop and sit and be present to the Via Positiva to allow our love for the world and the world’s love for us to be deeply felt. This can carry us beyond nationhood and ethnic or racial or religious smallness into the much bigger world of creation itself. Love will be the source of our energy and of our imaginations that will render us effective agents for deeper change. Not superficial change, but a change that begins and ends with the reverence and gratitude we all carry in our hearts toward the universe that has birthed us. With that kind of deeper perspective our prophetic callings stand a better chance of effective results. We taste the future, the goal, even as we walk the way. And it is a loving journey.
Banner Image: “Way Marker.” Photo by Sammy Schellenberger, Pixabay
Lectio Divina:
Find a phrase or idea in this meditation that awakens you; or challenges you; or inspires you. Be with it. Let it wash over you.
And celebrate our 100th day of meditations in whatever way you feel moved to do so!
27 thoughts on “As We Reach a Milestone, Some Thoughts”
Having read Original Blessing while participating Inthe Sexuality Task Group of the UCA I am delighted to have found these meditations by the author of Original Blessing. It is , without doubt, one of the most important books I have read. So to now be able to use these meditations that amplify the book and connect with our daily living , with the positive,hopeful way of living is a joy. And Yes, love is the source and way for all our living. Yay!!!!!!!!!
Dear Barbara,
Thank you for taking time to tell us about your long history with Original Blessing. It is good to have you with us on these meditations that are, yes, applying that important book to the issues and needs of our time.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
Tonight I attended a Christian / Muslim dialogue on mercy and compassion. I was struck by the similarity between mystics of both traditions in awareness of God present and revealed in the whole creation. A Via Positive moment
Dear Janet,
Thank you for sharing your moment of revelation on the similarities between Christian and Muslim mysticism. You might be interested in Matthew’s book, One River, Many Wells, which lays out more similarities between more faith traditions. After so many centuries living within the walls of our own religions, how edifying it is to discover that each and all religions illustrate the inherent spirituality of the whole human race.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
Congratulations on the 100th day! I just became re-acquainted with Matthew Fox a few weeks ago when a friend shared a post. Original Blessing changed my life (many years ago) and I began the process of de-programming (or at least looking closer at Catholicism; to notice if actions matched doctrine). I know I’ll glean much more from Original Blessing reading it now. Thank you for your wisdom and sharing your journey.
Peace,
Diana
Dear Diana,
Thank you for writing and thank you for re-connecting to Creation Spirituality through these Daily Meditations. Original BLessing has stood the test of time, hasn’t it? No doubt you will find new applications of its wisdom this second time around. Welcome back!
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations Team
We need to move on to address issues like climate change, the rise of White Supremacist terrorism and other such issues. But I would also like to see articles about the Cosmic Christ.
Dear Richard,
Thank you for your comment and your concern about the issues of the day. We encourage you to take a tour of these 100 meditations where you will find these issues addressed in many of them, climate change providing the urgency and purpose for beginning this meditation series. Matt is preparing us for the work that we must do to save our planet. We are preparing ourselves to be intelligent, purposeful, reverent, and visionary spiritual warriors. He is weaving spiritual preparation in with deeper understandings of the spiritual dynamics of the issues you mentioned. Stay with us!
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations Team
Thank you for 100 meditations, and congratulations! I agree, joy and a zest for life propels the human toward transformation and toward cosmogenesis as envisioned by mystic/scientist Teilhard de Chardin.
Dear Jamie,
Thank you for writing. May joy and a zest for life propel you into a life of creativity and transformation.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
Well put, Matt. I often feel the same anxious drive to move to solutions. The times are testing us all. For me, the Via Positiva is close in the backyard flower garden; a dinner salad while watching the hummingbirds duel over the bee balm nectar and tease an adolescent cat who thinks he’s invisible. I love the garden, and the garden welcomes me to stay as long as I like. Thanks, Matt. Thanks, Garden. Chris
Thank you, Christ.
Your garden – what a fertile place to prepare to face the problems of these days. Its creatures are your teachers. You will be well prepared.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations Team
Please note that when I signed on to this “Daily Meditations” mailing list today, I received a notification from my Internet provider warning that “this site is not safe” or secure for certain private communications. This gives one pause. Can it be made safe, or secure? And can subsribers be explicitly assured that our e-mail addresses will not be shared with any other site sources or contacts (for marketing or any other purposes) ?? Please.
Dear Maria,
Thank you for writing and expressing your concern…and the answer is yes! We are working on getting a certified site secure lock in place and expect to have that completed this week. Over and above that, we have a strict policy that we will not abuse, share, sell, or rent the data our subscribers entrust to us, and we are preparing the specific statement to that effect for the site.
Thank you for your trust in us; we do our utmost to merit it!
Appreciation,
Phila Hoopes
Blog Coordinator
Dear Matthew,
I am 71. I always wanted to dance and perform. Instead, I was given piano lessons which fortunately provided me with a means to make a living (and still does to this day) but usually kept me in the background of the all the fun activity. Last November I found a dance teacher and have been taking Flamenco, Ballet and Dance Exercise classes. Last Saturday Aug. 17 I was to dance in a performance in our downtown. I was nervous and feeling that I was out of my league and just making a fool of myself and then I read your Daily Meditation with Mechtild’s words. All of a sudden I realized it was speaking directly to me. I was given a go ahead by the universe. I danced with joy. It so lifted my spirits. Thank you!
Thank you for your witness and reminder that first we must have love before we can act justly and effectively.
Thank you, Sue. We appreciate your wisdom and support.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations Team
Thank you so much for this meditation. Sometimes I get so discouraged that Humanity is so short-sighted and yet can be so destructive to all Creation. Thank you for reminding me to “keep my eyes on the Prize” and bring Love and Joy–the only things that can truly Heal us ALL.
Dear Elaine,
You are not alone. There are many of us clinging to love and joy while we see the destruction of Creation continuing around us, escalating at breakneck speed. Unless some of us are able to envision humans as healthy, loving, joyful species, we cannot nurture a positive vision for the future. We won’t recognize the path forward and we won’t know where we need to go. Keep at it. We are glad for your company and support.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations Team
I love these daily meditations so much and journal with them each day. I can feel and see how they are shifting my perspective. And I’m so grateful.
Jennifer,
Thank you for sharing this and joining us every day. We are glad that you have found Matt’s meditations so meaningful.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations Team
“More than ever, then, we need to stop and sit and be present to the Via Positiva to allow our love for the world and the world’s love for us to be deeply felt. ” Can you expound on this? Is this Centering Prayer, or some other disciplines you have in mind, to get us out of our mind and into our hearts?
Dear Andy,
Thank you for asking about style of contemplation. Throughout his meditations on the Via Positiva, Matthew has encouraged us to connect deeply with the wonder of our world until we experience ourselves as a beloved aspect of it. We see the Earth every day; we walk on it, touch it, breathe it in, and yet we often miss the miracle of it all. Matthew is encouraging us to commit to a practice of noticing creation around us and nurturing our divine communion with all life. He has given us many ways to do this in this meditation series. The practice you mentioned would be to contemplate something in the world and let it fill us with wonder until we experience a oneness with it. Centering Prayer seeks divine communion through a practice of silence and receptivity. It is an interior process. Matt’s process seeks divine connection through what is both inside and outside of us. It is a more exterior and relational process. He often reminds us that God’s first word was creation itself, and that is as worthy of contemplation as any sacred text humans might have written in the past 6,000 years.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
Thank you
You are very welcome, Meg. We are glad to have you on this important journey with us.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations team.
Thank you Matthew for remembering and reminding us that Love and Light are the first steps to do in bringing healing to our people and our world to prepare before rushing into mindless action.
Thank you for your comment, Bettie. How can we move ahead to advocate and protect unless we know what we are protecting, and why? I, too, am grateful for this vision of a human family in love with creation , earth, and each other. It is good to have you with us. Let your light shine!
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations team.