September 5-10: Exploring Joy, Work, Justice, and Compassion

Each Sunday, we are offering a brief summary of the meditations from the previous week, as a kind of “index” inviting you to return to a previous meditation which may call to you.

September 5, 2022   A View on the Sacred Cosmos from Italy.  In this meditation, Italian philosopher and psychologist Vito Mancuso translated Original Blessing as “In the Beginning there was Joy.” He advocates “putting the good and not the bad at the center, the bene-diction and not the male-diction (or the sin), the joy and not the sorrow….”

“Milky Way into the Darkness: I was waiting for her.” Location: Fellito, Italy. Photo by Erriko Boccia on Unsplash

September 6, 2022 On Gratitude for the Immanence of God in Nature. Vito Mancuso gives several examples of how Matthew Fox’s words mirror the thoughts and words of Giordano Bruno, another Dominican whose life-embracing, cosmological views were so threatening to the hierarchy of the Church that he was burned at the stake during the Inquisition.

September 7, 2022 Spirituality and Work. In this Labor Day meditation, we explore how the pandemic encouraged us to look at work in new ways. The phrase “quiet quitting” explores how one can remain employed while simultaneously allowing enough energy for that which is important outside of our work world.

September 8, 2022 Speaking of Work, Let Us Praise Barbara Ehrenreich. Matthew Fox celebrates the literary work of thinker, author, and activist Barbara Ehrenreich, who consistently championed the rights of workers, women, and the underprivileged.

 “RIP Barbara Ehrenreich: Exposed Inequality in ‘Nickel and Dimed,’ Opposed Health-Industrial Complex.” Democracy Now!

September 9, 2022 Barbara Ehrenreich on Joy and Celebration. In this meditation, we celebrate Barbara Ehrenreich’s beautiful book Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy in which she talks about dancing and ecstatic ritual among indigenous people. We bring this into our present-day culture with Cosmic Masses.

September 10, 2022 Joy + Justice = Compassion. In this DM, we explore Ehrenreich, Eckert and Rabbi Heschel’s thoughts on Joy, Justice, and Compassion. Says Heschel: God is not only the creator of earth and heaven.  He is also the One ‘who creates delight and joy’….Even lowly merriment has its ultimate origin in holiness.  The fire of evil can be better fought with flames of ecstasy than through fasting and mortifications.


Banner image: Joyful work. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.


Recommended Reading

The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time

Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter

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3 thoughts on “September 5-10: Exploring Joy, Work, Justice, and Compassion”

  1. Richard Reich-Kuykendall
    Richard Reich-Kuykendall

    This week we focused on Italian Philosopher and psychologist, Vito Mancuso’s Introduction to his Italian version of Matthew’s ORIGINAL BLESSING, Matthew wrote a special Labor Day medititation, and then we spent three days reflecting on the work of Barbara Ehrenreich’s work. In all of this our focus has been based on Matthew’s books, ORIGINAL BLESSING and THE REINVENTION OF WORK–if you haven’t read them , please pick up a copy !!!

  2. Dear Mathew,

    Thank you for your wonderful integration of thoughts, healing words, mystics and spirituality, then and now, that raise our consciousness. You have encouraged us to have the courage to continue and contribute our voices and daily incarnate actions, with each of us knowing that we are unique resonances of the Divine. May Joy and Gratitude always permeate All our actions, in All ways, proceeded by our silent Yin reflections in meditation, before and after, each of our choices to act.

  3. This past week have been beautiful meditations and reminders of God’s Spirit of Love~Wisdom~Justice~Healing~Creativity~Joy~Beauty~Compassion… Present within, through, and among us in our daily lives with one another, with Mother Nature, and with-in All of God’s ongoing co-Creation~Evolution of our multidimensional and multiverse Beautiful Creation~Cosmos in Diverse Loving Oneness….
    🔥❤️🌎🙏

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