Is the Cosmos an Original Blessing? I sort of think so. And I also think that every human being should be aware of and convinced of this.
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Because without the cosmos, where would we be? Without the 13.8 billion years of history, where would we be? Who would we be?
We would be non-existent. Life, with all its trials and tribulations, but also with all its beauty and grandeur and surprises and ecstasies, would never have been ours to taste.
And, by the way, the 13.8 billion years of the existence of the cosmos not only makes possible our ancestors and our children and grandchildren, but also our cats, dogs, horses and other more-than-human friends, the hills, valleys, mountains, rivers and oceans, the music, poetry, humor, ideas and technologies that instruct us and interact with us. And all the food we eat and drinks we drink. “All our relations” therefore.
No wonder California poet Bill Everson tells us that “most people experience God in nature or experience God not at all.” Sans the universe, none of us would be here to experience God. Or Goddess.
No wonder Howard Thurman reminds us:
It is natural that humans should concern themselves with beginnings. This is a part of the curiosity of the mind. Without it there would be no exploration of the world and there would be no growth…. This is an inherent characteristic of mind; it is not unique to any particular age of man, culture, or society. Contemplation concerning origins is a part of the curiosity of the race.
Science is inviting us to the table in whole new ways these days to take delight in our origins. The Webb Telescope is one such invitation. So is the moving news of India landing a device near the moon’s south pole.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations, p. 203.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE
Banner Image: Rwandans celebrating the connection of humans and nature on World Environment Day, June 5, 2017. Photo by Rwanda Environment Management Authority. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Are you taking delight in contemplating the origins of the human race and the universe we live in these days? How do you go about that? How can we spread the news?
Recommended Reading
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.
9 thoughts on “The Original Blessing of the Cosmos”
I relate with the statement in today’s DM, “people experience God in nature.” I also experience all my relations in this same way as well. I take delight in being and living in the spiritual reality of this. In sharing my experiences with others, through writing, art or conversation, I hope to inspire people to open their hearts, be receptive in mind and surrendering in soul… to this wondrous reality of relationship with… and to trust in one’s own unique and authentic direct connection to God/Goddess… intuiting the sacred communion and holy union that unfolds, evolves and emerges as one engages in this… and the many beautiful and good blessings offered all… to be graciously received.
“On Contemplating the Origins of the Human Race and the Universe”
It is incumbent of us to bring ourselves into a receptive ‘state of being’ with God and all creation. Nothing to be seen or experienced outside of soul consciousness, Christ consciousness and awareness. Are we, in an otherwise peaceful nation, looking to live in a ‘war zone’, ‘combat zone’, every day? Do we cling onto ‘Breaking News’ as the barometer of our well-being? Is it any wonder then that we have driven ourselves in an anxiety driven state of awareness and intermittent receptivity? We have narrowed the ‘lens of our own perception and experience’. We are now focused on the imminence of tragedy, divisiveness, hatefulness and little hope for humanity.
What would happen if our focus was and is to be one of faith in the imminence of God the Creator, Jesus the Saviour, and the Holy Spirit of peace and wisdom? All will conspire though to interrupt our walk of faith, walk of imminence. And what does Jesus train us to do as He takes us on the journey of faith, ‘the Way’, He espouses? Jesus is training us to awaken to and walk the path of God’s imminence and immanent presence in all things, in all time and space. Is it not so? Jesus is offering us His ‘State of Being’ and consciousness as our state of being in all of creation for all time. Our receptivity to and living in this ‘God like state’ is ours for the taking, is it not? — BB.
Fantastic!!! Thank you Matt!
I have written a book entitled “Maya Mire – A Spiritual Journey into Cosmic Truth and the Dawning of a New World”, due for publication in early 2024.
I’m so sorry I missed the Cosmology Mass and seminar in Chicago. When is the next one?
YES!!! I marvel at the BEAUTY and LOVE of the ongoing Creation and Evolution of Our COSMOS and eternal SOULS!!! The mystery of COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS within our human and Divine Hearts and evolving spiritual journeys allows us to experience and realize our Sacred unique and diverse LOVING WHOLENESS/ONENESS with-in our BELOVED MOTHER ~FATHER CREATOR~SOURCE….
How to get the word out? It is a very important question and the times are ripe.
I would engage PBS to see who they can engage to do a documentary series with Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme and the many others who have committed a lifetime to exploring this essential material the world is hungering for. Someone like Ken Burns.
He has done brilliant documentaries on history. His documentaries are a collaboration of wisdom keepers, teachers, historians, etc who contribute their knowledge to the understanding of the history that shaped and changed America. If I was Ken Burns I would be deeply enticed to take on this project knowing the immensely positive and life changing effects it can have on people and our future. Maybe Ken could take the content of the documentary and make a film out of it too. Or another filmmaker. I love all the knowledge in the documentaries Brian Swimme has on utube. They opened my eyes to a vision of the universe and it’s evolution I didn’t know. I learned a great deal from them. The visuals are necessary for understanding this complex subject.
The work both of you Matthew are doing is changing me in a profound way and I am so grateful that I found access to it.
So how can we get it out to the general public? PBS would be the place I’d start.
Thank you once more for reminding us of the original blessing and the perversion into original sin by the patriarchs who conspired with the regime to maintain people in fear and ignorance. I occasionally receive a magazine from the local Chabad Lubavitch, and, not coincidentally, Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson and Rabbi Salman Abraham write about the true meaning of teshuvah, which does not mean repentance from sin so much as it means a return, “…simply finding our way back to the land of our soul…returning to …. truest, deepest selves…Rather than putting down the person we think we have become and seeing ourselves as defined by our bad choices, teshuvah is the process of regaining our senses, remembering who we are at our root, and recasting our behavior to reflect that Divine image.” But as you point out, we cannot engage in this process without a sense of the divinity of the whole cosmos. I find the narcissism of our society absolutely staggering. I can remember being deeply dismayed when “selfies” became all the rage. We do need to wrench ourselves away from ourselves, or we won’t survive.
Thank You for your Daily Meditations. I enjoy your rendition of the original Hail Mary. Yet, when I pray the current version, the word ‘sin” reminds me that between stimulus and response that I have “choice,” that God acts through the contingency of human freedom. When I pray “ now,” I am reminded that God continues to create me/us at this very minute. And, when I pray ‘death,” it reminds me, as an 83 year old man, that another passage awaits. Dum spere, spiro. joe iannone