A few Daily Meditations ago, we meditated on Recovering a Sense of the Sacred and I invoked Thomas Berry’s rich thoughts about beginning with the awareness that the universe, creation, is “the primary sacred reality.”

We came to this topic by way of posting the question that arises from my most recent book about the antichrist, namely “What is the opposite of Evil?”
My answer to that question is that it is not the good but the Sacred that is the opposite of Evil. Evil operates where spirit operates—unfortunately.
We are urged to look for the Sacred wherever we can. Seeking the Sacred should be a spiritual practice we all engage in on a regular basis.
I was gifted with a powerful dream years ago that said this to me:
There is nothing wrong with the human species today except one thing: You have forgotten the sense of the sacred.
If we have forgotten it, we can surely recover it as well. And we must if we are going to survive, and billions of other species will survive also.
It’s not just the universe that is sacred, all its parts are too. Take the Earth for example. Is the Earth not sacred? Something bigger than ourselves that is holy in itself but with all its parts holy as well? This is why I started a new spiritual order called Order of the Sacred Earth (OSE).
The Catholic monk Thomas Merton used to say that “every non two-legged creature is a saint.” Really? Is holiness that close to us on an everyday basis?
Is your dog or cat or horse or bird or….a saint? Something holy living out its holiness?

Merton says bluntly, “everything that is is holy.” And he spells it out in his poetic way.
Life is this simple: We live in a world that is absolutely transparent. The divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or fable—it is true.
Merton’s sense of the Cosmic Christ shining everywhere is explicit.
We do not see the Blinding One in black emptiness. He speaks to us gently in ten thousand things….He shines not on them but from within them.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey, pp. 225, 233, 232.
See Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. xxxvi-xlii, 21-130.
See Fox, Trump & MAGA as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
See Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jen Listug, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
Banner Image: “As one with the Earth, we are never lost.” Los Algarrobos, Panama. Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
Do you experience how non-two-legged creatures are saints? Do you recognize the divine shining through all the time and that everything that is is holy? What follows from that?
Recommended Reading

A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
In A Way to God, Fox explores Merton’s pioneering work in interfaith, his essential teachings on mixing contemplation and action, and how the vision of Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced Merton in what Fox calls his Creation Spirituality journey.
“This wise and marvelous book will profoundly inspire all those who love Merton and want to know him more deeply.” — Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement 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 images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.
2 thoughts on “More Thoughts on Recovering a Sense of the Sacred”
There are no new orders to create. Jesus the Christ is the ‘new order’, the new covenant. If we follow the path of the ‘new order’, we ourselves can be transformed. If we ourselves are transformed, others may look to follow the ‘new order’ as well and be transformed. We, who walk the path of the ‘new order’ in earnest, can change hearts and that will change the face of the earth. We need to look within ourselves and hold ourselves to a deeper faith in the ‘new order’, which is the mind and heart of Christ. — BB.
Yes! Everything that Is Is Holy in the Sacrament of the Eternal Present Moment, within, through, and among Us Compassionately/Creatively/Beautifully/Joyfully in LOVING Diverse Wholeness~ONENESS —
Being~Becoming COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….