Holiness and the sacred applies to plants and to trees and to stars, as Thomas Merton sees it: Every plant that stands in the light of the sun is a saint and an outlaw. Every tree that brings forth blossoms without the command of man is powerful in the sight of God. Every star that man has not counted is a world of sanity and perfection. Every blade of grass is an angel singing in a shower of glory.
What about breath? Is breath holy too? Is this why so many spiritual practices are built around paying attention to your in-breath? And out-breath? Breath and spirit are so often the same word in many languages around the world.
Some Jewish scholars tells us that “Yah” is one’s in-breath; and “Weh” is one’s out-breath. It is a fine and simple practice to make a mantra therefore of Yah-weh. Repeat over and over again. In-breath and out-breath. Is this why we should never take breath for granted?

In laying to rest my brother Tom yesterday, I was struck anew by the miracle that breath is, the miracle that existence is (as poet Rilke put it), and the miracle that new life and children are.
The Lutheran pastor who presided over the funeral service very wisely chose as a Scriptural text the gospel where Jesus talked about the wisdom of children, “whoever embraces one of them embraces me.” That the Divine is to be found in all of us, beginning as children. That is how Tom, in his life dedicated to education and edGe-ucation, treated children and those who taught them. All teachers and teachers of teachers can build their vocations on that principle.
Prophet, farmer, and poet Wendell Berry saw the world as Thomas Berry saw it, and as my dream pronounced about it when he says: Perhaps the great disaster of human history is one that happened to or within religion: that is, the conceptual division between the holy and the world, the excerpting of the Creator from the creation.

Thomas Berry predicts that humanity can change profoundly when it recovers a sense of the sacred: Within this context the religious antagonisms of the past can be overcome, the particular traditions can be vitalized, and the feeling of presence to a sacred universe can appear once more to dynamize and sustain human affairs.
Such a sense is the Christ way, not the antichrist way, of living in the world. It is welcoming heaven coming to earth and bringing forth the kingdom/queendom of God on earth.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey, pp. 36f.
And Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance, p. 6.
And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations, p. 365.
See Fox, Trump & MAGA as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
Banner Image: Trees fruiting without the command of man: A rowan tree in autumn. Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree with Wendell Berry that the dualism in religion between the holy and the world may constitute the “greatest disaster” of human history? And that it resides in a distorted religious worldview? Thus, the significance of creation spirituality.
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

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.

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.

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.
5 thoughts on “Further Recovering of a Sense of the Sacred”
I increasingly believe that either everything is sacred or nothing is. In our pursuit of understanding through intellect alone, we have slammed the door shut on intuition. The good news is that it is never too late to open it. Lighting a candle for the passing of your dear brother and sending condolences.
Yes! The Sacrament of the Present Moment is Awareness/Mindfulness/Openness to the Divine Flow of LOVING Healing Creative Beautiful Joyful Diverse Wholeness~ONENESS within, through, among Us… Being~Becoming COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Dear Matthew,
In this time of celebration for the sacred lives of your brothers, along with your sorrow, please remember this prayer, which says what I pray for you:
The Lord bless thee and keep thee:
The Lord make his face
shine upon thee
and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee,
and give thee peace.
Dear Matthew, I hope you received my condolences in the comments in the first few days upon the passing of your brothers. It for some reason did not get posted which is perfectly fine only that it’s important to me that u know I sent it out of respect and gratitude for all you have given and shared with us. I am deeply grateful that you gave us personal insight into your family history. It touched many, if not all of your readers and reading their comments touched me too.
It also made me realize how one’s personal experience deeply touches another’s life.
I hope for you that you may keep your heart open to this fertile time in the passing of your brothers as new seeds of contemplation will be planted in your heart by their spirit, the Spirit of your Family and the Holy Spirit or Sacred Spirit.
I see how you are cultivating these seeds into life by all you have shared with us.
Thank you so much. Love and sympathy to your entire family.
The heart of each major monotheistic religion is the sacred Mystical, NON-dualistic Revelation that birthed monotheism (and Trinitarian/Christ doctrine) itself — “(neo)Platonic” Mysticism.
The core Mystical, distinctive and complex experience in each tradition is EXACTLY THE SAME RADICALLY NON-DUALISTIC, INTUITIVE, UNITIVE REVELATION. It is recognizable, no matter which religion it shows up in.
Every religion that purports to share this Mysticism/Revelation within its “I-THOU” structure of worship (OF God/TO God), imposes a DUALISTIC re-framing, freezing into place the NON- (or PRE-) Mystical Revelation’s perceptions. Worship is then defined as the viewpoint of an “everyman/woman) NON-mystic, standing inside their “brokenness” or status of perceived separation/imposed-immense-distance FROM God, and ONLY (or, for all practical purposes, almost entirely) connecting TO God via their acts of worship and/or their Church, which function as (sole) channels of the One God.
Worshipful mystics, graced with direct, sacred, transcendent NON-dualistic Union, bypass (male) “official channels” and are often… less than welcome….
And women mystics…