How We Fall in Love with the World—in Spite of History

This week in our meditations I have invoked cosmologist Brian Swimme and Seneca educator Sister Jose Hobday.  Science and indigenous wisdom can assist us in times of crisis to bring Spirit alive. 

History is asking us: Can we evolve?  Is humanity’s dark night a prelude to our moving to another level of being human?

Creation spirituality offers some answers to these questions.  California poet Bill Everson wrote that “most people experience God in nature or experience God not at all.”  That is very much my experience too in listening to people’s spiritual journeys over the years.  I have met women abused as children who often found healing in the silence and beauty of nature.  A farmer’s intimacy with nature is also a healing event. 

The Four Paths of our Monday DM and the Prayer to the Four Directions from Seneca Sister Jose in the Tuesday meditation assist in releasing the depth and power of Spirit in creation.

Psychologist Otto Rank declares that an ailing democracy cannot be redeemed by more democracy but by more “irrationality” and that “the epitome of the irrational is creation itself.”  It is built into our nature to be happy by way of love and art and what he calls the “unio mystica.” 

It is in us all to be mystics, lovers, birthers.  And this heals.  And this is beyond the rational.

Love and art are our response to creation, our Thank You for our creation that makes our existence possible.  The art of arts is ritual, ceremony or liturgy.  When democracy and community are on the wane, ritual is more important than ever.  Ask Malidoma Some, spiritual teacher from Africa, who tells us “there is no community without ritual.” 

Ritual can take us beyond divisions and separations based on tribe, whether political, religious or race.  I have seen this happen time and again at our Cosmic Masses which are often attended by people of many religious traditions and none.  But in ritual they can find a common unity, a coming together in a common space to acknowledge that we already belong to One earth and One universe, and thus to creation.   

Such rituals draw forth the deep gratitude that is so needed in the bigger picture of things.  This is why the Christian ritual is called Eucharist, a time of thanks.  And the Jewish Sabbath is about thanks.  Thomas Aquinas says the number one thing we give thanks for on the sabbath is…creation. 

We are urged to give thanks for the gifts of life.  AND pass such gifts on to others.  Like a healthy earth for example.

Poet Derrick Walcott, on receiving the Nobel prize for poetry in 1972, declared: “The fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world in spite of history.” 

History is dark these days.  Humanity is not behaving well toward itself or others or Mother Earth herself.  All the more reason for the poet and mystic in all of us to rise to the occasion and invite us all toward falling in love with the world.  And acting accordingly.

See Matthew Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.

And Fox, “Joy,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells, Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, pp. 254-267.

And Fox, “The Cosmic Mass: Reinventing Worship and Religion,” in Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest, pp. 363-383.

And Fox, Meditations with Meister Eckhart.

Banner Image: The Cosmic Mass at the Parliament of World Religions, 2023, with wildlife lanterns sculpted by University of Creation Spirituality graduate Mary Plaster, D.Min. Photo by Mary Plaster, published with permission.

Queries for Contemplation

How do you fall in love with the world—creation—in spite of history?  And how can that love nurture and contribute to creating a better history?

Recommended Reading

Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet

Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow.  Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)

Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self

Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book

A centering book by Matthew Fox. This book of simple but rich meditations exemplifies the deep yet playful creation-centered spirituality of Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart was a 13th-century Dominican preacher who was a mystic, prophet, feminist, activist, defender of the poor, and advocate of creation-centered spirituality, who was condemned shortly after he died.
“These quiet presentations of spirituality are remarkable for their immediacy and clarity.” –Publishers Weekly.