This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Three of them are penned by Matthew Fox (MF), and three by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG). On Monday, we will continue to also offer a video teaching by Matthew.
July 21, 2025: Joanna Macy: A Note of Gratitude (MF)
Joanna Macy, a great soul, passed away on Saturday. She is the one who introduced Matthew to both Buddhism and Thich Nhat Hanh. They often taught together—she on the Buddha Nature, Matthew on the Cosmic Christ. Matthew came up with the term deep ecumenism based on her teaching about deep ecology. Joanna and Matthew shared the deepest of values regarding peace and justice, saving the earth, animal rights, women’s rights—in short, creation spirituality. Joanna and John Seed created a ritual called the Council of All Beings, in honor of the species going extinct. Joanna combined a fierce commitment to systems theory and science, plus Buddhist practices and teachings. Her ideas touched thousands of people of all spiritual traditions. She urged all to resist despair. Matthew often cites her teaching that “when your heart breaks, the whole universe can pour through.” Thank you, Joanna Macy, for your deep and passionate heart that was both Buddha-like and Christ-like.
July 22, 2025: Joy in the Midst of Anguish: A Fruit of the Spirit (MF)
Today we talk about Joy. Why? “Joy is the human’s noblest act.” So says Thomas Aquinas. Paul talks about the “fruits of the Spirit” in his letter to the Galatians (5:22f.) Former labor secretary Robert Reich recently wrote: Lest we succumb to despair, a major part of not submitting to Trump’s tyranny is living our lives to the fullest—hopefully and cheerfully, in the face of him and his regime.* A few years ago, Matthew and two others were speaking on the environmental crisis. Afterwards, Joanna Macy came out onto the stage and, at the age of 92, said something to the effect of: “Isn’t it a wonderful thing to be alive today at this critical moment in history and to contribute what we can to righting the ship!” Everyone was deeply moved by her energy and her joy in the midst of struggle.
July 23, 2025: Bad Trees bearing Evil Fruit: A Litany of Mortal Sins of MAGA (MF)
Christ said that we can judge people by the fruit that they bear. After 6 months of a Trump and MAGA administration, what are the fruits of their labors? Untold numbers of deaths in Africa as a result of the termination of USAID. The loss of health care for about 17 million Americans. The loss of food benefits for children and the poor—about 7.4 million of them. The shutting down of PBS and NPR, leaving rural areas especially vulnerable with no alternative to far right-wing billionaire-fed propaganda. Censorship of the media, as well as the loss of laughter, due to the shutdown of the Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert. The oppression of women by laws controlling their bodies and forbidding abortions even for miscarriages and other complications beyond one’s control. Taxing the lower classes more so that the super-rich can get away with few to no taxes. Welcome to Trump’s America. A lot of bad fruit in his orchard.
July 24, 2025: Shambala Warriors (GG)
In the face of great evil, we are called to cultivate our joy. Deeply unsettled by the violence poured daily on the world, it is time to become the Shambhala Warriors that the late and beloved Joanna Macy spoke about so eloquently and embodied so fiercely. GG speaks regularly with people who are not activists, nor necessarily even political, who are saying: Enough of the daily massacres of people who are begging for food! Enough of mass starvation under the pretense of self-defense! And these people are waking up. And there are many of them! GG says: When somebody like Joanna dies, a great energy of peace and strength is released in the world. I don’t know how to explain it, but it is felt by many. Nobody like Joanna Macy will rise again. Yet we can all be Shambhala Warriors, we can all be Joannas.
July 25, 2025: Good News and the Bible
There are many signs that a positive change is underway. Many Jews, within and without Israel, are aware of the genocide and are actively opposing it. Some young Israelis who received a government letter telling them to show up for military service in the IDF have burned such letters in public. Israeli volunteers are reaching the border with Gaza to see that the humanitarian aid is delivered, confronting Israelis who actively try to block the convoys. So many journalists, who one year ago were on the fence, are now openly confronting the blatant lies of the Israeli government. Unfortunately, there are also those like an Israeli man who stated in an interview that “wiping out” the Palestinians is affirmed and blessed by God, because “such is the teaching of the Torah.” The interviewer was appalled and kept expressing his surprise that any religion at all today allows and blesses a genocide. Using God to justify the genocide is blasphemy.
July 26, 2025: Mentorship as an Archetype (GG)
In recent conversations, Matthew and GG have been reflecting on the valued role of mentorship in today’s society. GG suggested to Matthew that a subtitle to his upcoming book on Marie-Dominique Chenu could be “A Story of Mentorship.” In addition, Matthew has been a significant mentor to GG. To those of us who are the black sheep in their family, mentors are extremely important. Often they are the first ones who see us and appreciate us for who we really are. The best values of humanity can be taught and experienced through mentorship. This includes rejoicing together (via positiva), crying together (via negativa), imagining creative solutions together (via creativa) and changing institutions (via transformativa). True mentorship can support us in resisting the barbarism of these days.
*Robert Reich, “Sunday thought: On being a warrior” – Democratic Underground Forums
See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
And Fox, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
And Fox, Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Banner image: Matthew Fox and mentee/collaborator Gianluigi. Image created by Phila Hoopes. Used with permission.
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
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
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
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.
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.
1 thought on “Week of 7/21-26/2025: Joanna Macy, Mentorship & Shambala Warriors”
In the spirit of mysticism and the subtle spiritual realms, I wanted to recommend two books by David Spangler who revived Incarnational Spirituality: 1) Journey into Fire” (2015) and 2) “Partnering with Spirit” (2024). He lives in the Pacific Northwest, is married and has four children. “Since 1965 he has worked clairvoyantly and intuitively with a group of non-physical beings from the inner worlds of spirit. They identified themselves as being part of an inner school whose purpose was to explore and develop a spiritual teaching around the process of Incarnation. This teaching is intended to empower incarnate persons living in the physical world — individuals such as you and me — to lead lives of greater blessing and capacity and to be sources of blessing and service for the world as a whole… In 1974 he cofounded the Lorian Association, a nonprofit spiritual educational organization (lorian.org), and continues to work with it today.”