This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Some are written by Matthew Fox (MF), and some by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG). You can click on the title of a DM in order to view the original piece in its entirety. Also, please note, we will continue to offer a video teaching by Matthew each Monday.
October 20, 2025: Beyond Kings—and Beyond Führers Too?
Over seven million Americans, fed up with the right-wing authoritarianism of the current administration, took to the streets to protest in the second great “No Kings” march. But it’s not just the White House. Right-wing politics is also in evidence in the Supreme Court and in the Republican majority of both houses of Congress. All are falling sway to greed. Today, 80% of Americans believe campaign corruption is destroying America; and 84% believe special interest groups and lobbyists wield too much power. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House has closed Congress for 28 days, doing everything he can to postpone a newly-elected Democratic representative from Arizona from taking the oath of office. Why? Her vote will guarantee the release of the Epstein Files.
October 21, 2025: The New Fundamentalist Religion from Silicon Valley (MF)
A new and dangerous religion is emerging from the bowels of Silicon Valley. It is rooted in right-wing politics and talk of the antichrist. But Peter Tiel’s antichrists are Greta Thunberg and Bill Gates, ie., anyone who opposes unbridled capitalism or fossil fuels. Unfortunately, he and other billionaires are given a big megaphone because they own so much of the media. And with the recent dissolution of PBS and NPR by this administration, it may not be long before all media resembles Fox non-News. Then the dumbing down of America will be almost complete. Journalist Gil Duran (whom Matthew dialogued with last week) said that these billionaires have kind of reached a point where they have so much wealth, and so much egomania…that they decide they’re going to rule the world and that democracy is an outdated form of software. A dangerous religion indeed.
October 22, 2025: Shamanism and the Goddess (GG)
Recently, GG surprised himself by stating in a class that the original religion was shamanism, from which Judaism as well as early Christianity derived a good deal. Some thirty years ago, he went on a trip to Sardinia with two friends, where they explored a plethora of Neolithic sacred sites. In May of 2026, GG will return to Sardinia to offer a retreat where similar sites will be visited—notably, sacred hot springs and deep fresh wells, a necropolis hewn in the rock, and a Neolithic temple. In addition, a team of dedicated practitioners of various sacred arts will join GG to help each participant relax into the womb of the Goddess. If you are interested, you may register HERE.
October 23, 2025: Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Friend, Brother & Jewish Prophet of Our Time (MF)
Prophet, activist, teacher Rabbi Arthur Waskow passed this past week at the age of 92. Over his lifetime, Arthur was arrested more than two dozen times. He also wrote more than two dozen books, including Godwrestling, Torah of the Earth: Exploring 4,000 Years of Ecology in Jewish Thought, and Seasons of Our Joy. He is credited with coining the term “Jewish Renewal” and co-founded ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and others—a movement “grounded in ‘Judaism’s prophetic and mystical traditions.’” Matthew’s benediction: Thank you, Arthur, for being the Godwrestler you always were right up to the end. May we follow in your holy footsteps and with what you called “holy chutzpah.”
October 24, 2025: Educating under the Shadow of Neo-Fascism (part one) (GG)
Years ago, GG translated into Italian one of the lesser-known books penned by Matthew Fox: The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human. In Italian, we simply call it Educare alla meraviglia (“teaching through wonder.”) Last year, GG was informed by the publishing house that it was one of their bestsellers, thanks to word of mouth by teachers. Now, as children get hooked on screens (phones, tablets, etc.) earlier and earlier, this book is needed more than ever. And, it doesn’t help that there is such an authoritarian pedagogy strongly embedded in the Italian state school system. Vanna Iori wrote in Avvenire (the Italian Catholic bishops’ newspaper) that the time of early childhood is the time of the body… Children must be able to play without being interrupted, without each of their life-moments becoming digitalized and “shared.” Furthermore: Children need time. They need slowness. Hands dirty with sand, collected rocks, invented stories, and makeshift constructions. They need grown-ups who know how to wait, observe, and marvel….
October 25, 2025: Educating under the Shadow of Neo-Fascism (part two) (GG)
For the past two weeks, GG has been teaching at a high school. He notices anxiety among both teachers and students. Teachers question their mission while students worry about performance. GG reports that his students are wonderful, budding human beings. But the educational system is soul-deadening. They are forced to sit at their desks for seven to nine hours a day. They are fed an enormous amount of information from a dozen different subjects. When they get back home, after 3 pm, they are supposed to read, study, and memorize. They are always tired. Many decades ago, Marie-Dominique Chenu spoke of “exhausted pedagogy.” What an accurate description. As Matthew has said, “We need wisdom schools and not just knowledge factories!” *
* Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest, p. 356.
Banner image: Sign at No Kings protest in Doylestown, PA, October 18, 2025. Photo by Cynthia Greb. Used with permission.
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
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
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.
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human
The A.W.E. Project reminds us that awe is the appropriate response to the unfathomable wonder that is creation… A.W.E. is also the acronym for Fox’s proposed style of learning – an approach to balance the three R’s. This approach to learning, eldering, and mentoring is intelligent enough to honor the teachings of the Ancestors, to nurture Wisdom in addition to imparting knowledge, and to Educate through Fox’s 10 C’s. The 10 C’s are the core of the A.W.E. philosophy and process of education, and include: compassion, contemplation, and creativity. The A.W.E. Project does for the vast subject of “learning” what Fox’s Reinvention of Work did for vocation and Original Blessing did for theology. Included in the book is a dvd of the 10 C’s put to 10 video raps created and performed by Professor Pitt.
“An awe-based vision of educational renewal.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life
In one of his foundational works, Fox engages with some of history’s greatest mystics, philosophers, and prophets in profound and hard-hitting essays on such varied topics as Eco-Spirituality, AIDS, homosexuality, spiritual feminism, environmental revolution, Native American spirituality, Christian mysticism, Art and Spirituality, Art as Meditation, Interfaith or Deep Ecumenism and more.
