This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Some are written by Matthew Fox (MF), and some by his colleague, 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.
January 26, 2026: Witness & Response to the Rampaging Evil in American Society (MF)
Seven years ago, when we began these Daily Meditations, Matthew exhorted us to not just watch the news, but “pray the news.” This is certainly a good time for that! Recent news: The occupation of Minneapolis by federal agents/troops; Jack Smith testifying that Donald Trump caused the January 6th insurrection; Three professors at Yale see how fascism is here and are moving to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto; etc. Meanwhile, respect and gratitude go to the citizens of Minneapolis for consistently marching in the streets in frigid temperatures because they are concerned for their neighbors, and also to three American cardinals who urge us to not obey that do not promote the common good.
January 27, 2026: Is Minneapolis Finally Teaching America the Meaning of “Solidarity”? (MF)
Years ago, when Matthew sat down to talk with a hero of his, Father Albert Nolan, a Dutch Dominican working to end apartheid in South Africa. Matthew confided that, having been expelled from the Order after 34 years in good standing, he was considering becoming an Episcopal priest in order to work with young people from Sheffield, England. Nolan replied, “Do it! Perfect! What Rome wants to do is isolate you and you need to find a Christian community that will support you.” Then he added, “The reason the American Dominicans have not supported you is that North Americans don’t know a goddamn thing about solidarity.” Americans need to learn the meaning of “solidarity.” It has to do with community-building, not “rugged individualism.” It is another word for interdependence, which lies at the center of what compassion means. Minneapolis gets this.
January 28, 2026: A Poem for Renee and Alex (GG)
Excerpts from a poem by Gianluigi Gugliermetto: I am broken by the beauty of the world/ by pain exploding in the midst of life/ and by the sheer goodness of the people/marching and singing…. I think I cracked the code of Jesus,/ who was so badly killed by agents of the state,/ and then some people saw his death as good…. Renee and Alex: your lives were works of art/ which no bullet ever can destroy;/ we hear your gentle voice, that sap of yours/ is running through our veins.
January 29, 2026: Powerful Statement from a Minneapolis Chaplain (GG)
Today we publish excerpts of a poem by Minneapolis artist and chaplain, Matt Moberg.* If you’re a church posting
prayers for peace and unity today/ while my city bleeds in the street,/ miss me with that softness you only wear/ when it costs you nothing.// Don’t dress avoidance up as holiness.…/ Peace isn’t what you ask for/ when the boot is already/ on someone’s neck./ Peace is what the powerful ask for/ when they don’t want to be interrupted.// You don’t get to quote scripture/ like a lullaby/ while injustice stays wide awake.
January 30, 2026: Poetry of Resistance and Songs of Protest (GG)
Gianluigi tells us that he lived 18 years in the U.S., and this gave him the opportunity to know the culture from the inside. So, as both a European and a former American resident, he can sometimes see things that we miss. One thing he has noticed is the rich tradition we have of protest songs. “In America,” he says, “the blood sings, even the blood of martyrs poured on sidewalks.” One major American poet, Margaret Walker, penned her famous poem For My People in 1942: For my people everywhere singing their slave songs repeatedly:/their dirges and their ditties and their blues and jubilees,/ praying their prayers nightly to an unknown god,/ bending their knees humbly to an unseen power. And, finally: Let a new earth rise./ Let another world be born./ Let a bloody peace be written in the sky.… As we struggle to create a more just society, we have much to learn from Black Americans. including Margaret Walker and all the poets among us.
January 31, 2026: Lessons from Soviet Occupation Pertinent to the News from Minnesota (MF)
In a recent Substack,** Adam Bucko tells a powerful story based on his years growing up under Soviet rule in Poland. Adam talks about how he barely slept the night he learned that Alex Pretti had been murdered. All of a sudden, I am a child again, frightened by tanks occupying our streets. I am a child again, learning that Fr Stanislaw Suchowolec, a parish priest I attended Mass with just days before, had been killed by the government. (And)…Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko, kidnapped, beaten, and thrown into a river.… They were killed because they saw what was happening and refused to be quiet…. They saw mass arrests and the imprisonment of workers, students, and organizers, often without real charges. They saw internment camps and overcrowded prisons set up to crush dissent. They saw the secret police cooperating with total impunity, surveilling, threatening, beating, and killing without accountability. They saw deaths in custody explained away as accidents or suicides.…They said fear enforced by law is not peace. They said silence in the face of injustice serves power, not God. And they knew what that would cost.
*Original from Matt Moberg’s Instagram account.
**Father Adam Bucko, “They Killed Him in Public and Called It Order: On Practicing Contemplation When the State Kills.” Contemplative Witness with Adam Bucko.
Banner image: “Pretti Good People Are Getting Murdered!!” Protest sign outside a memorial for Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. This comes after Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier in the month. Photo by Chad Davis. Wikimedia Commons.
Related Reading by Matthew Fox
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation, by Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox
Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
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1 thought on “Week of 1/26-31/2026: Poetry, Solidarity & Protest in Response to Evil”
Thanks for this reflection. I especially love that line about how we don’t understand solidarity because of the American obsession with rugged individualism. It is finally being shown as wanting, as inadequate; and interdependence and mercy and kindness are being seen as the real solutions to this bullying and cruelty. To have courage to stand against the bullies is the hard part. I pray that I will not lose the courage when I most need it. It is one thing to talk to friends, to preach to the choir, to say things aloud when others agree. But these cruelties are escalating, and the danger the Administration is trying to shove down our throats is getting more obvious. I couldn’t sleep either, after the murder of Alex Pretti. The video was clear, and his innocence was clear. And then we heard he was an Eagle Scout, a Catholic, and had frequently spoken with the hospital chaplain at the VA hospital where he was an ICU nurse, about the spiritual and psychological issues and needs of his patients. Today I saw a sign in a post which said “Mr Rogers, they are killing the helpers!” Oh, Lord, I need more courage.