This is a summary of the previous week’s daily meditations. Some are written by Matthew Fox (MF) and some are written by his colleague, Gianluigi Gugliermetto. (GG) You can click on any title to view the DM in its entirety. Also, remember that each Monday DM continues to include a video teaching by Matthew Fox. Thank you for your loyal readership.
April 20 2026: Word from Hungary, Washington D.C. and the Pope in Africa (MF)
A Hungarian American friend of Matthew’s writes: I am thrilled that Orbán, utterly corrupt and authoritarian, is out. He led the surge of the far-right in Europe and the US.…The new guy, Péter Magyar, was amazingly courageous in standing up to the non-stop defamation of his character by the Hungarian media….His main message to Hungarians was “have no fear.” Meanwhile, in the U.S., a hearing was held of Trump’s so-called “Religious Liberty Commission.” Its chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, declared that “the separation of church and state is the biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding.” Pope Leo continues to speak out, lamenting a “world turned upside down” by a “handful of tyrants” and “masters of war.”
April 21, 2026: Pope Francis: An Assessment One Year after His Death (MF)
Pope Francis died one year ago today. He was the first pope ever from the Americas, his family having fled Italy for Argentina in the 1930s to escape fascism. He brought a breath of fresh air following a 34-year rule by two popes who contributed greatly to the rise of fascism in the world. For instance, he called the church a “field hospital” and urged all Christians to care for those who are hurting. He also issued a ground-breaking encyclical, Laudato Sí: Care For Our Common Home, which lays out the grave spiritual and moral values at stake in the climate change emergency. Sadly, one major misstep was his canonization of Junipero Serra. Evidence abounds that Serra’s so-called “missions” in California were as deadly and dehumanizing as concentration camps or slave plantations. Fortunately, Pope Francis helped make up for that by formally repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and making a trip to Canada to apologize to indigenous people for past ecclesial genocide.
April 22, 2026: Tantric Jesus (GG)
Almost ten years ago, a book came out by James Reho, an Episcopal priest living in Florida. It was Tantric Jesus: The Erotic Heart of Early Christianity. In his preface, Matthew Fox calls it an experiment in Deep Ecumenism. Matthew praises James Reho because, having experienced the deep and nuanced wisdom of the East, he has returned to look at Christianity with new eyes. Reho speaks of wisdom he calls Christian Tantra, with Jesus as the guru. In Christian Tantra, love becomes so much more than a superficial feeling. It is a deep connection with the divine. He discovered that “the Way” of early Christians was a school of love leading to divinization in this life, not in the afterlife. Christ then becomes not someone to “believe in,” but a living presence, the light that fills and animates all creation.
April 23, 2026: Spirituality and Sensuality (GG)
Early in his career, Matthew Fox wrote: No one who has admitted he or she is vulnerable to goose bumps can any longer believe in the violence that separates spirit and body, spirituality and sensuality. * In his book, Tantric Jesus, James Reho takes this sentence as the starting point of his exploration into Tantric Christianity. One of the great pitfalls of Christianity is the split between spirituality and sensuality. But Tantra asserts that reality is composed of being (sat), consciousness (cit), and bliss (ananda). In tantric yoga, our goal is…to transform desire, to harness the energy of desire (eros) so as to experience fully the dynamic interplay between Shiva and Shakti and to come to know their unity. Christian Tantra consists of living, honoring, and harnessing erotic desire, rather than ignoring it, repressing it, or splitting it off from spiritual life.
April 24, 2026: The Sensual Basics of Our Existence (GG)
Matthew made his case for the joining of sensuality with spirituality in his Preface to his 1976 book WHEE! We, wee, which was added five years after the original publication, partly as a response to the strong reactions that the book elicited. Some Christians seem to have pretty strong feelings about the word “sensual.” Matthew responded at length, but perhaps it can be summed up with this: I did not make things sensual; nor did I create bodily senses by which we respond ecstatically to the sensual. The Creator made these gifts, and made them very well. As it should be clear by now, sensuality does not mean sex exclusively. Sensuality can include: walking barefoot in the sand, eating, throwing pots, sleeping under the stars, swimming, etc. In order to experience sensuality, we must remain open and vulnerable.
April 25, 2026: Sensuality, Spirituality & Indigenous Prayer Ceremonies (MF)
Reflecting on GG’s recent DM’s, Matthew remarks that one of the things he appreciates about indigenous spirituality is that the body is often part and parcel of prayer, not separate from it. For instance, in a sweat lodge, one sits upon the earth and really sweats while praying. Jose Hobday, a Seneca woman and Franciscan sister, good friend and co-faculty member at the University of Creation Spirituality for over 20 years, introduced us to a special ceremony called “Pelting with Flowers.” Participants would throw flowers at one another, and when they fell to the floor, would pick them up and throw them again. Yes, in indigenous practice, you are invited to bring your body to prayer. The sensual and spiritual unite.
*Matthew Fox, Whee! We, wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality, page 6.
Banner image: Sign at a No Kings protest in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Photo by Cynthia Greb. Used with permission.
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump and the MAGA Movement as Antichrist
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
LETTERS TO POPE FRANCIS: Building a Church with Justice & Compassion
The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings in Creation Spirituality
WHEE! We, wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic Warrior for Our Time
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
