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.
September 7, 2026: Time to Hona’ the Black Madonna! Come to Her Feast Day Party Tomorrow! (MF)
September 8, is a special Black Madonna Feast Day in Italy. Presenters at a Feast Day Party represent three generations and diverse spiritual traditions eager to recover the Black Madonna icon and archetype. Cameron Trimble is a UCC minister, theologian and president of Convergence, the sponsoring organization. Alessandra Belloni is from southern Italy and wrote Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna: Chants, Music, and Sacred Practices of the Great Goddess. A third presenter is Christena Cleveland, author of the new book, The Black Madonna: Icon of Resistance & Nourisher of Souls. In her book, she uncovers many traditions of the Black Madonna in communities around the world and has now launched a school to train people in honoring the Black Madonna.
September 8, 2026: Gloria Steinem, a Maker of Good Trouble, Joins the Ancestors (MF)
The late John Lewis spoke of the “good trouble” we are all called to make. Gloria Steinem certainly qualified as a good troublemaker, relentlessly challenging the patriarchy and fighting for women’s rights. She once said, “The truth will make you free, but first it will piss you off.” Indeed, moral outrage—being pissed off—is often the first step in responding to our vocation as prophet. My friend Aaron Stern, president of the Academy of the Love of Learning, shared a deep friendship with Gloria. Together they traveled to a town in India that was notorious for raising girls to become prostitutes and supported a movement to end that. Gloria joins the ancestors, along with other shining examples of goodness–Dolly Parton and Wendell Berry.
September 9, 2026: Launching a New Version of MAGA/Antichrist/Evil Book (MF)
Matthew’s most recent book, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Antichrist: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Times, will be available October 13 and can be pre-ordered now. A new Appendix lists numerous references to MAGA politics and the Antichrist found in the media since the book came out two years ago. Says Matthew: “We are not alone anymore.” Folks are invited to become helpers in spreading the word by joining a Launch Team. A launch like this significantly impacts a book’s visibility in this age of social media. (See press release.) Matthew tells us: We need to name evil and its archetypes in order to understand it, expose it, and face it.
September 10, 2026: Three Theologians Fought the Vatican (GG)
When Matthew Fox was silenced by the Vatican in the second half of the 1980s, many other Catholic theologians were similarly betrayed. Dismissals, condemnations, job losses… all kinds of strategies were employed by Ratzinger — then at the head of the Inquisition — to deal a blow to the very real possibility that the largest Christian denomination on Earth would become a hub for social transformation. GG believes that three men were especially targeted at that time, each the best-selling Catholic theologian in a geographical area: Matthew Fox in North America, Leonardo Boff in South America, and Eugen Drewermann in Europe. The visionary thought of these three men, which included Liberation Theology and Creation Spirituality, could have transformed the world had Ratzinger not silenced them.
September 11, 2026: Eugen Drewermann (GG)
Eugen Drewermann is a Jungian scholar and analyst as well as a brilliant theologian. His 1989 book Kleriker: Psychogramm eines Ideals (Clergy: The Psychogram of an Ideal) attracted lightning from the Vatican. It details how the setting up of Catholic priests as an unrealistic ideal creates neurotic individuals who are not in the least ready to guide others in their spiritual or moral life. In 1991 he was fired from his tenured position as a professor of theology. The next year he was forbidden to speak in public as a priest. In 2005, he left the Catholic Church. Religion, says Drewermann, should free people from their existential anxiety. Bad religion and bad Christianity, however, end up increasing the level of fear and anxiety. In the end, God, for Drewermann, is nothing less than the deepest experience of liberation and the deepest source of strength to individuals who are called to maturity, enjoyment of life, and prophetic witness.
September 12, 2026: The Bible as Freedom (GG)
One of the most fascinating aspects of Eugen Drewermann’s theological work is his analysis of Biblical texts from the perspective of Depth Psychology. For Drewermann, the Bible as a whole should be seen as an attempt to transmit a message of hope and liberation from existential anxiety (angst). Drewermann writes the following in his masterful work on the Gospel of Mark: All the worries that evil creates in us are nourished by our nostalgic desire for the good. Evil would not make us suffer so much unless we did not have a memory and a deep knowledge of the fact that our life is called to be what it truly is.* The well-known dialogue between Adam and Eve, in which blame is tossed around irresponsibly, is a perfect representation of the human condition outside of Eden. A fractured condition in which people are alienated from everybody and from the cosmos. “Your faith has healed you” is the ultimate declaration by Jesus that the power of Angst is not the ultimate reality. Eden on earth is.
Banner image: Gloria Steinem, cropped photo from Jewish Women’s Archives. Photo Jewish Women’s Archives. Wikimedia Commons.
Related Reading by Matthew Fox
TRUMP AND THE MAGA MOVEMENT AS ANTICHRIST: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time (Pre-order!)
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Audiobook (Digital): Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic–and Beyond
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest
A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality & The Transformation of Christianity
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
