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 21, 2026: “Power Corrupts & Absolute Power…” AI & Trump as Teammates (MF)
The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, Gil Durán’s exposé of “tech fascism” is a New York Times bestseller. That “tech bro” cabal includes Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Peter Thiel, the man behind the AI mega-company, Palantir. All have profited enormously from government contracts with DOGE, the Pentagon, ICE, etc. In many ways, this book affirms historian Lord Acton’s observation that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Says Matthew, “To ensure regulation of AI, Durán’s book ought to be required reading for every single congressperson.”
September 22, 2026: Leaders as Cowards in Universities, Law Firms, SCOTUS, Congress (MF)
Matthew believes that courage is the truest sign of the Spirit in our times. Learning stories of courageous people is one way to build our own courage. Matthew remembers meeting people of the Amazon. After one particular Mass, they were asked to light a candle and name people they knew personally who had been tortured and killed defending the rainforest. One person told Matthew, “The hard part was limiting it to three. I know at least ten off the top of my head.” Fred Shuttlesworth was a civil rights leader who was beaten with chains three times by the KKK and his house blown up with him in it. Asked where he got his courage, he replied, “You can call it courage, but I don’t. I call it trust.” Sister Dorothy Stang, a former student of Matthew’s, lived in the rainforest, working to protect it and the people who lived there. Because of her work, her life was threatened, but she did not let that stop her, saying, “The death of the forest is the end of our lives.” (And yes, they took her life.)
September 23, 2026: More Masculine Archetypes (GG)
Gianluigi continues his summary and praise of Matthew’s book, The Hidden Spirituality of Men. In the September 18th DM, GG addresses the first few archetypes explored in the book. Some of the remaining ones include: Icarus, the son of Daedalus, from the Greek myth about trying to fly with homemade wings; the hunter-gatherer; the spiritual warrior; the phallus and the human body—not mechanistic, but very alive as both animal and cosmos.
September 24, 2026: The Blue Man and Fatherhood (GG)
The eighth archetype in The Hidden Spirituality of Men is the Blue Man. This is a true archetype in the Jungian sense, meaning that it has been visualized by people of varyious places and times, yet interpreted by them as having basically the same meaning. For instance, Hildegard of Bingen had a vision of a radiant sapphire-colored man whom she took to be the Christ. In Hinduism, Krishna is blue. Both holy beings radiate compassion. Says Matthew: To meet the Blue Man is to meet the basic power of the Universe, a power of playful creativity, the power of Wisdom at work and play. The ninth archetype is the father, or the fatherly heart. Ultimately, the father becomes grandfather, about which Matthew says is the fatherly heart squared. We need our elders in these trying times.
September 25, 2026: Jungian Theology (GG)
Eugen Drewermann is a German psychologist and theologian who studies Jungian thought in great depth. GG is interested in the intersection between Jung, Drewermann, and Creation Spirituality. One thing Drewermann said is: I maintain that in the Christian West there is a structural chasm between thinking and feeling….Revelation (not the book of the Bible) has been understood as a communication from God in the form of commandments and rationally understandable contents…. (D)reams and their echoes in the inner space of the soul have been feared. The instinctual world became something morally unsound and has been fought against. All that was not understood within the soul has been demonized…. Meanwhile, Creation Spirituality is very linked with the mystical and the cosmic, while also celebrating the body and creation. When people come to Matthew with their anxiety, Matthew asks them to put aside their worries for a moment and connect with their body and with the bodies of other creatures, be they trees or animals or stars.
September 26, 2026: Truth, Justice, Heart: A Fierce Wisdom & Holy Trinity For Election Time (MF)
In Matthew’s book,The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, he takes 31 stunning and provocative sentences from Thomas Aquinas and presents each as a chapter title. In light of all that is happening, including the upcoming American election in only 38 days, it seems fitting to apply some of Aquinas’s fierce wisdom to our current disturbing times. For instance, Matthew is struck anew by Aquinas’s insistence that “the proper objects of the heart are Truth and Justice.” Our hearts yearn for truth and justice. One cannot build a just society on falsehoods. Science and the HeartMath movement teach us today that the brain is not restricted to the head, but actually operates within the heart itself. But sadism and lies are a perversion of the heart, and this perversion permeates not only today’s congress but also today’s very unsupreme court. There is a reason why Satan is called “the father of lies.”
Banner image: Spiritual warriors fight for peace, justice, and human rights at a No Kings Protest in suburban Pennsylvania. Photo by Cynthia Greb. Used with permission.
Related Reading by Matthew Fox
TRUMP AND THE MAGA MOVEMENT AS ANTICHRIST: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time (Available for pre-order)
The Beloved Will Guide You: St. John of the Cross and the Triple Dark Night of Our Times (Available for pre-order)
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times (audiobook)
A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic Warrior for Our Time
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
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1 thought on “Week of 9/21-26/2026: AI, Courage, Fierce Wisdom & the Sacred Masculine”
Thank you Matthew and DM team for keeping us informed psycho spiritually and with current events regarding the social injustices of billionaires and the dangers of their tech companies’ development of unregulated AI. They’re definitely separated from the Sacred in their personal and communal lives with Humanity, Sacred Mother Nature, and the Cosmos.