In yesterday’s DM we mirrored on the present Lenten season and shared two variations on Ash Wednesday practices together with the follow of what to surrender for Lent.
That is the season to heed the prophet Isaiah: “Will not be this the quick that I select: to unfastened the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to interrupt each yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)
What different fasts may we take into account this Lent?
What if we selected to quick from fascism and Christofascism?
And from Undertaking 2025, the blueprint that seeks to place an finish to democracy all over the place and exchange it with authorities of the tremendous wealthy, by the tremendous wealthy and for the tremendous wealthy? We realized this morning information concerning the richest man on the planet, who has purchased himself a job as co-president by gifting the president’s marketing campaign $288 million (and $19 million to republican congressional campaigns), and is now a daily within the Oval Workplace.
He who’s slashing tens of 1000’s of presidency staff from their jobs has now pumped over $6 million into the marketing campaign for supreme courtroom decide within the state of Wisconsin. (It labored in successful the WH, why not in any judicial election within the nation he chooses to take part in?)
Our elections have been placed on the block on the market years in the past due to the Cizens United choice. SCOTUS advised us—with a straight face—that firms are individuals and cash is speech and there want be basically no limits on marketing campaign donations. Democracy is on the market. Any bidders?
Perhaps we must always quick from that?
What if we selected to quick from doing nothing whereas our democracy is disappearing earlier than our very eyes? The MAGA celebration has advised its elected representatives to stop holding city halls as a result of too many indignant constituents are exhibiting up. Present up!
Allow us to quick from denial—denial that Evil is actual. And busy and wealthy and highly effective and bent on destroying the entire which means of the widespread good.
And quick from Evil that turns its again on the struggling of others equivalent to residents of the sovereign nation of Ukraine, invaded three years in the past by a tyrannical oligarch of Russia, and now present process the worst battle in Europe since WWII.
A battle the place the brand new American authorities has now chosen sides, selecting to help the aggressor and never the sufferer of that aggression. An aggressor now mowing over the United Nations constitution that forbids giant international locations from invading smaller ones.
Let’s quick from the Evil of ignoring local weather change and calling it a “hoax” and eliminating environmental legal guidelines that shield the planet and firing 1000’s of staff at EPA. In different phrases, quick from destroying our sacred Mom Earth and future generations of creatures—people included—now on a path to extinction.
Is Lent a particular time to face as much as the Antichrist nonetheless it incarnates itself in time and historical past, politics and authorities?
One group is inviting folks to “quick from injustice and billionaires and firms which are stoking hate and to take a Lenten boycott pledge that exhibits solidarity with others. Devoted America invitations all to hitch a pledge to look at a Lenten company boycott [that] will remind us every single day that we aren’t alone or powerless within the face of all of this evil. And it might probably encourage us to construct relationships with native companies that want and deserve our help. To signal the pledge, click on HERE.*
*SIGN THE PLEDGE: Boycott pro-Trump firms for Lent this yr. Devoted America.
See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ.
And Matthew Fox, “Religious Warriors” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Males: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104.
And Fox, “Religious Warriorhood,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from Religion Traditions, pp. 404-422.
Additionally, Fox, “Warriors for Ecological and Financial Justice: Meister Eckhart Meets Dorothy Stang, Karl Marx, David Korten, Serge Latouche, Anita Roddick, and Howard Thurman,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Occasions, pp. 221-230.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Items for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
Banner picture: Ash Wednesday. Picture by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
What are you selecting to quick from this Lent?
Really helpful Studying
Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had at all times shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so usually used to unfold management and worry. Nonetheless, given at this time’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this guide using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for inspecting the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this guide with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For speedy entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion 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 photos, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for speedy obtain.
The Hidden Spirituality of Males: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he finds ten metaphors, or archetypes, starting from the Inexperienced Man, an historic pagan image of our elementary relationship with nature, to the Religious Warrior….These timeless archetypes can encourage males to pursue their increased calling to connect with their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Each man on this planet ought to learn this guide — to not point out each girl who desires to know the struggles, usually unconscious, that form the boys they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, creator of The Left Hand of God
One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from International Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all of the world traditions for his or her knowledge and their inspiration in a piece that’s excess of a listing of theological place papers however a brand new option to pray—to meditate in a worldwide non secular context on the knowledge all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes which are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all of the world non secular traditions supply knowledge about every.“Studying One River, Many Wells is like getting into the wealthy silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you learn this textual content, you mirror, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Actually no phrases can totally categorical my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to up to date spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally desires to introduce Eckhart to at this time’s activists addressing up to date crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and plenty of others.
“Matthew Fox is maybe the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a spot between Eckhart as a shamanistic persona and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to at this time’s non secular disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Writer of Religious Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Items for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the therapeutic and liberation present in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of each non secular and political persuasion to unite in a brand new imaginative and prescient by means of which we be taught to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the present of and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that gives a typical floor for non secular seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Observe.
“I’m studying Liberating Items for the Folks of the Earth by Matt Fox. He’s one which fills my coronary heart and thoughts for brand new life regardless of a lot that’s violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the which means and follow of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the longer term that guarantees private, social, and international therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the best way towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Nicely value our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
