An homiletic treatise of the first century C.E. presents an inventory of ancestors who trusted in God because the origins of the world. All collectively they’re referred to as a νέφος μαρτύρων ὄγκον, that’s, a nice cloud of witnesses/martyrs (Hebrews 12:1), who’re surrounding and supporting the current believers.
The phrase νέφος is normally translated as cloud, however right here it’s used to indicate that one can’t see the sting of the cloud by which one is surrounded. This cloud, due to this fact, is healthier understood as a swarm of people that trusted in God all through the centuries: there are such a lot of of them that one can’t rely them and even see by means of their throngs, supplied that one is inside.
This picture of the cloud/swarm has been foundational for the doctrine of the communion of saints. These are usually not solely the deceased ones, or the very well-known ones, not to mention these elevated to the dignity of the altar by some ecclesiastical authority.
There are many residing saints in the present day by whom we must always really feel inspired and supported.
Here’s a listing of saints that I haven’t met, besides by means of the web, and who’re energetic in the present day as we converse:
Sam Stein is a younger New York Jew who grew up as a Zionist. He spent his hole 12 months within the unlawful settlement of Efrat, the place he began to see the truth of the occupation together with his personal eyes. Since then, he moved to Israel, acquired Israeli citizenship, and have become an anti-occupation activist. Since September 2024, he has chosen to reside full time in a Palestinian village on the West Financial institution to supply bodily assist and a protecting/witnessing presence, as he’s the one Jew and Israeli residing within the village.
Grace Lolim is a middle-aged Kenyan lady who determined to take issues into her palms within the 12 months 2000 when the Borana folks and Somali folks have been preventing in a area the place her relations have been in danger. She proposed herself as a peace mediator. Quickly sufficient she began to make use of teachings from each the Bible and the Quran in her peace work with common folks in her area in addition to overseas (Rwanda). In 2013, she based the Isiolo Gender Watch, a corporation within the city of Isiolo, which promotes the rights of ladies, particularly their presence in politics and all decision-making settings.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire is an elder who was awarded the Nobel Peace Value in 1967 for her efficient peace work in Eire, which started after three of her sister’s youngsters have been killed. Alongside the years, she has been energetic for peace causes in Myanmar, Turkey, China, Iraq, and past. As a Nobel Peace laureate, she protested and defended whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange; she was arrested within the U.S. at peace protests and has been harrassed by U.S. authorities on a number of events. At 81 years of age, she supported the March to Gaza of June 2025 with unwavering dedication and energy.
These three are common individuals who began to behave when one thing occurred, hitting near dwelling. Simply as common individuals are those that push out of their very own neighborhoods these pathetic ICE troopers wearing struggle gear. There are many movies bearing witness to such resistance occasions, and the video-makers themselves are common folks.
My level is that we’re surrounded by abnormal folks doing extraordinary issues. We’re not alone, we’re surrounded by a terrific swarm/cloud of wonderful people. Once they see injustice, they don’t begin a debate, they act. The sides of the cloud we can’t even see, if we begin feeling every of them, and if we reside contained in the cloud itself.
After I really feel alone within the battle, I begin on the lookout for them round me, in addition to on the web. I should be embraced by them. With the primary group, I join and I attempt to create some native motion; with the second group, I learn their tales, hearken to their voices, and I imbibe myself with their braveness. That is the cloud of which I breathe the moisture, and that makes me alive.
See Matthew Fox, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Imaginative and prescient of Love and Motion
And Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Imaginative and prescient for a New Technology
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
And Fox, Creativity: The place the Divine and Human Meet
And Fox, Sheer Pleasure: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
And Fox, Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Banner Picture: Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the angels and blessed souls in highest Heaven. “Paradiso,” Canto XXXI within the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri; illustration by Gustave Doré, 1892. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you’re feeling the cloud? If not, what are you able to do to really feel it?
Advisable Studying
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Imaginative and prescient of Love and Motion
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
Within the midst of world fireplace, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct on daily basis and nationwide and world economies totter – the planet doesn’t want one other church or faith. What it wants is a brand new Order, grounded within the Knowledge traditions of each East and West, together with science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in a single sacred vow: “I promise to be one of the best lover and defender of the Earth that I will be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a ahead by David Korten, this assortment of essays by 21 non secular visionaries together with Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the varied and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a neighborhood now evolving around the globe.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not solely calls us dwelling to our true nature as Earth, but in addition gives us invaluable steering and firm on the way in which.” ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and creator of Lively Hope.
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Imaginative and prescient for a New Technology
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to make use of our abilities in service of compassion and justice and to maneuver past our damaged techniques–financial, political, academic, and non secular–discovering a spirituality that not solely helps us to get alongside, but in addition encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, reworking them and within the course of constructing a extra sacred and simply world. Incorporating the phrases of younger activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the guide gives a framework that’s intentionally interfaith and speaks to our profound craving for a life with non secular objective and for a greater world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a strong, inspiring, and very important name to embodied consciousness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and creator of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Girl, and the Battle to Save the Redwoods
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 apply of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the longer term that guarantees private, social, and world therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the way in which towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Nicely price our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creativity: The place the Divine and Human Meet
As a result of creativity is the important thing to each our genius and sweetness as a species but in addition to our capability for evil, we have to train creativity and to show methods of steering this God-like energy in instructions that promote love of life (biophilia) and never love of dying (necrophilia). Pushing effectively past the bounds of standard Christian doctrine, Fox’s concentrate on creativity makes an attempt nothing lower than to form a brand new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Numerous numbers will probably be blissful to comply with his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, creator, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Residing in Sin
Sheer Pleasure: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He additionally translated lots of his works akin to Biblical commentaries by no means earlier than in English (or Italian or German of French). He offers Aquinas a discussion board in order that he will be heard in our personal time. He presents Thomas Aquinas fully in his personal phrases, however in a type designed to permit late Twentieth-century minds and hearts to listen to him in a recent manner.
“The instructing of Aquinas comes by means of will a fullness and an perception that has by no means been current in English earlier than and [with] a significant message for the world in the present day.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths (Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake
Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out an entire new route for Christianity—a route that’s in actual fact very historical and really grounded in Jewish considering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is usually uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed manner.
“Unique Blessing makes obtainable to the Christian world and to the human neighborhood a radical treatment for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these could have originated.” –Thomas Berry, creator, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story
