Today’s meditation is an unusual gift from my friend and co-worker in the vineyard of spirituality, Andrew Harvey. As I shared in a previous DM, he lost all his books, possessions and beloved cat companion, Jade, in a recent fire.
A friend of Andrew’s has a gift of communicating with deceased animals and she reports this recent encounter with Jade. Andrew gave me permission to share her letter which I have shortened slightly for the DM.
She is resting. Quiet. At peace. Held in a cradle between the worlds, in no rush to leave the space where breath becomes spirit.
I asked if there was anything she wished to share first. Her answer, immediate and clear: “Tell him I did not suffer.”
It was not the cause [of the fire] that mattered to her—it was the transformation. She recognized it instantly, not with fear, but with the knowing of one who sees from beyond. She said this fire came not as destruction, but as a cleansing, a restart, a consecrated moment of passage….
When I asked her why this had to happen, she spoke not from pain, but from prophecy. She said she knew her time was nearing. She feared the Fire only in her body—but in her spirit, she welcomed it. This was her way, she said, “the most fitting way to receive this gifted transition… a validation of my human’s words and teachings…. Fire was sweet and merciful, and only smoke put me to sleep with ease and care.”
Her message carries a solemn urgency: that we are entering even darker times. That fiercer fires—literal and spiritual—are upon the Earth. And that those–humans and animals–called to carry the light must know: We are not immune. To be bearers of sacred truth is also to stand at the edge of sacrifice. Your beloved animal companions, she said, offer themselves not as victims, but as luminous threads in the greater tapestry of awakening.
“We chose to depart only to continue from an even more powerful and divinely guided place to support your work.”
She spoke of you with uncontainable love. She knows your yearning, your restlessness, your sacred ambition to serve, teach, and ignite hearts around the world. She said that being the sacred feminine in your life—your guardian, your mirror, your joy—was her deepest honour….
She feels your grief, and says it is the only thing that brings the slightest ache in her otherwise radiant peace. That is why she lingers in this space between, in what she called “sleep”—to remain with you. …
This moment was orchestrated with precision by forces far greater than we can see, though she admits she too is only beginning to grasp its magnitude….
She asks you to let your heart mourn—but not to forget: She is perfect. And she is with you.
Her final words to you were luminous: “I love you. I have loved you more than my body could show. I filled my lungs not with smoke, but with the light from the embers of your love for me. That is the star-spark you will recognize—again and again—in every sun that rises over your sacred mission. The White Lions are with me now. They have called me to them. And I will stay by your side, not as shadow, but as flame.”
I thanked Jade, and all the sacred beings who allowed this communion to unfold.….May this message offer a balm for your soul, a flicker of solace in the ashes. May it remind you that love never ends—it only changes form. And in that change, it grows even more radiant.
See Matthew Fox, Confessions; The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, pp. 172ff.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice, pp.158-179.
And Fox, A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey, pp. 165ff.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
Banner Image: A soulful-eyed tuxie cat. Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
Do you have a special and spiritual relationship with animal companions? Are you surprised by this exchange between human and deceased cat? What lessons are most valuable to you? Does it confirm for you a world beyond this one? Do you agree with Thomas Merton that every non-two-legged animal is a saint?
Recommended Reading
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
In A Way to God, Fox explores Merton’s pioneering work in interfaith, his essential teachings on mixing contemplation and action, and how the vision of Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced Merton in what Fox calls his Creation Spirituality journey.
“This wise and marvelous book will profoundly inspire all those who love Merton and want to know him more deeply.” — Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
