In yesterday’s DM, I continued to share some saints I have interacted with in my life, and invited you to do the same. And in the video yesterday, I pointed out how Père Chenu, the historian and theologian who named the creation spirituality tradition for me, stressed how the renaissance of the 12th century was a time when “sanctity” was redefined and how we ought to expect that in our time as well.
One element of holiness—what Rabbi Heschel calls “the most precious word in religion”—that needs to be named today is the dimension of interfaith or deep ecumenism. How holiness can be found in all cultures and all religions and all spiritual traditions.
In Rupert Sheldrake’s and my book, The Physics of Angels, I wrote of the remarkable experience of Lorna Byrne, who has seen angels in her life from the age of two years old. She insisted that she sees angels praying on people’s shoulders, whether she visits a mosque or synagogue or church or talks to atheists. Angels are ecumenical—and so is holiness.
I have counted about 34 people whom I have known and worked with who I consider saints (and I’m sure there are others as well). I wish to finish off my list in this DM. Cecil Williams, prophetic pastor at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district where the liturgy and preaching awakened everyone I took there over the years. I am pleased to recall how the University of Creation Spirituality extended an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree to him.
Satish Kumar, founder of Schumacher College and of Resurgence Magazine, who, after exiting the Jain monastery as a young man, walked with no money in hand from India to Moscow, to Paris, to London and Washington, DC, to protest nuclear weapons in the capitols of nations who held them.
Rev. Donald Reeves, prophetic pastor at St James Piccadilly in London who brought religion alive to the Anglican Church in so many ways including art and inviting challenging public speakers. Father Louis Vitale, Franciscan provincial in California, who went to prison numerous times to protest injustice in many forms. Cesar Chavez, who visited Mundelein College when I was teaching in our ICCS program there.
Bishop Pedro Casigalida, whose diocese was the Amazon region whom I visited the year of my silencing by the Vatican and whose home I stayed in for a week. Many of his clergy and lay workers were tortured to death when the military dictatorship ruled Brazil and one of them sketched a charcoal picture of him: I saw it when he gave me his bed to sleep in when I visited him. He too was silenced by the Vatican (for calling his friend, Oscar Romero, a saint. Pope Francis officially declared him a saint).
Cardinal Arns of Brazil, with whom I had a private sit-down for 45 minutes in which he told me of much of the background to the persecution of liberation theologians and base communities by Roman authorities. Fluent in nine languages, he supported Father Leonardo Boff and other leaders of the liberation theology movement and resisted the military dictatorship publicly.
Michael (I forget his last name), a student in our ICCS program who died of AIDS: nurses told me that the ICU filled with light for 24 hours after his passing. When his father expelled him from the family for becoming a conscientious objector in the Vietnam war, he became a psychiatric nurse and also started a radio program for gay voices in Flint, Michigan and was often physically attacked for doing so.
Matt Furlong, who also died of AIDS, who was heterosexual and a semi-professional baseball player, frequented prostitutes and contracted AIDS that way. He came from a wounded background; his father and four of his five siblings were alcoholic . But AIDS, he said, “was God’s way of getting my attention. I wouldn’t trade AIDS with anything else I’ve experienced in life, for it has taught me what life is all about.” He spent his last years going to high schools to tell kids about these lessons.
Rev. Elouise Oliver, a minister of the Church of Religious Science in Oakland, who turned it from a church of 35 people into an alive gathering place of many hundreds of persons and served countless people and good causes for decades.
In all these saints I found common ground of Courage, Creativity, Generosity, Holy Imagination, and a willingness to reinvent their work and profession. I thank them for their gifts so freely shared.
See Matthew Fox, “AIDS and the Quest for an Authentic Spirituality,” in Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life, pp. 267-288.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations.
And Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest.
And Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing From Global Faiths.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm Where Science & Spirit Meet
Banner Image: Peace walker/author/educator Satish Kumar, 2008. Photo by Luke Hancock on Wikimedia Commons. Background of path by WeRatherBe Outside on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
Do you recognize an evolution in your own awareness of the meaning of holiness and sanctity in our times? Have you been blessed to know “saints” in your life and learn from their mentorship and example?
Recommended Reading
In one of his foundational works, Fox engages with some of history’s greatest mystics, philosophers, and prophets in profound and hard-hitting essays on such varied topics as Eco-Spirituality, AIDS, homosexuality, spiritual feminism, environmental revolution, Native American spirituality, Christian mysticism, Art and Spirituality, Art as Meditation, Interfaith or Deep Ecumenism and more.
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
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.
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
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
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.
The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm Where Science & Spirit Meet
By Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake
When was the last time a scientist and a theologian discussed angels together? What are angels? Many people believe in angels, but few can define these enigmatic spirits. Now visionary theologian Matthew Fox and acclaimed biologist Rupert Sheldrake—pioneers in modern religious thinking and scientific theory—launch a groundbreaking exploration into the ancient concept of the angel and restore dignity, meaning, and joy to our time-honored belief in these heavenly beings.
