Dear Friends,

 We hope that you are safe and well.

 Today's Meditation features a reflection by Matthew Fox on the importance of voting for the planet and future generations of the Communion of Holy Ones.

We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.

In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.

We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!

With our love and care,

Ron and Jean

MEDITATION 821: Matthew Fox: Vote for the Planet

On Voting

BY MATTHEW FOX

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

DEMOCRACY, JUSTICE, TRANSFORMING EVIL

Please Vote. And get others to vote.

Vote for the Planet, for the future therefore, and for the young and generations not yet born.

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin team up to get out the vote for the sake of the planet. Greenpeace USA.

Vote for the animals and vote for the oceans and the finned ones who live therein.

Vote for the sky and the air and the waters and our Mother the Earth.

Vote that humans can mend our ways and re-connect to the beauty and harmony of nature and the sacredness of our existence, fragile that it is on this tiny planet so diverse, so beautiful, so special for our existence and that of the millions of species with whom we share it.

Vote for the poor and the forgotten and the victims of war and of hate. And for those who hate and feel distant from the original goodness of creation that can also to be found within them.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Rep. Jamie Raskin join Chris Hayes to discuss voter intimidation and the risks of fascism and white nationalism in the midterm elections. MSNBC

Vote for leaders that will lead by way of justice and compassion and not by way of power for power sake or worship gods of wall street and want to give still more tax breaks to the richest among us and the corporations among us that are, more than anyone except maybe Mr. Putin, responsible for inflation, having inflated their prices of gas and of food during Putin’s war and the pandemic and are making exorbitant profits that everyday Americans are paying for.

Vote as if democracy depended on it. Because it does.

Vote as if authoritarianism (also known as fascism or “institutional violence”) and the violence it brings with it is at our door to kill democracy. Because it is.

Vote as if authoritarianism and lies and fascism are in our living rooms via certain media and social media platforms. Because it is.

Vote as if the future of the planet and our children’s children and so much more depends on it. Because it does.

More than 300 election questioners or deniers are vying for posts as federal legislators, as governors, attorneys general, or secretaries of state. If elected, they could determine the result of the 2024 election. USA TODAY

Vote as if voting matters. Because it does.

Vote as if there are forces and election deniers running for office who want to end the possibility that voting will ever matter again.

Vote as if justice and compassion matter. Because they do.

Vote as if our world is a 13.8 billion year-old Original Blessing and it has birthed us, original blessings also, whose purpose is to praise and bless creation and one another.

Vote as if our “existence is a miracle” (Rilke). Which it is.

Vote as if you are giving thanks for the miracle of existence and of all creation that brought us here and sustains us here.

See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing.

And Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner Image: Contact information for the national Voter Protection Hotline. Photo by Donald Lee Pardue on Flickr.

Recommended Reading

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.