Thomas Aquinas has one thing to say about ICE. He writes: “The primary impact of Love is melting.” Let love win the day, we pray. Non-violence and never violence.
ICE has unleashed within the streets of Minnesota not solely violence, however what the saintly Brazilian Bishop Helder Digicam known as, “the spiral of violence.” Issues are spiraling ever extra dangerously–now Trump is speaking of sending the navy into the streets of blue cities in America–and solely blue cities—individuals who didn’t vote for him and MAGA. Retribution is his god.
I spent three hours yesterday within the emergency room at Kaiser Hospital as a result of, two hours earlier than I used to be to ship a Zoom discuss on my e book, Western Spirituality: Historic Roots, Ecumenical Routes, I slipped on a small puddle, each toes went up within the air, and I fell headfirst on the concrete.
A retired physician who hangs out on the pool day by day was current and got here to my rescue, helped me out, and advised me I would want stitches and that there was no method I’d be delivering my discuss.
That was too unhealthy, as I positively had one thing to say about that e book of mine, which contained some great articles by great writers. An esteemed college member at UCS, Jeremy Taylor, who taught “Goals as artwork as meditation” with us for years and was a UU minister, advised me on a number of events that that was my most essential e book. “Why?” I’d ask. “As a result of it demonstrates and not using a shadow of a doubt that creation spirituality is just not one thing you invented however is what you say it’s—a practice and lineage that has been forgotten.”
I’ve all the time had a comfortable spot for Minnesota. Rising up in Wisconsin, my state shared a border with Minnesota—and a river. Minnesota is the birthplace of the nice Mississippi River that feeds the Midwest of the US proper right down to New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico.
After I was a boy and my father was soccer coach on the College of Wisconsin, we’d play Minnesota yearly, they usually all the time had glorious soccer groups. Typically my father would come dwelling indignant from dropping a detailed sport to them, and I all the time revered them for his or her success.
I attended my first two years of school in Dubuque, Iowa, the place the Dominicans despatched younger males fascinated with getting into the Order, and to get there by bus from Madison meant crossing the Mississippi River, for Dubuque was simply on the opposite facet of the bridge.
And I spent my first yr as a Dominican on the novitiate in Winona, Minnesota, the place we discovered the rudiments of neighborhood dwelling and neighborhood prayer, rising early within the mornings and doing plenty of meditation and rosaries and the Workplace and Mass and extra. The cemetery for our deceased brothers was there, in addition to rolling fields that we’d hike and play ball on throughout recreation respites.
It’s there that I underwent my initiatory ceremony of passage, and took on a brand new title, “Brother Matthew,” placing apart my road garments and unique title, “Tim.” On the finish of the yr, my sixteen classmates and I took our “easy” vows for 3 years and traveled by practice in clerical collars to River Forest, Illinois, for our three years of philosophical research.
One other comfortable spot I carry for Minnesota is that I met quite a few nice folks whereas conducting workshops and retreats there through the years. Mary Plaster, who oversees our Fb web page, resides in Duluth and it’s she who creates the marvelous big puppets for our Cosmic Plenty that carry Hildegard of Bingen, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, MLK, Jr., and different notables, together with hand-held puppets of birds and beasts, to accompany our dancing and praying, together with at our most up-to-date lots on the World Parliament of Religions in Salt Lake Metropolis, Toronto and Chicago.
After all, I’ve a comfortable spot for Minnesota. However as we speak, Minnesota is bleeding, and this morning at 4 AM the next response got here to me in mattress.
Minnesota Bleeding,
Democracy reeling,
Justice receding,
Necrophilia feeding,
Fascism succeeding,
SCOTUS attaining,
Antichrist seeding,
Reptilian mind attaining,
Patriarchy preening,
Violence screaming,
Lies & untruths beaming,
Humanity needing.
Hearts chilly?
Or feeling?
Banner Picture: Minneapolis anti-ICE Protest, January 10, 2026: 1000’s of individuals protested towards ICE in Powderhorn Park, marched down Lake Road, and stopped on the spot the place ICE killed Renee Good three days earlier. Picture by Fibonacci Blue on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
What are you feeling as you watch Minnesota bleeding on tv?
Associated Readings by Matthew Fox
Sheer Pleasure: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 112f
Western Spirituality: Historic Roots, Ecumenical Routes
Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul & Society
Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ
Creativity: The place the Divine and the Human Meet
