Gaza, Yom Kippur, Pronoia, and Diversity

Week of 9/28-10/4/2025:

Gaza, Yom Kippur, Pronoia, Diversity

This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Some are penned by Matthew Fox (MF), and some by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG). You can click on the title of a DM in order to view the original piece in its entirety.

September 29, 2025: Original Blessing as Pronoia: The Antidote to Paranoia (MF)

Rob Brezsny wrote a powerful book called Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia. Brezsny defines pronoia as “the hypothesis that the universe is conspiring to shower us with blessings.” Sounds like “original blessing,” doesn’t it?

He writes: I am in grief about the mayhem and atrocities that the Trump administration and its allies have unleashed upon the world…. America has been invaded and occupied by a hostile oligarchic death cult. Despite these horrors, he says he is still “a passionate devotee of pronoia.”

Pronoia is not denial. It’s not naïve optimism…. My pronoia is rowdy, muscular, and complicated. It recognizes the grief and the terror, the corruption and the cruelty—and still insists on seeking out the currents of benevolence flowing all around us.

Matthew says that Brezsny sounds “like Meister Eckhart and Julian of Norwich rolled into one. Original Blessing is everywhere.”

September 30, 2025: Creation Spirituality vs. the Outlawing of Diversity (MF)

At the heart of ICE thuggery perpetrated by masked soldiers on our streets (and the) $150 billion…dedicated to erecting concentration camps for immigrants, lies the issue of diversity.

Matthew continues: As a spiritual theologian, I have to say, loud and clear, that Diversity Matters. In theological language, it’s the way God made us and the rest of creation. Creation is very diverse.

Is the current war on DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—any different from the Nazis’ insistence on a “pure” Aryan race? (Which, not incidentally, does not exist and never did.) Otto Rank criticized Americans for confusing the line, “all men are created equal,” to mean “all men are created the same.”

There is so much to learn from one another and the multiple identities and cultures we carry within us.

The global decline of biodiversity. Wikimedia Commons.

October 1, 2025: The Sumud Flotilla as a Sign of Hope (GG)

About 50 ships are sailing across the Mediterranean, filled with food, medical supplies, diapers, formula, and volunteers/activists, and heading toward Gaza.

Sadly, Israel has already launched a drone attack, which damaged some of the ships. However, Gianluigi says: The flotilla…has already won. The courage of the people embarked has already impressed the world, highlighting the reality of Gaza in an unprecedented way and especially showing that acquiescing to violence and despair is not the only option.

The people on the flotilla represent the hope of the humanity. They show that courage still exists.

October 2, 2025: Yom Kippur 2025 (GG)

David Adler is a young Jewish man embarked on one of the vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla heading toward Gaza with much-needed aid. He wrote an open letter on X regarding Yom Kippur.

He said: How can we possibly take seriously our mandate to heal the world when the State of Israel is so determined to destroy it?

David said that the same genocidal rage that targeted my ancestors is now taken up by its principal victims. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, but David cannot forget that the Palestinians of Gaza are forced to fast.

Yom Kippur is a day of atonement, but David reminds his readers that atonement means action; it does not mean fasting in comfort while starving your neighbors.

What ACTUAL Genocide Experts Say about Gaza

Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo cites the many genocide experts in agreement that what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide per the legal definition, under the Genocide Convention.

October 3, 2025: Two Truths and Sadofascism (GG)

The prime minister of Israel has declared that the deadly attack in a synagogue in Manchester was caused by “weakness” in the face of terrorism—as if he did not order bombs dropped on civilians for two years, killing tens of thousands of civilians.

In addition, Israeli minister Katz has declared that those civilians who do not leave Gaza City in the next few hours will be treated as terrorists, i.e., summarily executed—even though many Gazans have no means to leave.

This would amount to planning the worst mass murder of modern times. Netanyahu, Blair, Trump, Katz, and so many others would have no power at all if large enough masses did not agree with them. And who are these people?

Gianluigi suggests “passive agents of sadofacism” —people who have little power, but are either locked inside their little unfeeling worlds or are lashing out all the time at the people around them.

October 4, 2025: Jane Goodall, A Creation Spirituality Saint for Our Times, Dies at 91

This week, the world heard the sad news that beloved Jane Goodall had died. She was in the midst of a speaking tour in California, still working hard to make a difference.

Matthew met her once and was struck by her calmness, her joy, and her humility. At her death, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that “she is leaving an extraordinary legacy for humanity and our planet.” He thanked her for her lifelong commitment to environmental protection efforts.

The International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC) described her as one of “the world’s most inspiring voices for animals” whose “message was always rooted in hope, that even the smallest actions, when multiplied, can bring about great change.”

In 2024, she warned of the “sixth great extinction” that is happening and spoke about protecting the forests. She herself planted over two million trees. May we all heed Jane Goodall’s call to compassion for our holy Mother Earth.

Jane Goodall receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden, January 4, 2025. Photo clipped from CSPAN coverage.

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