Tuesday, March 3, 2026

The 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality

Fox speaks at the Techno Cosimic Mass at UCS 2005

When I went on my very first sabbatical, I commuted from my home in Santa Clara to the University of Creation Spirituality (UCS) in Oakland for a semester-long sabbatical certificate program. The school was founded by Matthew Fox, a priest who had been expelled from the Dominican order for his radical teachings, things that seem pretty normal to a Unitarian Universalist, like calling God Mother, like believing we were born in original blessing rather than original sin, like incorporating earth centered teachings, like inclusion of LGBTQ siblings. I chose UCS for my sabbatical because I was growing in a sense of calling as an environmentalist, and I wanted a spiritual grounding that would help me grown an earth centered theology and practice that would inspire and inform environmental activism.

The first night of the semester, Fox spoke to all the students – we all fit in one room, it couldn’t have been more than a few dozen of us, about the idea of “awe” based education. He quoted Heschel “awe is the beginning of wisdom” and called awe “a passionate encounter with what is.” Awe also stood for “Ancestral Wisdom Education” an education that would include wisdom beyond the human - “Stars are our ancestors too” he said.

When I signed up for my classes, the former nuns who ran the program explained that “art as meditation” was required, and that every weekend intensive had both an academic and an art as meditation component. We began each morning with worship, would have a seminar on the topic, then art as meditation in the afternoon before returning to our academic topic. My first class was about the Universe story, and that is where I first encountered the Cosmic Walk we shared a couple of weeks ago.

From Fox himself I took a class on Meister Eckhart a Dominican priest who lived in the 1200s in Germany who was tried for heresy at the end of his life. It was in the writings of Eckhart that Fox found roots of the 4 paths of Creation Spirituality, an alternative to the traditional 3 fold path of the Christian spiritual journey, Purgation, Illumination, and Union[i].

The first path is the Via Positiva. This is the path of awe, the path where, in Fox’s words “… God is experienced through ecstasy, joy, wonder, and delight”[ii] If you have ever stood by the crashing waves of an ocean, or under the vast sky and been filled with awe and wonder, this is the Via Positiva. We encounter the sacred through being present to the blessing of the world around us.

Fox writes, in a recent Daily Meditation: "Our hearts are rendered large by the Via Positiva, the love of life and existence that we imbibe. ‘Joy expands the heart,’ says Thomas Aquinas.
Suffering also expands the heart. As Buddhist scholar and activist Joanna Macy used to say, “when your heart breaks, the whole universe can pour through.”[iii]

This is the second path, the Via Negativa. In his Essential Writings, Fox says “The divine is to be met in the depths of darkness as well as in the light. ... “Daring the dark” means entering nothingness and letting it be nothingness while it works its mystery on us. “Daring the dark” also means allowing pain to be pain and learning from it.”[iv] This is, obviously, a challenging path. It contradicts a common notion that if we are on the spiritual path things should feel good, and that if things hurt, if we experience loss or pain we must have done something wrong. But heartbreak is it’s own sacred path “when your heart breaks, the whole universe can pour through.”

The 3rd path is the via Creativa. In his Essential Writings, Matthew says, “Beauty, and our role in co-creating it, lies at the heart of the spiritual journey.” we are “co-creators and fellow artists with God.” This is why art as meditation was always part of the curriculum at UCS, the Via Creativa is a spiritual practice of bringing something from the depths of our being out into the world.

Fox wrote in one of his daily meditations: “The Via Creativa is so often born of the Via Negativa, suffering precedes birthing just as an emptying precedes a filling. Or as Meister Eckhart put it, ‘I once had a dream, though a man I was pregnant, pregnant with nothingness. And out of this Nothingness God was born.’”[v]

My son Nick was 4 years old at the time of this sabbatical. It was one of the reasons I had chosen to stay close to home. That spring I was able to be present as my sister gave birth to her first child. So when Fox spoke in class about this idea, that the via negative leads to the creative like labor leading to birth, I had feelings. Nick’s birth had not gone as planned, and I felt the hospital had treated me as a second-class citizen because I was a home-birth transfer. Being with my sister in the hospital as she bravely labored and delivered her daughter had brought all that material up again, and it was fresh for me in class that day Fox used Birth as a metaphor for this spiritual process. I had to raise my hand and say what was in my heart. Fox said something in reply about “women say it’s all worth it when they hold their child for the first time”, but even today, 24 years later, while I rejoice that my now-grown child made it safely in to the is world, there are aspects of that labor and delivery story that still cause discomfort when they come to mind. It’s not okay how hospitals treat laboring women sometimes. It occurred to me that perhaps I should not look to a celibate man translating the teachings of another celibate man about how meaning happens around labor and birth, but I was hungry to make meaning of that difficult experience.

As I sit with that memory now, and read Fox’s words again “daring the dark … means allowing pain to be pain.” Perhaps you’ve experienced something like this too- a challenging experience, with death, with loss, with betrayal, perhaps you know how it doesn’t satisfy the soul when folks say “it’s all for the best” or “ it will turn out fine in the end.” The Via Negativa allows space to be present with the pain itself, unredeemed by what might come later. Pain is not an absence of God, though it may be an absence of the delights of the via positive, it must be met on its own terms for the soul to be satisfied.

The fourth path, the Via Transformativa is a prayerful way of saying “no” to what we cannot embrace. It is the prophetic path. Fox wrote in a blog post last month: “To protest is to pray; to resist is to pray; to say “No!” in the most creative and effective ways possible is to pray. It is to say “thank you” for the earth and air and soil and sunshine we have by defending it. Our “No!” comes from a very deep place. It calls for courage and bravery and community sharing from which we get ever more strength and courage to take on powers that be, and speak truth to power.” [vi] I consider now, that while I will never feel warm and fuzzy about my time in the hospital, my experience of giving birth to my son did lead me to be a fierce advocate for other women. My experience of trying to raise an infant with my partner Eric made me a fierce advocate for other parents.

Fox writes: “All four paths constitute a radical response to life and, taken together, are the response we give on encountering the “Ground of being”[vii] [Ground of being is theology speak for the aspect of the divine that is the foundation, the ground of all that is]. Consider through the lens of the 4 paths of Creation Spirituality the difficult times we are living through today. Hard things are happening in this country right now to our democracy, to the most vulnerable people. When we humans suffer and struggle, I believe the sacred is there with is in the struggle, in the pain. I believe the divine knows our pain, and in the Christian tradition from which Fox speaks, this is why God came to earth in the form of Jesus, and is some part of the meaning of his suffering on the cross. The betrayal and humiliation of Good Friday.

And amid this destruction and pain, I believe there is truly the potential for something new to be born. Indeed something will have to be created to fill the spaces created by the smash and burn approach of this administration, just as new growth comes in after a wildfire. The outpouring of love and support of neighbor in Minneapolis is inspiring, and uplifting, and a model of how we humans can be together in community, but I would never say it is worth the life and death of Renee Good , of Alex Pretti, of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, of families torn apart. We travel the Via Negativa when we grieve that heartbreak, and perhaps our hearts become larger, more courageous because of it.

Sometimes that suffering leads us to the Via Transformativa, the feeling that we must transform the world, and that the divine is surely there in the process of transforming the world towards justice and compassion.

As Unitarian Universalists, we believe there are many paths one can walk with the Spirit of Life, many paths that bring us closer to the ground of our own being, and closer to that which is larger than ourselves. I offer these 4 paths of Creation Spirituality today to enlarge our sense that whenever and however we respond whole-heartedly to the joys and sorrows of life, there is a prayerful path for us too. Whatever this week may hold for you, the yes of delight and gratitude, the no of emptiness or pain, the yes of creation, the no of resisting injustice, be assured the spirit of life is with you there, in the community of all creation.


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Wednesday, February 18, 2026

It's All Rocks

I love picking up rocks whenever I see something beautiful or unusual. Does anyone else like picking up rocks?

Lake Ontario has great rocks- every time I go I find new rocks I’ve never seen before.

Last time I found this funny rock… Which I guess is not really a rock. I think it’s actually a piece of sidewalk or something made by humans. 

You can see big chunks and the stuff in between, which seems to include some kind of sand or other ground up rocks. 

When I first picked up one of these up I threw it back in the lake- that’s not a real rock I thought. But the more I spent the day staring at rocks, the more I realized – isn’t that kind of what a lot of these rocks are?


Take these rocks for example, 

They’ve got big bits and small bits in-between. Lots of the rocks in Lake Ontario were made over millions of years of rocks being smashed and crushed into smaller bits, and then over millions of years, those tiny rocks being smushed until they became a brand new rock, made up of all those bits of very old rocks.

And in those old rocks are bits of plants, bits of minerals that are sometimes part of humans and fish and plants and birds, and when we die, the minerals go back into the earth, and over millions of years, some of them become part of rocks.


In fact, there is a very special place in the Sahara[i], an ancient lake bed, now dry, made up of minerals from dead microscopic beings full of phosphorus.

And when this dust gets taken up in the wind, it travels all the way to the Amazon rain forest, where it feeds the plants that are the lungs of the world. It turns out that without the dust from a dry lake bed thousands of miles away, the Amazon would not be as beautiful and lush and full of life as it is today.

Those rocks, that sandy, even a dusty lake bed are like a savings account of minerals that have been part of many different beings in many different forms.

It’s amazing to realize that even our sidewalks and streets and walls will someday become part of the massive rocks underground, or part of the sand on beaches, or first one and then the other[ii]. 

And just as the rocks we find on the beach today are like a savings account, someday all the things we see, all the things we are will go back into that rock savings account to support new forms and new life for millennia into the future.



[i] "This trans-continental journey of dust is important because of what is in the dust, Yu said. Specifically the dust picked up from the Bodélé Depression in Chad, an ancient lake bed where rock minerals composed of dead microorganisms are loaded with phosphorus. Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for plant proteins and growth, which the Amazon rain forest depends on in order to flourish."
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazons-plants/

[ii] My geologist friend Mo says this era is called the “Anthropocene” which refers to this time period in which humans directly impact the geologic record. She adds "You can imagine a time millions of years from now when the robots are studying the sedimentary strata and they find the first appearance of a coke bottle - that’s the beginning of the Anthropocene."









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Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Deep Time and Meeting the Moment

Joanna Macy, Buddhist activist and teacher, was first called to activism trying to help people understand the impacts of nuclear waste, but found that the ways we were talking and thinking about the environment were not moving people to the kind of action that could help us make changes on the scale we need. She called this change of course “the great turning” and spent her life helping people imagine and live into this necessary change. She died this past summer. I had the privilege of studying with her on my very first sabbatical back in Oakland California.

She encouraged us to expand our sense of time. She pointed out that while historically humans have thought in terms of cycles of seasons, years and generations, but today our sense of time has shrunk -- we think in fractions of a second, and our long-term thinking ends with quarterly profits. It’s hard to see the big picture from that small space of 3 months. We can’t really see how it is with the trees, with the fish, with the air when our sense of time is shallow and immediate.

Joanna told us about her trip to Australia to experience Deep Time with the Aboriginal peoples who live there, she told us about the importance of the Haudenosaunee practice of considering, in every important decision, its impact out to 7 generations; what will my actions mean for my grandchildren’s great grandchildren?

When take the perspective of deep time, which we will spend some time with next week as we celebrate the Cosmic Walk, we see our place in a much larger picture. We remember that life evolves over millennia. We see how we are part of a web of life much older than we are. This larger seeing brings more wisdom and compassion to our decisions.

Joanna loved to use ritual and imagination in her work. In her book Active Hope, she shares a practice called "A Letter to the Future" one of hte practices she offered in the seminar I took with her all those years ago She found that when she invited people to view the struggles of today from the perspective of 7 generations in the future, people’s thinking shifted and expanded as we approach the struggles of our own time.

I don’t know about you, but on any given day when I’m trying to balance the needs of family and work and daily life, it’s hard to think much past what to make for dinner, and dealing with all the notifications on my phone. But dealing with something as big and important as Climate change, takes a different kind of thinking.

Macy encourages us not only to remember those 7 generations in the future, encouraging us to work on their behalf, but also to remember the many generations of ancestors encouraging us, and all the gifts and resources they leave as their legacy.

Consider of the story for all ages, how one almond tree planted by her great grandmother gave Talia gifts her whole life long. The abundance we have today comes largely from those who came before. Our congregations are vital and active because of 7 generations of Unitarian Universalists who came before, who built these buildings, this tradition, these roots. Our UU ancestors gave what they could, and stewarded those gifts carefully to pass on to us. We are because they were.

But it is not just human ancestors who prepared our way. I want to tell you about the pin cherry, a tree that is giving me hope recently. The pin cherry is a tree with small cherries that birds love. The tree, like many others, relies on birds to enjoy the fruit and then to poop out the seeds as they fly. The seeds then wait in the soil until conditions to grow are ideal. For most trees the seeds are viable for about 10-15 years, but pin cherry seeds are viable for 100 years. Imagine that! if you were to see a pin cherry in the wood, it might have grown from a seed dropped by a bird before women won the right to vote! Now this I found especially poignant, what the pin cherry seeds are waiting for is a catastrophe- they are waiting for a wood to be clear cut, or a fire to clear space. then the little pin cherry leads the way for the forest to heal, to regenerate.[i] I get hope thinking of the seeds planted long ago for just such a time as this, a time when structures of our society are tumbling down. I believe there are seeds already germinating, planted by our human and non-human ancestors, that have been waiting for such a time as this.

Joanna also told us that while some changes happen gradually, there are tipping point moments, when things gather speed. She told us, back in 2005, that things we had always depended on, like the gulf stream, could be disrupted in a way that would impact weather in far of parts of the earth. This extreme cold of this weekend, for example, happened because the polar vortex and polar jet stream have been disrupted, a sudden dramatic change. [ii]

I’ve just come for the UUMA institute for learning ministry, where because our UUA president Sofia was being arrested at the Capitol for gathering with other religious leaders to pray and demand an end to funding for ICE, we instead had a training on Mass Coordinate nonviolent action.

We learned that political scientists have looked at patterns in history when a authoritarian leader emerges in a democracy. They say there is a window of about 18 months that are critical, that if 3.5% of the population becomes engaged, like really engaged, the country can return to democracy. Otherwise the decline towards fascism proceeds in a predictable way. This is the kind of time we are in- the autocratic breakthrough window.[iii]

How can we look at this turning point through the perspective of 7 generations? First we look back, to remember our ancestors. We are 9 or 10 generations away from the founding of our democracy, which sparked democracy in other countries around the world.

We look back with gratitude to the founders who fought so that we could live in a democracy, could be freed from tyranny and monarchy. When I imagine 7 generations into the future, of the children who will grow up in the world we are creating today I feel a sense of urgency, but this feels to me different from the false sense of urgency our culture sells us day by day, of urgent quotas at work, of “act now before it’s gone” sales, of a never ending stream of 30 second videos. In fact, because of the quick flickering of our attention, we might miss this critical turning point. Now is the time when we can do something about fascism. These next 4-6 months, political scientists say will be critical.

The generations past, those who struggled to regain democracy, show us that it is possible, but that the turning can only happen if many of us are involved day by day.

Minneapolis is showing us how this is done. Rev. Jo VonRue, our UU minister up in Syracuse, shared a reflection on her time in Minneapolis, writing:

“The mutual aid, the mutual support, the mutual networks in Minneapolis are incredible. San Pablo Lutheran Church, where most of the congregation does not speak English, welcomed us. They told us they pack food boxes monthly. Once a month they have free acupuncture and reiki for community members who need healing. They sneak them into the church. They have medics on site who also provide security and patrol neighborhoods.

While 200 clergy were sitting in this sanctuary, the priest said, “Oh, by the way, my folks just decided they want to feed you lunch.” For 200 people, they made soup for us. These people who are literally under siege made soup for us.

One of our Jewish colleagues was late that morning because she was taking breast milk to a woman caring for a baby. The baby’s mother was snatched out of the NICU. They don’t know where she is.

These people have the most extensive mutual aid support networks. They’re getting food to people. They have telemedicine appointments for people who absolutely cannot leave their house. People pick up prescriptions and drive them to homes. They help with childcare. They educate children who can’t leave the house. They help with transportation, moving people in secret cars, under blankets in the back.
We patrolled neighborhoods, just clergy singing on sidewalks. People were opening their window shades and waving to us. They were calling out their doors: “Thank you.” They were thanking us for walking on the street, for just being there to keep them safe. Cars patrolling would pull over and ask if we needed snacks or hand warmers.

When you ask them if this is organized, they say no. Well, kind of. They have so many Signal chats. When somebody is out patrolling and sees ICE, they call in to the dispatcher. There’s a dispatcher 24/7 on Signal. They have a log of license plates. They check to see if they can identify it as an ICE vehicle. If confirmed, a signal goes out to everybody about exactly where ICE is located. People start following them. The community comes out. People blow whistles and tell their neighbors:
ICE is here. Do not come out. Do not risk your life.

The people I met in Minneapolis are not superheroes. They are just people. They are people who decided that their values demand action. They figured out how to organize with each other. They figured out how to spot ICE vehicles. They figured out how to alert entire neighborhoods. They are feeding their neighbors and keeping them safe every single minute of every single day. 

They did what needed to be done because there is no other choice.”
This, say political scientists, is not an anomaly, the behavior of our government a is right out of the authoritarian playbook, a pattern we can see if we look back. The resistance in Minneapolis is what our ancestors have shown us is exactly what it takes to fight back; for us to refuse to comply with authoritarian practices, for us to interrupt and slow down authoritarian actions. For us to hold the line on the liberties and rights we will not allow to be taken from us. And always for us to build the alternative structures that support one another, that provide the care, the protection, the nurture every person needs.

I hope that 3000 ice agents are never deployed to our cities. But how might we be ready if they did? How can we strengthen and extend the networks of mutuality and care that we already have? Every person has gifts they can contribute to the great turning- not everyone needs to stand on a corner with a whistle; we need those who provide medical care, who cook lunch, who deliver milk. I even heard of carpenters who show up to repair doors kicked in by ICE. As Jo said these are not superheroes, these are just ordinary people doing what needs to be done.

When you imagine looking at this moment in history with the eyes of those who will follow 7 generations hence, what seems important for us to do as individuals and as a community? When the grandchildren of our grandchildren remember us, what story would you like them to tell of our time here today? What got us started? And what kept us going? Where did we find the strength to continue working so hard, despite all the obstacles and discouragements? And what joy and love did we find caring for one another, shaping a world for the generations to follow? 


 


[i] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSNFyigjSf0/

[ii] https://www.fastcompany.com/91484333/polar-vortex-2026-disruption-extreme-cold-weather-explained

[iii] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10665684.2025.2580185#d1e103

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Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Organizing for Survival


Panthers serving children free breakfast Photo by Ducho Dennis

Martin Luther King began his public leadership in 1955 with the Montgomery bus boycott, and for 10 years the civil rights movement had struggled for racial equality using nonviolent protest and boycotts. By 1966, when the Black Panther Party was forming in Oakland CA, there was a sense that something new, something more was needed. The Black Panther party began to organize for self defense against the police brutality black people were experiencing. The Black Panthers would follow the police, carrying guns and lawbooks watching police stops and arrests. [i] (a resonance with our own time). Soon the Black Panther party grew and broadened their focus to community programs.

Growing up I remember seeing images of the Black Panthers in their signature berets, their chants of black power, I never heard about the incredible acts of survival organizing they did for their communities- voter registration drives, health clinics, food distribution. Journalist Erin Blakemore writes:

“Free Breakfast For School Children was one of the most effective. It began in January 1969 at an Episcopal church in Oakland, and within weeks it went from feeding a handful of kids to hundreds. The program was simple: party members and volunteers went to local grocery stores to solicit donations, consulted with nutritionists on healthful breakfast options for children, and prepared and served the food free of charge.

School officials immediately reported results in kids who had free breakfast before school. “The school principal came down and told us how different the children were,” Ruth Beckford, a parishioner who helped with the program, said later. “They weren’t falling asleep in class, they weren’t crying with stomach cramps... At its peak, the Black Panther Party fed thousands of children per day in at least 45 programs. “[ii]
All starting with a meal in a church!

Think how hard we work to provide one meal to the community. Imagine the organizing savvy to feed people on that scale!

The Black Panther party also created medical clinics in 13 communities providing childhood vaccination clinics, and screenings for conditions like high blood pressure, lead poisoning, diabetes and Sickle Cell Anemia[iii] They had community ambulance services and legal clinics.

Part of their success was because they made connections to other organizations and worked together for change. You may remember that in 1977 during the disability rights sit in of the Federal Building in San Francisco which lasted 28 days, the black panthers rounded up food, supplies, visibility and support that allowed the dedicated disability activists to continue their sit in which ultimately open the door for modern disability rights.[iv]

For most of my life, what organizing has looked like is:
· Going to protests
· going to lobby our elected officials in their offices
· organizing letter writing campaigns

I was raised to think social justice, which was focused on changing policy was separate from community service which included things like stocking food pantries or serving a community meal., It is only in the last year I’ve begun to learn about “survival organizing” in which the two are part of one movement of resistance.

The folks who are hit hardest by oppressive policies must focus on their own survival, and have always supported one another in community to survive. The poorest people have always had to work to meet those survival needs, and have always helped one another. it is a well established fact that [v] poor folks tend to be the most generous. Folks who have known hardship know that we need one another, giving and receiving as we are able through family and kin, through friends and neighbors, through mutual aid. Surviving on the margins takes incredible ingenuity and persistence and community care.

The wisdom of the Black Panther party was that they saw and understood the gifts, the power of the folks they organized. These great groundswell movements start with a belief that our neighbors most on the edge have significant untapped political power when they begin to speak up together for their own human rights.

Survival organizing is rooted in the idea when our bellies are full we can become learn and grow and become empowered. Education was a core piece of both the Civil Rights movement of MLK, the Black Power movement, and the movement Joaquin told us about. It’s like the old saying “if you teach a man to fish” but in this version I imagine you feed a hungry person first, then hand them a fishing pole and help them learn to use it, so they can feed not only themselves but the next hungry person, so they can teach the next person how to fish.

Even that is not enough. As we are feeding one another we must listen to the stories of our neighbors and speak out to the structures of power about what is causing the hunger, what is causing the oppression our community is experiencing. The math is clear that there is plenty of food to feed everyone on planet earth. So why are people hungry? Why are people unhoused when there are vacant residences all over our cities? Together we can seek answers to those questions. By building community we build strength.

I’m sure you’ve noticed when you have been part of a community meal that relationships begin in the kitchen, at the dining table. Organizing is about growing community among the folks who are most effected and folks who want to help. Lasting organizing starts with relationship building. And this morning we are in the right place to help the network of caring grown. Much of the civil rights movement was based out of churches, because of the community we have already built together.

I wonder, in our time, what kind of organizing for the much needed social change could start with a community meal?

I think about the ABC partner meal we had recently, board members and other leaders from Athens, Binghamton and Cortland shared a potluck lunch and talked about what they were concerned about, what they were working on, and how we could help one another. We learned from one another, and we built our network of ideas and of mutual care.

Often when come together for a community meal, we approach it as 2 different groups of people - some who are there to help, and others who are there to receive help. Survival organizing turns that on its head a bit- it starts from the assumption that if we all worked together to care for one another and create social change we could be, in the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a “new and unsettling force.”

Remember what a grass roots community can do when it builds lasting relationships of support and commitment: 20,000 children fed, 13 medical clinics, neighbor helping neighbor creating a network of empowered citizens who worked for change in many areas of life, standing up to police brutality, shaping and inspiring activism to this day.

This morning we share these stories to affirm the importance of the work we are already doing, neighbor helping neighbor. Let us also set in our minds the question- how can we not only help but empower one another? How are we calling forth voices who best know what it feels like to be on the jagged edge of our society? How can we amplify and empower those voices? How can the lessons of survival organizing from our history empower us in our own communities today?

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Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Righteous Among Nations


This Image from the Visit Assisi Website
On the last day of our Pilgrimage in Assisi, we went to visit the Bishop’s house- the same place where St. Francis had, 800 years before, stripped off all his rich garments and handed them back to his father, renouncing his life as a wealthy merchant’s son. The bishop was there to affirm Francis’s choice to turn his life fully towards his religious calling.

 

This same site was the residence of the Bishop in the 20th century, when world war 2 reached this small mountain town and is now the home of the Museum of Memory, Assisi 1943-1944. The museum’s founder (2011), Marina Rosati met us at the door, and showed us a video of Don Aldo Brunacci, parish priest in Assisi, who described the day he was called into the office of Bishop Nicolini Giuseppe  He told the priest that he had received instructions from the pope that they were to help refugees in any way they could, but would have to do it quietly.  Father Aldo Brunacci headed up The Committee for Assistance , which began to collect clothing and other things the refugees would need, and a workshop was set up right there in the bishop’s residence. [i]

And indeed refugees began to arrive in Assisi, some drawn by the reputation of St. Francis. 

Right by the front door of the museum there is a big old printing press.  
The Refugees needed documents to receive their food rations, and Jewish refugees would be arrested if their identity was known. Marina told us about Luigi Brizi, who ran a small souvenir shop who with his son Trento began to forge documents for refugees, giving them Christian names, and addresses in a part of southern Italy that was not occupied.[ii] 


 As we heard in the story of Lea and her sisters, the new documents meant freedom and safety for the many who received them.[iii]

  

In one nook of the museum was a bike, and a photo of a man famous for winning the famous Tour de France cycling race twice, Gino Bartali. He hid those forged documents in his bike and would deliver them to the refugees eagerly awaiting them. Because he was a famous biker, who had to bike great distances for his training, the guards waved him through when he asked them not to search his bike which was “carefully calibrated” for racing.  

 

Mariana told us about Father Rufino Nicacci*, the Franciscan priest and Father Guardian of San Damiano convent”[iv] He helped hide 100 Jews within 26 monasteries in the small mountain town which had only about 5000 residents at the time. Bishop Nicolini headed the underground movement in Perugia province, because “Under his authority, even those religious institutions categorized as “clausura,” which were shut off from the world, were opened up to accommodate them, dressed as monks and nuns, in order to save their lives.”[v]

 

If you were here last spring you may remember the story of St. Clare, who grew up in Assisi and founded an order of women religious who take a vow of strict poverty, and of seclusion. This is how the order she founded, the Poor Clares, live even today. [slide 5] They cloister themselves off form the world, to not go out, and if they do see visitors, they do so behind a grate. [Slide 6] 

It was in one such cloister that Mother Biviglia stood before the German army and said with faith and a bit of cheeky shrewdness “here, I am ready; show me the permission because I am a cloistered nun and I cannot abandon the cloister without authorization!”

We walked, after touring the museum, down the hill to the Basilica of St. Francis, where our guide pointed to the bell tower where some refugees were hidden, then he pointed to the historic hotel next door- this was where the German officers were staying. The refugees living in the bell tower must be very quiet, waiting until the bells tolled to stretch and move and do the necessary things of life.

Imagine, the bravery it took to for the refugees, imagine the bravery of the priests and nuns and lay people who protected them, and imagine to keep all that a secret from the army occupying your city.

“One day local Fascists, who suspected church leaders of harboring Jews, stormed into Father Brunacci’s home to arrest him. [2 refugees] were visiting at the time, but the priest acted quickly, pushing them behind an open door, where they were shielded while he was taken away.

Father Brunacci was imprisoned for a time, then released to the custody of the Vatican.”[vi]

As our group of pilgrims heard the stories we could not help but see the connection to our own time and feel challenged by the bravery of this community who truly lived their faith in those dark days. We wondered if we could be so brave if a refugee journeyed to our church, having heard that we were good people hoping would offer them help. In our time, I wonder not only refugees from other countries, but people of color fleeing ICE, women in need of reproductive care, trans* and queer folks seeking the freedom to simply be who they are.

In Israel there is another museum of memory: Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. It documents the lives of the ordinary Jewish people who lost their lives in the Holocaust, and it also has a special section for people who risked their lives to save Jewish people without thought of payment or reward.

Their website tells us: “The mainstream watched as their former neighbors were rounded up; some collaborated with the perpetrators and many benefited from the expropriation of the Jews’ property. But in a world of total moral collapse there was a small minority who mustered extraordinary courage to uphold human values, risking their lives to save Jews by hiding them in their homes, providing false papers and assisting their escape…

The Righteous Among the Nations come from different countries and nationalities, and from all walks of life. They teach us that each and every person can make a difference.”[vii]

7 people from the town of Assisi were so honored. The Brizi’s and their printing press, Gino Bartali and his bike, The Bishop Giuseppe Placido Nicolini, Father Rufino Niccacci, Father Aldo Brunacci, Mother Superior Giuseppina Biviglia, Mother Superior Ermella Brandi of the Suore Stimmatine convent[viii]. Many others in that small town were surely just as brave, but with secrecy so important, many acts of compassion were not documented, and the bravery lives on only in the people they helped survive.

We have among our UU ancestors so recognized, Martha Sharp and her husband, the Rev. Waitstill Sharp who were empowered by the Unitarian Association to go to Europe and see how they could help the refugees there. They were supported by the organization that became the UU Service committee[ix], which helped as many as 3,000 people escape Europe during WWII.

As we have listened to the news this week, we have been shocked, angered, saddened by the actions of our government. We fear for those most vulnerable, we fear for our own families, our own lives. We wish there was more that we could do. These stories of those righteous souls in Assisi not only inspire me to be brave, but remind me that the small acts of ordinary people do make a difference; a cyclist hides documents in his bike. A souvenir shop owner uses his printing press to make life saving papers. Nuns who vowed to spend their lives in seclusion care for refugees hiding among them. Churches take up a collection for food and clothing for refugees. I don’t know what will be asked of us in these times, but I believe that each and every person can make a difference.


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The Story of Lea and Her Sisters

This story is shortened and adapted from the exhibit at the Museo della Memoria, Assisi 1943-1944  from an account of Lea Baruch, remembering her childhood.

My family lived in Flume, in Italy (today Rijeka Croatia). Until 1938 we had a normal and quiet life. My father, was a trader. My sisters Mira and Hella and I attended public school. We saw no contradictions between Italian Patriotism and Hebraism. Up to that time the Jews were completely integrated in the Italian society and they enjoyed full and equal civil rights.

In 1938 Mussolini, under the pressure from Hitler, introduced the Racial Laws that meant that Jews were to be purged from the party, armed forces, civil service, school and University and to be deprived of Italian passports. My father, who imported goods from abroad, was forbidden to travel and this seriously damaged his business. My sisters and I could not go to school with the other children; we went to school in the afternoon, when all other pupils were at home.

On June, 1940, a few days after Italy entered into the war on the side of Germany, my father was arrested and sent to an internment camp. Some months later, he was released... After a period spent in a small village in Southern Italy, he was allowed to reside in Trieste, so in 1942 all my family moved there.

My uncle Edo’s brother Hinko had managed to escape from Yugoslavia, but when he and his friends arrived in Italy, they were arrested and sent to Perugia. There, Hinko met a Franciscan friar, Father Michele Todde. Hinko asked if, in the case of extreme difficulty, he could help us. Father Todde agreed to do what he could. That’s the reason we decide to seek refuge in Assisi when the German occupation began.

We moved first to Perugia and there, in two rented rooms, we waited for our documents to move to Assisi. At the end of November a notice was published announcing that all the Jews resident in Perugia had to report to the police headquarters before December 8. We couldn’t wait any longer. We left for Assisi.

When we arrived, we were housed in the guest room of the Monastery of Santa Croce. The Nuns observed a strict enclosure. Contacts with the outside world were maintained by nuns who didn’t make vow of seclusion. One of them, Sister Fidele welcomed us and from that moment onwards, she provided for our needs. Shortly after we entered the convent, we met with Reverend Mother in the parlor. We were separated by two grilles. My mother thanked her for the hospitality. The old nun blessed us and expressed her hope that peace might prevail on earth.
At Christmas, the nuns invited us to attend Midnight Mass. Some German soldiers were seated in the first rows. We didn’t know what to do. We tried to imitate people seated on the other side of the chapel. Without the documents, we spent our days in constant fear of being discovered and we could not receive rations. The nuns gave us a delicious bread soup every morning. At lunchtime, my sisters brought some food from another convent.

Finally we received our documents. We became the Bartoli Family from Bolan, a small town in Southern Italy in the hands of the Allies. My new name was Leana Bartoli. The Bishop kept our original papers. With the new documents, we moved to the convent of the Stigmatines. Thanks to the false identities we were able to leave the convent for a walk. I didn’t go to school. Don Aldo provided to my studies, so I didn’t miss a school year.

On June 17, 1944 Assisi was liberated by the Allied troops. After the liberation, we decided to move to Israel. I left Assisi at the end of January. I was excited, but at the same time sad, because I was leaving all the people who had helped us.

During the period we spent in Assisi, no attempt was made to convert us to Catholicism. Bishop Nicolini, Don Aldo, Father Rufino and all the others who helped us, risking their lives, did it only because they believed it was the right thing to do, as men and as religious. 

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Sister Maria Giuseppina Biviglia - Righteous Among Nations


This story is shortened and adapted from the exhibit at the Museo della Memoria, Assisi 1943-1944

Sister Maria Giuseppina Biviglia first entered the Monastery of San Quirico in Assisi on May 13, 1922 to teach to the community how to use an electric loom, but in 1927 she made her final profession giving herself to God for all of her life. Maria Giuseppina guided the community as Abbess from 1942 – 1948.

During the years from 1943 -1944 the community saved numerous persecuted Hebrew families and political refugees from the Nazi persecution. The most dramatic day in this event was February 27, 1944 when the officials of the Gestapo presented themselves at San Quirico in order to do a search of the monastery. 

 Sr. Giuseppina recounts the situation within the cloister where refugees were staying: "Time by time these poor people were moving, some going into other lodging and some others coming to replace those moving. These were precautionary measures to lose their traces in the case of police search. But on February 27, 1944 everyone suddenly left the guest house- frightened by the following event. The day before, two of our young boys had escaped from their refuge to meet up with friends and go on a bicycle race to Perugia; but on the return trip, all the small group was suspected by certain agents of the R.S. because of the foreign accent of the young Croatian and so the entire group was arrested. During interrogation, the young Croatian, in the words of Mother Biviglia, “did not know how to act cleverly in declaring his place of living, our monastery, and so the next morning the agents appeared to do an Investigation on site, having surrounded the Monastery with their armed forces. The officials of the R.S. entered the guest rooms for the inspection after which they wanted to see me at the grill. After a painful colloquia during which the entire community were gathered together in the choir to pray, it was convenient for me to show the big dormitory that was the private place of refuge of the refugees.”

At that time 2 young Jewish brothers and Colonel Gay were sleeping in the dormitory. We had just time to let the two brothers enter the Cloister where there was a trap door that lead to an underground grotto. Meanwhile the Colonel tried to exit but was stopped in the small orchard and was conducted by the officials to the dormitory so that he could give personal information on himself and on his companions and on his motives for his presence in that place."

Besides the bed of Colonel Gay who appeared to be the sole refugee on that day, the officials found another warm bed that of one of the two brothers had abandoned it in a hurry with only time to reset the bed. Only the temperament and cold blood of Sister Giuseppina could save the two young Hebrew brothers. She recalls, "the exasperated officials threatened to bring me to prison: I responded with unusual frankness; here, I am ready; show me the permission because I am a cloistered nun and I cannot abandon the cloister without authorization!”

Thanks to the courage of Mother Giuseppina all the Hebrew refugees were able to be saved.





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