The Meaning of the Matrix w/ The Church Fathers

The Matrix at 25 Years I Being Healed From Anger I Catholic/Orthodox Dialogue I Dormition Fast

It is hard to believe that it has been 25 years since the release of The Matrix! I have always been a big fan of the trilogy (the 4th installment ‘Resurrections’ was a sad departure). Not only was the film entertaining and daring, but I also found many intersections between its themes and the overall Christian story. Of course, Neo is ‘The One’ or the Messiah figure who liberates the captivated human race from dark forces, both personal and impersonal. However, it took me many years to begin seeing the connections between the world of the Matrix with the world of the church fathers. I will share one article with you today that really summarizes many of these connections “The Matrix As An Archetype of Christian Cosmology.” The article covers a lot of terrain, but I believe there are still many other themes that could be addressed which I will likely do in a future video or article.

Dealing with Destructive Anger

In our new Sunday Sermon series, Fr. Patrick addresses the topic of anger. I found his homily to be deeply practical and relevant to our relationships (in the home, workplace, parish, and even online). If we are walking around angry all of the time, then we are in need of great healing. We must first identify the causes (often with the help of others such as friend or spiritual father) and then pursue the remedies that are discussed by our Lord, the apostles, and the fathers.

Responding to ‘Older’ Scholarship on Catholic/Orthodox Church History

I recently made a video in response to an older, Catholic book that is being republished today for newer audiences who are interested in Orthodox church history. Although the book is accurate in many of its details, I have also found it greatly lacking and outdated at key junctures of church history. This is very important in the Roman Catholic/Orthodox dialogue and so I present concerns about the polemical nature of the work as well as some of its misleading claims that modern scholarship has either debunked or revised. Whatever your views are of church history, I hope you find the video helpful in navigating the Catholic/Orthodox dialogue.

Dormition/Assumption (of Mary) Fast

Lastly, the Dormition/Assumption Fast begins this Thursday and lasts until August 15th when Christians commemorate the Blessed Virgin Mary and Holy Theotokos (God-bearer) passing from this life into the next in both body and soul. I encourage all Western Christians (Catholics & Protestants) to join Orthodox Christians in keeping this fast as they once did. Pope Nicholas I in the 9th century describes this fast along with the other fasting seasons when he states,

“The sacred decretals, namely during Lent, which is before Easter, on the fast before Pentecost, at passages in which we believe not without reason that not only a man but also a woman is blessed, who does not walk in the counsel of the impious and who fears the Lord… the fast before the assumption of the holy mother of God and the ever virgin Mary, ourLady, as well as on the fast before the feast of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ: these are the fasts which the holy Roman church received in antiquity and maintains.”

One Orthodox mother gives us a very important reminder, “We don’t fast out of our perfection, out of our readiness, out of our wholeness. Instead, we fast because we are broken and we need Christ.”

Have a blessed Monday!

Kyle