Constantine?

Constantine,

Fill me in on yourself a bit. Why the name? I saw the movie last week--what were your thoughts? Or are you taking Emperor C's name?

Exposed to the Light

What will you do? What will you do when THE ONE to whom all hearts are open , all desires known, and to whom no secrets are hid, sees you for who you are? Will you take the cup of living water or will you return to the muddy cisterns of darkness? -Fr. Timothy

Doxa

The Choir of Saints has discovered the fountain of life and the door to Paradise. May I also find the way through repentance. I am the sheep that is lost: O Savior, call me back and save me.

For example: Ignatius of Antioch

"Let me be fodder for wild beasts--that is how I can get to God. I am God's wheat and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts to make a pure loaf for THE ONE . I would rather that you fawn on the beasts so that they may be my tomb and no scrap of my body be left. Thus, when I have fallen asleep, I shall be a burden to no one. Then I shall be a real disciple of THE ONE when the world sees my body no more."

A man truly unplugged from the Matrix

'Ionnas

The light has come into the world, and men loved darkenss rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God

Must One be Paleo?

Padwon was concerned about how to unplug the church from the Matrix. Must we become paleo? The answer is a qualified yes. Part of our captivity is due to our inability to see beyond our own cultural (or sub-cultural) shackles.

To be paleo is not to be attracted to 'all things musty and dusty,' it is to breathe in the wisdom of the ancients. You are right in saying that even the earliest Christian communities were in turmoil. However, the 'church' is not only the present day pew-sitter of a given era, it is the people from all times and all places whose primary calling in life was to be a light shining in the darkness. As Fr. Maximos says in Markides book The Mountain of Silence, "While we are in the dark not only do we assume that it is the natural state of things but that it is also beautiful."

The church will always be filled with sinners redeemed by Christ. But there are those among us and those before us who saw the darkness for what it was, not as something beautiful, or as the natural state of things, but a mere shadow of the Eternal City. These are the ones we should listen to. These are the ones who bid us to come back to our original intent--continuous contemplation of the One--that we are so full of the light of the One, that the Church, and hence the world are forever changed.

Islam?

An even bigger question--is Islam part of the Matrix?

Mundaka Upanisad 2.2.5

"In him are woven the sky and the earth and all the regions of the air, and in him rest the mind an all the powers of life. Know him as the ONE and leave aside all other worlds. He is the bridge of immortality' (Mascaro 79).

The wise men in the East seek him...Do you?

Is neo-Gnosticism part of the Matrix?

Mr. Condon, I am impressed with your words. You sound like Morpheus. Morpheus will not steer you wrong Padowan.

To change topics, let's jump in with both feet. What is the role of neo-Gnosticism in the Matrix? It seems to me that the secular obsession with 'spirituality' is kind of a Gnosticism reborn. Let me explain. 2nd Century Gnositicm was a spurious version of Christianity that said the One was not truly human, but some sort of phantom. They said this because they thought the material world was inferior to the spiritual ('luminous beings are we, not this crude matter').

The rebirth of Gnosticism takes many forms. The most popular is the form that says the early church made up the doctrines of the One to make itself more powerful (see the Davinci Code and and of Elaine Pagels works), and that the 'real' One taught peace, justice and spiritual wisdom (which He did)over and against any claims to be the Son of God (Sorry neo-Gnostics, he did that too).

My question, seekers of truth, is why are the heterodox views of the One prevalant today?