1. FAITH RELOADED
10/25/2003
The Matrix movies are NOT movies I like
Indeed I avoided them at all costs for a long time
I am not into sci-fi, nor am I high tech to the max
However a student of mine who was studying for his MA in Theology and was also teaching High School religion told me that I had to watch the first
He went so far as providing me with the DVD – free!
Guess what? I didn’t understand what it was going on about most of the time but I was drawn into the whole paradoxical thing that rises again and again through the movie
I decided to do some reading about the whole thing
TOWARDS A FAITH MATRIX FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY

2. FAITH RELOADED A FAITH MATRIX FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY
10/25/2003
A FAITH MATRIX
FOR
YOUNG PEOPLE
TODAY
What I would like to present to you today is something of the fruit of my reflection
I offer this not as something that has all the answers but as something that can get us all thinking and sharing our own thoughts and ideas
I feel the movies have a message
Will I rush out to Part 3 on November 5th
Well that’s for you to guess
TOWARDS A FAITH MATRIX FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY

3. FAITH RELOADED A headline of a recent Rolling Stone article
10/25/2003
The Disease is Adolescence: and the symptoms are Violence, Suicide, Drugs, Alcohol, Car Wrecks and Poverty
Chronologically adolescence extends from ages eleven to seventeen and on
Early adolescence (to 12) – ceases looking backwards and reworking a familial past
Middle adolescence (13-15)
Late adolescence (15-17 and onwards) – begins to look and move towards the future
From the standpoint of the larger social system, adolescent behavior is often best understood as a symptom of the larger society and not primarily as an invasion of it
Adolescents disclose in bold type and vivid colors the latent patterns of social disorganization that lurk always under the surface of polite society
In confronting adolescent behavior, adults must confront outwardly what they are continually dealing with internally in their personal, family and institutional lives
Adolescent behavior is a two edged sword:
what appears to be social non-conformity is often a dramatization of the underside of the large-scale social conformity
Adolescent identity is built on:
Body axis
Ideological axis
Authority axis
Love axis
Work axis
On all of these axes the adolescent t ego is striving for a balance that transcends the extreme of rigidity on the one hand and diffusion on the other
When balance is achieved, diffusion becomes flexibility, and rigidity becomes reliable ego boundaries
A headline of a recent Rolling Stone article
TOWARDS A FAITH MATRIX FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY

4. Reflected in calling the present younger generation...
...faithless!

5. “Young people, I see you as the sentinels of the dawn of a new hope...”
...Pope John Paul II
July 4, 2001

6. WHY TWO SUCH OPPOSING VIEWS?
FAITH RELOADED
10/25/2003
WHY TWO SUCH OPPOSING VIEWS?
Society =
all that
is negative
Church =
all that
brings hope
Society tends to translate the energy and enthusiasm and desire for freedom of the human spirit as a threat to the world they have created and they are trying to maintain at times against all odds
In other words the first statement is a defensive one
As people look at young people and their desire to be free they see at times the things that they deny in themselves – the propensity to violence, to despair, to a lack of love and they speak out of their discomfort over the compromises they have made
You unnerve the older generation with your idealism and search for truth, with your desire for love
The Pope’s view instead is one regarding all these things within you
It is a different vision – one that sees within the human heart and seeks to acknowledge what the human spirit is calling forth from within you
TOWARDS A FAITH MATRIX FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY

7. Messenger of destruction?
So who are you?
Messenger of destruction? Or
Sentinel of hope?

8. What makes the difference?

9. and the choices I make that is what makes the difference!
The way I see things...
The way I envision life
and the choices I make that is what makes the difference!

10. What should I do? Do I choose life of death?
FAITH RELOADED
10/25/2003
What should I do? Do I choose life of death?
There is much in the world that is good but there is also much that is evil.
It is a MATRIX
Goodness brings life!
Evil brings death.
TOWARDS A FAITH MATRIX FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY

11. What is Life? Ultimately the answer to that question is a FAITH
FAITH RELOADED
10/25/2003
What is Life?
Ultimately the answer
to that question
is a
FAITH
response.
Faith is a set of beliefs
Faith is a verb
Faith is about action
Faith is what I have set my heart on
TOWARDS A FAITH MATRIX FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY

12. FAITH
is where
my heart is.

13. . F A I T H S . F A I T H . G I F T , V E R B . . C H O I E
F a i t h a s Ma t r I x

14. The Faith Matrix Spirituality Community Attitude to life Identity
(living consciously)
Identity
Service

15. “Choosing” the Faith Matrix
belong
be happy
Love
believe
be for others

16. 4 ways to “reload” the Faith Matrix
Belong to church
Find the fun
Spirituality: Living in love
Believe in yourself
Reach out to others