the hitchhiker’s guide: the journey forward to the ancient roots of our faith

Many people have asked me why I chose to join the Catholic church, as opposed to the Anglican church or the Eastern Orthodox. There are some very foundational reasons that I made this choice, but I want to stress at the beginning one point. I’m not trying to put down a different branch of ancient faith practice, or say that one is better than the other. I simply want to present why I chose the place I chose, and why I simply couldn’t see myself going down the other roads (as parallel as they may be).
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Written and posted by Jamison on February 28, 2008, 5:41 pm.
Filed under: General Discussion

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There has been a topic on my mind over the past several weeks as I’ve started on this journey towards Orthodox Christianity and into a life of theosis — when I become Orthodox, what becomes of my artistic expressions and what is that supposed to look like within the context of being an Orthodox Christian? And I must forewarn you, that there are far more questions in this particular entry than useful reflections or things we can all learn from. Instead, I would hope that it might generate some significant discussion that would ripple into the arts community within Catholic and Orthodox traditions — especially the latter of the two.

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Written and posted by Michael on February 27, 2008, 12:30 am.
Filed under: Culture, Orthodoxy, Transformation

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Last night we had our First Scrutiny. At it’s core, the scrutinies are an exorcism. Asking for the power of God to bring us out of the power of sin and darkness and cast evil away from us. It was a neat little ceremony, and the priest delivered the prayers well. We have two more scrutinies and then it’s ready for Easter Vigil. 

Written and posted by Jamison on February 24, 2008, 11:45 am.
Filed under: General Discussion

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At the beginning of 2006 I began my studies at a Lutheran seminary in town that was approved to train Methodist pastors. It was a seminary I had attended many, many years before and so I felt very comfortable there. I also enjoyed the fact that they had daily chapel and weekly communion, with a sense of some liturgical heritage. However, the one difficulty with this school was that it was not structured for working adults. Meaning that it was becoming harder and harder for me to find classes that fit into my schedule, since I couldn’t just give up my job to go to school.

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Written and posted by Jamison on February 18, 2008, 11:20 pm.
Filed under: Catholicism, General Discussion, Looking Back, The Journey, Transformation

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Don’t worry, I’ll be continuing my story, I simply wanted to pause for a moment to talk about some of the things that are happening right now in my journey to the Catholic faith.

In the Catholic church, you join by engaging in what are called the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). Although it’s not required for people who are already baptized, most parishes simply lump both catechumens (those who are not baptized) and candidates (those coming form other traditions) together for ease of instruction. The class runs for about nine months from Fall until Spring, meeting once a week. Every parish develops it’s own RCIA class, so there are no two churches that do it exactly the same way. However, one thing that they all share is various rites that happen throughout the course of the year. So far in our class we’ve had two different rites.

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Written and posted by Jamison on February 15, 2008, 7:54 am.
Filed under: Catholicism, General Discussion

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It seems that every time I walk out of St. George Antioch Orthodox Church — whether on a Sunday morning or at my catechumen class — I come home with more and more books to read. And anyone who knows me well, I don’t exactly finish books in a timely fashion (let alone at all). How I will manage to keep up is but a mystery… fitting as I am pursuing Orthodoxy and they’re all about mystery.

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Written and posted by Michael on February 14, 2008, 4:47 pm.
Filed under: Catechumen, Daily Walk, Orthodoxy, The Journey, Transformation

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In my last post, I left off at the point in my life where I had gotten the furthest from the Lord, and surrounded myself in darkness. However, it was also about this time that a friend of mine had become very concerned for me, and had talked to my sister, who, in turn, talked with my mom. The three of them (and, I’m sure, not a few others) began praying for me.

As it happened, the week before my mother finally confronted me about taking drugs, I was sitting on a bus coming back from a band trip to Disney World, and decided, I still don’t know why, that I didn’t want to be like I was anymore. This allowed me to be honest with my mom when she asked me if I was doing drugs, but also allowed me to say that I had already decided to quit.

I began to be more attentive in church, and even started going to a Wednesday night prayer meeting. Slowly, through this, and through the death of a friend of mine while we were swimming (which caused me to realize I had never spoken to him about Christ and didn’t know where he was), God was drawing me back to Himself. However, I still had some sinful habits that, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t let go of. (more…)

Written and posted by Matt on February 11, 2008, 8:48 am.
Filed under: Communicant, General Discussion, Looking Back, Orthodoxy, Our Roots, The Journey

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When we left the story, I had just started Seminary in 2002. I also took this time to immerse myself in the Evangelical™/Charismatic church that I was attending. Playing on worship team, sitting on staff meetings and doing a small internship. I was very firmly planting myself in the Evangelical™ stream and seeking out where it was that God was calling me to be when I graduated. I was barreling full steam ahead, not really knowing what lay at the end.
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Written and posted by Jamison on February 9, 2008, 3:25 pm.
Filed under: Catholicism, General Discussion, Looking Back, Our Roots

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To begin, I should give some background of who I am and where I’ve been. I was born in Illinois, and at the time my mom baptized me in a Catholic church. However, shortly after that my mom fell away from the faith for a period of time and it wasn’t until I was six years old that I had any other real exposure to a religious setting. When I was 6 my mom sent me off to the local churches Summer Youth program.

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Written and posted by Jamison on February 8, 2008, 11:37 am.
Filed under: General Discussion, Looking Back, Our Roots

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Hello, ya’ll, and, as Jamison said, welcome to my story. Like Jamison, I plan to post my story in parts. I expect I will probably use three parts, though I haven’t outlined everything yet, and I may have to extend to four. Before we get into all the gritty details, I though I’d like to introduce myself.

Online, I go by the handle ‘coderforchrist.’ This gives a small amount of info about me: I am a computer geek, programmer, and a Christian. I’m the youngest of the four here, being (as of this writing) in my mid 20’s, and graduated from college a few years ago with a B.S. in Computer Science. Despite my youth relative to the other authors here, I am the only one of us four who has, currently, completed Catechism and been received into the Church (I was received into the Orthodox Church by Holy Chrismation on May 20, 2007). Having been Orthodox for only less than a year, I often feel like an infant learning to walk. Orthodoxy is not something you do on Sundays; it demands your entire life (as it should). Likewise, our Tradition does not merely govern how we worship in Church (or even merely how we pray at home); it is a way of life. There is so much to learn, but, at the same time, there is also so much help. Why this is appealing to me is something I hope to explore as we continue this blog.

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Written and posted by Matt on February 5, 2008, 11:32 am.
Filed under: Communicant, General Discussion, Looking Back, Orthodoxy, Our Roots, The Journey

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My first Sunday as a catechumen was most certainly a different feeling for me than before when I was attending and admiring from afar. Instead,

CONTENT LOST DUE TO INJECTION ATTACK

Written and posted by Michael on February 4, 2008, 2:07 pm.
Filed under: Catechumen, Looking Back, Orthodoxy, The Journey

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Greetings and welcome to my story. I wanted to take a brief moment to introduce myself, and to set the stage for how I’m going to tell my tale. Each of our stories is unique, but in one particular way, mine is different. Of the four of us writing, I’m the only one who has decided to go Roman Catholic, the rest deciding to commune with the various Orthodox churches. However, even though we’re taking different paths backwards towards ancient faith, we all share the same underlying desire to return to the roots of Christianity and of the Church.
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Written and posted by Jamison on February 4, 2008, 12:20 am.
Filed under: Catholicism, General Discussion, Our Roots

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As they say, “today is the first day of the rest of my life.” It’s a bit melodramatic, sure, but going to my first catechumen class today was a huge step for me — it’s saying, “yes, I want to be a learner of the Orthodox faith, that I might align myself to you and be in communion with you.”

Our first class was really more of an informative session, where Father Tom shared about the meaning and symbolism of all the imagery within the sanctuary. It was quite impressive to hear of all the deep meaning behind what things were placed where and why they appeared where they did. As he said, nothing is where it is just because it looks nice — there is meaning for everything here.

Of course there is no way that I could have hoped to remember everything he said — I’m getting older and brain capacity isn’t what it used to be, so it’s harder to retain all the information he shared. But that said, there were a few things I pulled from it that I was hoping to understand, and now have walked away knowing more.

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Written and posted by Michael on February 2, 2008, 1:27 pm.
Filed under: Catechumen, Orthodoxy, The Journey

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As I’ve discovered in reading and hearing the stories of others on their journey towards a life of Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism, there are vastly different stories but the themes usually resonate in harmony — people are hungry for an authentic faith that can be traced to the time of Christ; a faith that looks like the first century Church.

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Written and posted by Michael on February 1, 2008, 11:54 am.
Filed under: Looking Back, Orthodoxy, Our Roots

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Greetings one and all, and welcome to The Hitchhiker’s Guide (THG), a website re-purposed to track the journey of a few people as they make the journey back to the roots of their faith.

Originally THG was a website that showcased articles on life and Christian spirituality and had a long run since its inception in early 1997. All the old articles have been removed, but are available upon special request if you are looking for one in particular.

But as with all other things, life changes and brings about perspectives that we either knew not existed or has a way of changing our heart and our mind to see things from a much different light source. What you will read here is about the pursuit of the roots of our faith in Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism — the faith before the reformation.

With protestant Christianity continuing to splinter into more and more shards of disunity and finite foundations, there is a movement among the West to seek out the roots of our faith. There seems to be this great search for authentic Christianity without the commercialized and consumerist trappings we have come to expect from many churches in the West; and we are among the many on that search to find the roots of our faith.

Over the coming weeks you will have the opportunity to meet those on this journey and will get to read their stories along the way and participate with us in discussion. And in the process, we hope that we can help you find your way back, too.

Written and posted by Michael on February 1, 2008, 10:13 am.
Filed under: General Discussion, Our Roots

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