May 2010
2 posts
5 tags
Distilling the question of purpose & self worth
In my last post, I opened up a dialogue about where we draw our sense of worth from, especially with making the journey from an Evangelical perspective to one of the ancient faith of Orthodoxy. I don’t have any answers, and in fact I think my list of questions continues to expand the more I think about this. But after evaluating everything and processing things out loud in a dialogue with...
6 tags
So what now?
Although I was raise Lutheran, my roots in the evangelical way of life ran pretty deep — I was consumed by anything and everything that was of the church. I was vivaciously active, “leading worship” wherever they would have me, going on retreats, leading bible studies, and consuming anything that I could get my hands on that would help reinforce the faint idea that God loved me and...
February 2010
1 post
3 tags
Book Review: Orthodox Christians in America: A...
I picked up Orthodox Christians in America: A Short History a while ago and finally got a chance to finish it off last night. This is a very quick and fast read about the history of the Orthodox Church in America (only about 100 pages of narrative text). One of the unique things about Orthodoxy in America is that it’s still very tied to the “mother churches” in other parts of the world. Often...
September 2009
1 post
2 tags
Healthcare and the Christian
NOTE, the contents of this post are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of other authors on this site.
Today on a walk, I was listening to a podcast from a Franciscan friar about the history of Catholic hospitals. This again started prodding some thoughts in my head, that have been ruminating there for a while, about the topic of a Christian response to the...
July 2009
3 posts
4 tags
Orthodoxy and the Culture Club
I apologize in advance, knowing full well that I will probably make a few unorthodox statements and probably ruffle more than a few feathers — I’m sorry, really. But indulge me for a few minutes and allow me to be quite frank. There’s a long overdue vent that requires being thrown out into some ones and zeros and let people ruminate on.
It seems you can take the Orthodoxy out of the...
4 tags
The sum of the parts
I won’t lie — I’ve neglected my contributions to The Hitchhiker’s Guide [psst… and I’m the admin]. In fact, because I felt like I had nothing to say or to contribute to the discussion of the ancient faith, I didn’t say anything at all.
It was probably better that way.
I met with my long-time friend Jamison for lunch, huddled in an excessively air-conditioned diner, drinking...
2 tags
First Eastern Experience
This past Sunday I had the honor of being able to experience the Eastern liturgy for the first time. Michael’s child was being baptized, and even though the baptism doesn’t take place during the liturgy, we were all invited to attend the liturgy beforehand. I decided to take them up on the invitation and see just how different the Eastern liturgy is, and so I thought I’d document some very...
February 2009
1 post
2 tags
Lenten Discipline
Reposted from Boolah
In the season on Lent, Christians are called upon to focus themselves on Christ’s sacrifice for us in the upcoming Passion, by engaging in some form of spiritual discipline. We’re all familiar with the traditional avenues this usually takes, such as picking something to give up for Lent, and the traditional Catholic discipline of no-meat on Fridays. However, many times we...
September 2008
1 post
2 tags
Orthodoxy and earthly distractions
It’s been an interesting summer — obviously having taken the summer off from writing in HHG with April being my last posted entry — and I’ve walked away with a few observations about Orthodoxy, culture, and plenty of introspective conclusions about myself and the life I lead.
In April I was charismated into the Orthodox Church and set out on a new journey as they say, a life-long journey of...
April 2008
1 post
4 tags
Almost there, almost
Tonight we celebrated the lamentation service of our Lord, where throughout a beautiful and ornately decorated setting, we expressed our lament of Christ’s death through spoken words, through sung lamentations, and in the candlelit sanctuary processed under an icon of Christ’s body representing our passing into death as did Christ — an expression of sharing in His sufferings and His death.
...
March 2008
5 posts
3 tags
Orthodoxy and culture: what is the fullness of the...
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...
2 tags
He is Risen!
Tonight was the night! At the Easter Vigil tonight I was welcomed into the Roman Catholic Church! My son also took his first communion with me. It was an amazing service (even though it was over 2 hours long) and I’m not too “manly” to admit that I had tears in my eyes as I saw the Eucharist consecrated for the first time for me. I felt such a huge feeling of release and comfort as I took the...
4 tags
Fighting the passions
We all have great intentions — I know I do anyway. I have great aspirations of maintaining strict disciplines, like a rule of prayer, fasting from certain passions, and even cultivating some of the artistic gifts I’ve been given. But the problem is that my passions (as known by the Orthodox; different from a passion for music, for example) are not passive and do not sit back and allow me to...
2 tags
Holy Week
This week is the culmination for me in my journey to the Catholic faith. Tonight begins the Triduum, the three holy days of the church year. It begins tonight with the commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist, then tomorrow night with a Tenebrae service where the lights are slowly extinguished. Then on Saturday night begins the Easter Vigil. This is a long (2.5 hours) service where the...
3 tags
The church is not a museum piece
In my previous posting, I had laid a spread of questions on the table regarding the arts and Orthodoxy and my frustration with no contemporaries to look to for guidance, inspiration, and fellowship. These frustrations are accentuated by the idea that there is a fullness of the arts that ought to be created, expressed, and shared with the world, a fullness that just isn’t that prevalent in...
February 2008
10 posts
4 tags
Why Rome
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...
First Scrutiny
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.
3 tags
Wesley Brings me Home
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...
2 tags
Various Rites
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...
4 tags
The daily journey in prayer, reading and...
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.
...
2 tags
Rise of the Ancient Faith
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...
3 tags
Wither the Protestant
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...
2 tags
Story of a Tiber-jumper – Introduction
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...
2 tags
Starting out on the road ahead as a catechumen
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...
3 tags
Where I’ve come from: my context
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.
I grew up ELCA Lutheran — it was boring to me,...