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

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 Lord’s Body and Blood for the first time as a Catholic Christian.

I’m home Lord, I’m home….

Written and posted by Jamison on March 22, 2008, 10:01 pm.
Filed under: Catholicism, General Discussion, The Journey, Transformation

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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 entire Salvation History is recounted and new members like myself are given the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Communion. I’m looking forward to this weekend, even if the services will end up being long. This is where it all comes together for me and I finally feel like I’m coming home.

Written and posted by Jamison on March 20, 2008, 12:21 pm.
Filed under: General Discussion

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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 America. And it’s the idea of that fullness that has put a desire in me to find answers, and God willing, be a part of the awakening of the arts in the Orthodox church in America.

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Written and posted by Michael on March 3, 2008, 2:02 pm.
Filed under: Culture, General Discussion, Orthodoxy

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Where I last left off, I had been seriously following the Lord in the Baptist church for only a few months when I dealt with a serious struggle for assurance of my salvation. Despite the Evangelical insistence on 100% assurance, I had finally come to the conclusion that I had to keep serving Christ as best I could, and trust in Him that, if I wasn’t saved, He would save me.

Over the next four years, I did this. I served the Lord in a number of ministries at church: orchestra, visitation, the high school (and afterwards, college) mid-week Bible study, etc. I was a leader in an evangelistic club my last year of high school, and was involved in the other Christian groups. When I went to college, I went to both the Baptist Student Union meetings and the Campus Crusade for Christ meetings, until finally settling in just the BSU. Based on what others said of me, it would seem I was respected in my church groups. I’ve even had it suggested to me that I should become a pastor. As those four years went on, though, I found myself moving further and further from the accepted doctrines of my church. In fact, before I graduated college, I began to be criticized for various things I said and did. (more…)

Written and posted by Matt on March 2, 2008, 2:24 pm.
Filed under: General Discussion

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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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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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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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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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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

2 Comments