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

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.

It was one of the most beautiful services that I have been to in a long time — the sanctuary was dimly lit, candles lighting up various areas of the alter, and an ornately decorated arc-like structure covered in roses, washed over in candlelight, and containing the cross of Christ, symbolizing his burial into the tomb.

The service was nearly two and a half hours, and with just twelve hours before I become christened into the Orthodox Church, I honestly felt like I have not sufficiently prepared myself for this moment.

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Written and posted by Michael on April 26, 2008, 12:05 am.
Filed under: Catechumen, Orthodoxy, The Journey, Transformation

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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 just lay my stake in the ground and claim it done. Unlike Evangelicalism™ which generally professes a transactional version of salvation — an event that happens, and then you’re saved — I am finding that maintaining and working out this gift of salvation and becoming more like God is going to be a long, slow, and arduous process, requiring much patience, faith, endurance, and above all humility.

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Written and posted by Michael on March 20, 2008, 1:29 pm.
Filed under: Culture, Daily Walk, Orthodoxy, Transformation

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This morning I was ceremonially welcomed and prayed for as a catechumen into the Orthodox karten spieletexas holdem regelnonline games kostenlos pokeronline poker anbieterpoker jetzt spielenabsolut poker bonuspoker regeln downloadpoker online gratuitopoker game onlinepoker on line gratuitopoker online legalegiocare poker onlinepoker tour gameworld poker tournamentpoker online flashstreep poker gratisgiochi online pokergiochi poker da scaricarestreap pokerpoker pc gratispoker room on lineguida poker onlinegiochi di carte pokerpoker tour ps2probabilità pokergioco poker on line gratissuper poker comforum poker on lineforum poker onlinegioco da pokeromaha poker gratispoker online gamesplay omaha pokercasino poker gratisnoble pokerpoker texanofive card studgame pokertexas holdem romagiochi on linesoftware cartegiochi poker per pcplay poker onlinesexy poker onlineworld pokereuropean poker tourregole gioco pokergiochi 7 card studtexas holdem flashgiochi gratis video poker faith; and with tears welling up in my eyes I finally felt like I was nearer and nearer to finding and coming home to where I feel God has been drawing me. And what is even more exciting to me, I am finding a few answers to questions that I have had going into this journey from the very beginning.

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Written and posted by Michael on March 9, 2008, 1:24 pm.
Filed under: Catechumen, Culture, Orthodoxy, Transformation

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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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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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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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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, now I am an active participant in the liturgy with the rest of the church and my mindset has changed a bit, too — I go because I am there to worship the living God as was prescribed by the apostles. And it is in this context of worship that I pour my heart out to God in quiet prayer and contemplation, I take in every word of the liturgy as sustenance, and I ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to make me more in the image of God [theosis would be the term the Orthodox use] and to follow Him with all my mind, soul, strength and heart †.

But what particularly intrigued me was a conversation that I had with a new friend (and potential Godfather) over the coffee hour that followed. We talked extensively about many things — the Virgin Mary, conversion from a protestant life, feast days, family, and to some extent the comparison between protestantism and Orthodoxy as being cups of different sizes and degrees of completion.

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

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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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