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I’ve always wanted to know the truth about things. The truth is Christ. And the only place to find Christ is in His Church. Just as Christ cannot be divided, neither can His Church. There is only one Church, and that is the one founded by Christ and His Apostles. It’s the Church we read about in the New Testament, and only one Church can credibly profess to be so – that is, the Orthodox Church.
I had different ideas and beliefs about God for the first 38 years of my life before I found the Church. These ranged from “big bang” atheism, on the one end, to a kind of “spiritual” agnostic paganism on the other. At no point did I ever believe in Christ, because I bought into the mainstream culture’s ridicule of what I understood the Christian faith to be: It made no sense to me why God would need to have a son and send Him into the world to save us, and I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of a scornful joke by some anti-religious comedian with a show on late night TV. However, that understanding of the “faith” was based on western, non-Orthodox Christianity, which is shallow, incomplete, and — crucially — false.
A friend introduced me to the Orthodox Church, and it provided a deep, thorough, meaningful explanation of the faith which actually made sense, even in my skeptical, doubting mind. Only through the Orthodox Church did I come to know the real Christ: Christ is the truth and the Church is a revelation of that truth. Even better is that the heart of that truth is the incomprehensible love God has for humanity (His children), and the eternal life He will bestow upon those who love Him.
I always wanted to understand the universe, how we got here, what the true (but hidden) nature of our existence is, and where we’re going from here. I have not only learned this truth from the Church, but experienced it in real and unmistakable ways since opening my heart to Christ. Aside from that, the parish here at Sts. Constantine and Helen is an absolute love-fest, and a family. It’s not like a second home, but the only place I feel at home. I wish everybody experiences the blessings I have come to receive through the Church.
John
