This quote from your piece is, I think, quite wise:
" the only way to respond to it is to stop thinking about it, and instead to pay attention to what is in front of you, and act with sacrificial love.”
Another way, perhaps, of "now seeing through a glass darkly, but then face to face” (1 Cor 13). One thing which has been apparent to me for awhile is that despite change of residence, as Christians we are always, in a way, exiles because the ruler of this world is not (yet) Christ.
Your blog has many fellow exiles but citizens of Heaven. It is comforting to consider how glorious it will be when we all meet there. (still praying for you and your tough family situation).
4:30 AM here in Kansas City, Missouri, 3° F windchill -15. I think, heavy snow… Worried about one of the stray kitty cats, I feed and help take care of. I pray that she’s safe.
Even though I don’t always agree with you, I respect you and appreciate your writing… This was especially good, and I’ve always do like hearing about the book you’re reading, or have read. Prayers to you, may you find sleep the next time you try, go ahead and have a coffee though :-)
I’ve been reading W. Somerset Maugham’s short stories… One of my favorites is Ashenden -the gentleman spy. And I was actually listening to a BBC radio drama of it, which is excellent, and then the beginning he talks about the character meeting with the Colonel and the spy service that recruits him. And at the end of the first interview where they hire him to be a spy the Colonel has one last thing to say to him. :
"The Razor's Edge" is a favorite of mine. The 1946 film with Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb and Herbert Marshall is excellent. Anne Baxter won Best Supporting Actress as Sophie Macdonald.
The Bill Murray version is interesting but the semi-comedic parts aren't part of the flavor of the novel. The section where Murray(Larry Darrell" is an ambulance driver with Brian-Doyle Murray(Piedmont) is very good. Theresa Russell plays a fine Sophie Macdonald.
Yes, Maugham was an excellent writer. “Of Human Bondage” was, however, close enough to my own experience that it haunted - haunts - me like a nightmare (which is, I suppose, a backhanded compliment to the writer!). In the film version of “The Painted Veil” Edward Norton and Naomi Watts give, I think, two of their finest performances.
"I’ve never met anyone who was shamed or insulted into joining a particular church, or returning to one he has left."
For what it's worth, I do know a lot of people whom, I think, stay within their church because of shame, fear of rejection, fear of insult/condescension, etc. It may be that, subconsciously, this attitude is more about keeping sheep within the fold than bringing people back.
Three major ancient divisions of Christian faith and innumerable subsequent Protestant denominations all rely on the same Scriptures. They all possess that Truth. So, which of them is the true faith?
It is true of course that Catholics and Orthodox endorse 72 books, so six that are not accepted by Protestants, and the Coptic churches endorse 83. But we all agree on 66, and the rest don't seem to be critically important.
The issue then does not seem to be the Scriptures endorsed by these groups. The issue is elsewhere amongst those that don’t endorse the Scriptures. Why, because they believe the Scriptures are nonsense. They don’t believe there is any God who inspired the Scriptures.
This is what is new and the source of the political issues that consume most.
I became Catholic because I wanted to impress a girl I wanted to go out with. She didn’t go out with me, but I stayed Catholic. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
At age 25, I converted from serious Protestantism—as a devout Evangelical—to Roman Catholicism. I had been raised to believe Catholics went to heaven but were taught major error, hence the necessity of Protestantism.
My conversion was **both** intellectual and experiential. I want to stress that.
The first time I attended Mass was as a graduate student on TCU's campus. When the Nicene Creed was recited, I simply knew. The article we're discussing, written by an Evangelical, claims "Former Catholics often say they attended Mass for years and never once heard the gospel." They can say that, but the Nicene Creed *is* the gospel.
(Of course, no offense intended to brothers and sisters in Christ here who are Protestant.)
Intellectually, I knew my choice: Remain outside, protesting imperfect teaching, or, recognizing no church is perfect, join the original church (yes, I knew the history). Experientially, I knew from the first Mass that Christ is really present in the Sacraments. I loved His presence. Yes, He is omnipresent, and yes, He comes into hearts in a special way for all who accept Him, Catholic or Protestant alike. But His Real Presence in the Sacraments, such as the Eucharist, was something I knew experientially. My Baptist and later non-denomination Charismatic upbringing did not teach this, nor invoke His presence in Sacraments.
The day after that Mass, I bought City of God. I realized there was a whole world of saints and tradition I had missed. After completing the initiation classes, I was received into the Catholic Church.
The “I never heard the Gospel at Mass” trope is so common on Twitter (probably most of it coming from rage bots), and it’s about the most ridiculous criticism of the Catholic Church I can think of.
Yes - and I think maybe they mean they did not hear the words "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." (these are not magic words, and the same thing can be explained with different words)
- - My Catholic Charismatic community members do talk with other Catholics about actualizing the grace of baptism, about praying and talking with God often through the day, about a relationship. - - Yes, people can believe and just think Jesus was God and a person in history, now in heaven, without daily, in many moments, thinking of and talking with him. - - but they should read people like St. Teresa of Avila on this subject. It is Catholic to know the gospel and it is Catholic to have a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Linda, what does it mean to be a Charismatic Catholic? I dated a young woman about a year before I met my wife and she called herself a Charismatic Catholic.
T Y for the question. You ask something very close to my heart, though I may not have the words.
Theologically, first - Charismatic renewal speaks of the infilling - the baptism - of the Holy Spirit, as discussed in Scripture. The belief is certainly not that others Christians are sure not have this infilling. As I once said to Rod, yes I am Charismatic but I do not believe I have an experience called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that you do not have. And of course Rod had actualized the grace of his confirmation, this infilling. But actualizing this relationship, or even asking for the infilling is important and has not been stressed in many formal parish churches.
Scripture talks about Christ baptizing us with the Holy Spirit. That happened on the day of Pentecost. The clearest reference to this being separate from (water) baptism is in Acts 8 - 14: "Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)"
This actualizes the grace of confirmation, just as we, when we can understand it, actualize the grace of our baptism by asking the forgiveness of Christ and acknowledge with thankfulness his dwelling in our hearts, expressing faith in all that is in the Creed.
There are also the gifts of the Spirit, which Catholic Charismatics - and the Catholic Church itself - believe did not die out. Romans 12:6–8, 1 Corinthians 7-11.
I find the worship beautiful and meaningful. I do not find it happy clappy, though we can approach the Lord in various ways - joy, deep reverence, repentance, deep gratitude - it depends on the worship, particularly on the song.
Charismatic communities are support in the faith. We meet regularly, not just attending Mass and going home. We know needs, pray for one another, help one another. My community here in Budapest also has a ministry to the poor. We try to live out the life Christ calls us to. I may fail at this time and again but I ask the grace of the Holy Spirit to be a good and faithful servant.
Many past Popes have written very positively about the Charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church.
Ironically, this woman married late in life and moved to The Villages in Florida. She was a good woman but we were a bad fit because I wasn't religious at the time.
Thank you Derek. By the way, I was just DMing with a Hungarian Catholic from the Charismatic Catholic community here. I told him of the question. He first said, "It is easy. To have a real relationship with the Holy Spirit. Not just with the Father and the Son. There are some Bible verses, what can be seen from those, who are fulllfilled with the Holy Spirit. - If they would ask me, I would say, it is somewhat more deeper relationship with God. Plus serving the Lord a lot stronger. Or in some cases just start to serve the Lord and spread (speak about) the gospel." - Then he almost started writing a research paper, - it was great, various saints and popes were going to appear - but it would be ready tomorrow (late here and he has the flu) soi told him the commentary is mostly only seen the first day.
Yes, beautiful! And we have Latin Mass here in Budapest - it is common in Novus Ordo and we have TLM (down on the main shopping street in a church there, of all places). - But Mass in Hungarian, the Creed, the Gloria, the Sanctus, the Angus Dei. Knock me over! The beauty!
And I believe I understand something of the translation issue - I'm happy with Mass that people can understand and those understanding Latin can go to that one, of course, if they wish. (or they might occasionally wish to without understanding) There, in Latin, the words mean exactly - never just approximately but exactly - what they originally said.
Plus Latin is aesthetically beautiful - though Hungarian much more so I think :) But I think Hungarian for worship is near mind-blowingly beautiful.
(You should see the bilingual Mass Book I made for myself: English - Hungarian. Though I do understand much of the Hungarian now.) I have a bilingual English -Latin Mass book as well, because I sometimes go to Latin Mass, especially in the cathedral.
Short response (a longer one, privately, is in the making) to your inquiry some time ago: I was born and bred in a lower middle class Irish-American practicing Catholic family; myself a reader from childhood onward and an introvert, well-read in religious matters by high-school time; not a "traditionalist"Catholic, but seriously put off by much of what was taught, practiced (and "excused,"but I won't go there) at a major Catholic university, I read myself into seriously entertaining the notion of becoming an Episcopalian - a notion strengthened by my experience of the Catholic chaplaincy at the ivy-league university at which I began graduate school, with the result that I began to attend the Episcopal chaplaincy there. In the midst of these thoughts I left for England, where I lived for eight years, at first persisting in my Anglican practice (although I never formally became one) but later - a long story - decided that this was all a mistake, and the question then became returning to Rome or becoming Orthodox. I chose Rome. When I returned to. America in 1986 to take up the position from which I retired in 2024 I began after a year or two to attend a local Ukrainian Catholic church, at first frequently and then always. When I got married and we had our first child (of three) I decided that I had to "regularize"my position, so in 1994 I underwent a formal "transfer of rite" (as it is technically termed) from the Latin Catholic Church to the Ukrainian Catholic Church. My first son, then aged two, was included in the transfer (he is now Cantor at our parish) and our two younger children, a second son and then a daughter, were baptized there.
Born, raised and educated Roman Catholic, got disillusioned for a couple decades, tried Presbyterianism with second husband, now deceased, and stumbled into a tiny Orthodox church in town. Feels like home. Need the sense of permanency, the unapologetic respect for tradition, the recognition that fasting and regular prayer times are necessary, and the humility and concentration on repentance. Finding Christ is a heart thing, not a brain thing.
One problem I observed while Protestant was the flexibility one could have. People jumped from Presbyterian to Baptist if they didn’t like the music. I had never heard of church shopping. It seemed what was important was that they enjoy themselves and the service was at a comfortable hour for them. Another was how weird some of Luther and Calvin’s ideas were. What an unloving God they imagined. No free will, predestination. I told the pastor when I joined that I could not accept these ideas and if I needed to to join, it was a deal breaker. But he said, no problem. There’s that surprising flexibility again. It was weird that Christianity seemed to have started in the 1500s. No Mary, no saints, just lots of NIV bible. Salvation was a one- day event. Confession was 30 seconds of silence during Sunday service and eucharist was once a month.
Anyway, since my husband’s passing I am free to pursue my Orthodox chrismation. The congregation is tiny but full of young couples and kids. Like you, Rod, I’ve endured some seriously painful family losses and estrangements. I struggle with anger and resentment too, and know I’m sinful and need to get past it and forgive. It’s so hard, this sense of betrayal. Anyway, I find this little congregation welcoming, non judgmental, and not pressing me for all the ways I can volunteer. I’m immersing myself in the rituals and traditions and trying to fathom theosis. Using my heart, silencing my aching brain.
Having discovered your writings a while ago and learning of your path to Orthdoxy has been an influence too. Thank you.
I love your input. Always. I desperately want to be happy, at peace and comfortable (i understand these are sinful desires) but we aren’t where we are supposed to be. We are “strangers in a strange land”. We will all be “home” very soon. Blessings.
It strikes me that our experiences which are so very different from one another are examples (or proof) of how God makes a way for us to find Him no matter what path we've traveled, and no matter how varied, even divergent, our paths may be. So many roads lead to the cross, thank heaven!
I converted to Catholicism after being brought to Christ as a child by a dear evangelical neighbor.
As an adult, I became a Catholic. I had gone to one Mass as a child, the church was deep and God-filled, and it was as if a rope with a gentle pull were placed around me.
The Catholic Church seemed vast and immovable, an anchor for my doubts and storms.
The Church protected the unborn.
The Church taught marriage for life. The pre-Cana priest counselled the engaged Catholics from intact families (my husband to be) to be wary of children of divorce (me). Turns out, I was the one who knew what treasure was, and he did not.
And now the leaders of the Church seem to blow in the wind. Yielding, not a rock.
I am so lonely, and the Church processes me like the American Healthcare system processes patients - anonymously, atomized, overworked. I have never found community in the Church and I tried.
Only the Body and Blood, food for my soul.
I am Catholic and after the storm.this weekend, I will go to vigil masses on Saturdays, and on Sundays I will go to an evangelical church, and an Orthodox one, and look for community, and home.
The late Archbishop Dmitri Royster of Dallas (who will likely be canonized one day; his disinterred and unembalmed body was found incorrupt after five years in the Dallas ground) used to believe that a parish shouldn't have more than 150 members. If your parish reached that number, it was time to start a new parish. His belief was that a parish couldn't be for its people what it needed to be if it was bigger than that. It would be too hard for people in that community to really know each other. I was blessed to find refuge in my immense spiritual brokenness there in Vladyka Dmitri's cathedral parish in 2005. The community I found there was like nothing I had ever experienced. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like had we stayed there in Dallas, in that great parish, instead of moving to Philly.
The Baptist preacher that I grew up with believed that too. I agree. Cathedral sized churches serve a very specific purpose, and there's a place for them, but most of the time when you have those numbers you need to start a mission church.
And for the sake of honesty, I am dying from lack of Orthodox community here in Budapest. It's not the fault of the parishes here. I just don't have the language to be a real part of their communities.
Serbian. But there's a Russian parish too. They have Old Church Slavonic, and after that, Magyar. Guess what, though? Literally, ten minutes ago, walking back from the market, I ran into a Hungarian guy who recognized me from the time I went to the tiny Greek parish two years ago. He told me they now have English liturgies every two weeks, and have assembled a small community of English speakers there! I gave him my details, and will be attending the next one. What a blessing!
That's great. I was able to find side by side Slavonic/English service book online while I lived in Russia, but I can read Cyrilic. There might be some resources online to make it easier for you on the other weeks.
Yeah, but the Irish government is super-woke. I don't want to live in fear that something I write could bring the cops around, which would be the case in the UK and in Ireland. Sad but true.
Sometimes it's hard enough to find that sense of community even when you do speak the language, but the language thing is huge. I was baptized into the Orthodox Church in Munich; I've had some Russian, but at the very least, the priest spoke good German and although Russian was the dominant language spoken by parishioners, even among the adults, most of them had passable German, and there were even a few who had excellent English (including a couple of older British expat converts). It kind of worked, but living an hour away from Munich made it hard to feel part of the community anyway, but despite that, there were people I did get to know and become friends with.
As it is now, with the Serbian church where the priest can't really speak English... We've just about lost all the non-Serbs, and come this spring, we'll probably be down to just me and one other lady. I do things with another parish as well and I'm still somewhat involved with online stuff in Orthodoxy, but it's just still reasonably difficult when there's no clear sense of "home".
(Just to be clear, many of the Serbs at church are wonderful people, and many are extraordinarily nice to me. However, I'm not part of the Serbian community, and so I'm not part of the endless cycle of non-church and quasi-church goings-on that happens among the people of the four Serbian churches in southeastern Wisconsin. I don't have any clue how everybody is related to each other, and I don't know whose cousin married so-and-so and moved to Florida, or who had the baby ten years ago who was premature and nearly died. This type of thing is a lot of what binds these people together, and there's no way to really be part of that, even if I tried.)
Hi, Katja. Is there any connection between this community in southeastern Wisconsin that you mention and the Serbian presence in northeastern Illinois? It sounds a bit like the Greek community around here.
Strangely, that never bothered me much, as I can follow the Liturgy in whatever language (and I can pick up bits of languages quickly). What has bothered me a little (and, I fear in retrospect, has negatively affected my two younger children) is the relative lack of meaningful "community" there and the lack of adequate religious education for children, or its haphazard nature. I have always been something of a loner, and so never really took to heart that my children needed these things more than I did in my younger years.
I don't know where you are located, but if you can find a LCMS Lutheran church (or WELS, anything but ELCA), try them. My husband and I landed there after 10 years of Methodists, 10 years of other Evangelical, and 16 years of Anglican. The Lutherans protect the unborn, believe in the real presence in the Eucharist, have a liturgical service, and (in our church at least) celebrate the Eucharist every week. Also several scripture studies during the week.
ROD I really appreciate the seriousness and honesty of this piece. In a culture of shallow takes and performative outrage, that already sets it apart. You’re right that many thoughtful young people today are drawn to Catholicism because it offers intellectual depth and moral coherence that much of modern Protestantism lacks.
But I think there’s a deeper reason as well: young people are starving for clear leadership, structure, and authority. In a world of confusion, instability, and endless choice, tradition feels like solid ground. That’s why so many are drawn to the Traditional Mass more than the Novus Ordo. It isn’t nostalgia. It’s hunger for reverence, discipline, and something that doesn’t bend with every cultural wind.
For nearly two thousand years, the Church has survived every major intellectual and spiritual assault — Gnostics, Arians, iconoclasts, Enlightenment rationalists, modern materialists, and everything in between. The Creed, forged in those early centuries, held Christian civilization together for over a millennium. On that foundation, Europe was built, universities were formed, hospitals were created, and the Gospel was carried to the ends of the earth. That kind of endurance is not accidental.
Blessed John Henry Newman once wrote, “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often,” but he also insisted that true development always preserves continuity. What young people sense is that much of modern Christianity feels like rupture, not development. They are looking for something rooted, not improvised.
Faith also cannot become a cultural credential for ambitious people. Catholicism doesn’t exist to win arguments or build résumés. It exists to form saints. As Chesterton put it, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”
We need to be careful not to substitute intellectual mastery for spiritual discipline. Silence, prayer, confession, fasting, obedience, and humility matter more than being able to quote Aquinas.
And we should remember that Christ did not preach only sentimentality. He preached mercy, yes — but also repentance, sacrifice, judgment, and spiritual warfare. He told His disciples to be prepared. Love without truth collapses into weakness.
Young people sense this. They don’t want a comfortable religion that blesses the status quo. They want something demanding, something worth giving their lives to.
The Church doesn’t need more influencers. It needs more faithful kneelers.
"You’re right that many thoughtful young people today are drawn to Catholicism because it offers intellectual depth and moral coherence that much of modern Protestantism lacks."
No shortage of intellectual depth and moral coherence at my PCA church here in South Florida. For a mega-dose of that, come to our March conference: https://institutefc.org/kcc
We have a heavy emphasis on the arts also, fantastic sermon on Right to Life Sunday last week.
Sounds like a great conference and a great church! Wondering where Eric Metaxas is at these days—worried that he did a kind of Tucker Carlson—i.e. getting sucked into a political ideology.
The miracle that led to St John Henry Newman's canonization involved a woman from Chicago's St John Cantius parish where she was about to lose her unborn child but prayed for his intercession.
I have a piece of his biretta, so a second class relic.
Christian experiences vary, each walking of The Way is different. For me, I have now been given such a happy life in Budapest. I have no family—no parents, children, or siblings anywhere. I have had many griefs, sorrows and losses in my life. Yet, for my part, I have found amazing joy and peace here.
Yes, I love Hungary: the beauty, the language, the history, the fascinating people I encounter every day – this brings joy. But something central to my happiness has been the Catholic Church and Catholic community. Yes, the beautiful (so beautiful!) Hungarian Masses. And – importantly - New Jerusalem Catholic Community in particular—they are essentially Benedict Option. They do accept Protestants and Orthodox alongside Catholics, by the way.
A person does not need to be a practicing Catholic to be greatly blessed by what is happening in the Catholic Church here. The community, the worship, the life together—it's open and life-giving in ways I never expected.
The Catholic Church in Hungary is special—perhaps this happens elsewhere, but I did not find previously what I have found here. It is their **hearts**. The worship is alive; they sing, not stand like statues. And Sunday Mass is full, often standing room only. The Catholics I know truly believe the teachings. At New Jerusalem, I have found friends. There is a sense of doing life together, not just attending services. We have small group meetings, a monthly Mass for the New Jerusalem community (the best Mass ever!!!! I think). I share meals. I share purpose. - - Rod - - the Benedict Option.
Rod, you are carrying sorrow. The above is not meant as a hollow "I know/have known how you feel." I don't presume our griefs are identical. But He came that your joy might be full. Mine was hard won. The above is what happened to me. God bless, and prayers for you!
ONE MORE THING! because Rod’s reflections on conversion in this piece really got me thinking. He often returns to the Weimar period as a warning — and rightly so in some respects — because this is a substantial piece from ROD and it’s sparked one of the better conversations and comments we’ve had here in a while. — but that same era ROD mentions also produced some of the greatest modern witnesses to the faith. Think of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who gave his life at Auschwitz, or St. Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), a Jewish convert who embraced Carmel and died in the camps. Her philosophical and spiritual writings deserve far more attention today if we really want to understand what serious conversion looks like under pressure. In the very heart of Europe’s collapse, Catholicism did not disappear — it produced saints. Under the most brutal pressure, when conversion meant isolation , torture ,or your death, people still chose Christ. That says something profound about the Church’s strength. Decline and disorder do not only breed extremism. Sometimes, by God’s grace, they also produce heroic holiness.
You are right about decline and disorder prompting holiness (at least in individuals). One can go back to the first martyr (Stephen) and the subsequent conversion of Paul (who reportedly was among those who stoned Stephen) for early examples.
What a treat to find this article freshly written on this icy cold southern winter morning! I love when you write about these things.
My husband and I are “cradle evangelicals” and left over a year ago only to find ourselves starting a house church this year. (January 11th to be exact.) There were many moves of God in this undertaking but one of the first was your book, The Benedict Option, which was required reading when I worked for the senior pastor at a very large church 8 years ago. (The church my grandfather helped start during WW2.)
We share much affinity for our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters, and we agree the “brains on a stick” model for humanity (to quote James K.A. Smith) is insufficient for helping people grow into maturity in Christ.
A shorthand model that guides our group is from Dr. Marcus Warner’s book, Breakthrough: body, beliefs, bonds, and spiritual warfare. It sounds very much like the Orthodox view you describe.
Anyway, I was hoping for an opportunity to share our endeavor with you since the idea behind this small church is to stay small and very involved in one another’s lives. To do so will mean that my husband and I will be starting these kind of outposts again and again in our community if we do, indeed, grow beyond 50 people or so. (With kids, we’re already at 23, so that seems possible.)
You sparked a dream in this homeschool mom when you wrote that book. And look, here we are, giving it a go with much prayer and fasting and courage. Thank you.
On our road to converting to the plain Mennonites from Catholicism we attended a Mennonite house church for a while. There were many fine people there and good ideas, but pitfalls abound. It is nearly impossible for the founders and hosts not to exercise a kind of ownership over the enterprise that is dangerous. Worse can be the attitude of the children of the founders, who will ride roughshod over the other children. It is in the barbaric nature of children to do this, the “ my ball my game” age old practice.
I am not trying to be wholly negative, only to share our experience. Most of the relatively large membership of that church came and went but overall it grew and is nearly 40 years old today, so it can work. This is in Lancaster county PA where the number of disaffected anabaptists and seekers is larger than other places. I do wish you success. People are very lonely and need help.
One of the sweeter things that happened was a few years after we had left the son of the pastor wrote one of our sons a letter apologizing for his behavior. He was about to be baptized and wanted to clear things up.
We are aware that house churches generally have not flourished in the US like they have in places like China.
As we are middle aged with grown children and four grandkids, we bring some life experience that we wouldn’t have at 30, but if I weren’t sure this was a clear path for us, I’d pass.
I truly believe small outposts of Christ-following communities will be critical for my children and especially my grandchildren. Culture is becoming more fractured, not less. Those who are willing to count the cost of following Jesus will need each other. And those who are choosing to come surprise me… in a good way.
I guess in the end, I see God calling us to faithfulness. He’s in charge of results. I can live with that.
I think what you are doing is definitely worthwhile, and the needs out there are great. Not having young children and being more experienced is a plus.
I did not mean to sound discouraging.
The specific people I referenced had their own issues, one of which was the wife’s strong conviction that she was meant to be a minister’s wife. She was a very gifted woman but the larger church body of which they were a part and which we eventually joined had not ordained him. The founding of the house church was the solution.
I am a Protestant (while strongly disagreeing with ALL sects among Christians: “One faith, one Lord, one Baptism) and find it over-intellectualized. I appreciate the Protestants encouragement to “be in the word” which I think is lacking in the Catholic Church. I think the Catholic Church does a better job encouraging “works”(“faith without works is dead”). My experience in the Protestant church has been utterly devoid and hostile to “mystery” which I found spiritually disturbing. It sounds as if the Orthodox Church exemplifies this more successfully.
It sounds as if the entire body of Christ(the true Church) can all learn and uplift and encourage each other.
Paul reminds us that in this life we know only in part. All Christian traditions are in touch with the Truth, but in part, and all have something of value for the believer. The Lord will lead you where you need to be. For us, it involved wandering into our present congregation by mistake -- the Lord's way of leading us where we would work out our salvation.
There is a book by Richard Foster called “Streams of Living Water” which I highly recommended. He identifies six movements of the Spirit through history and around the world, and in an ecumenical way, not associating a “stream” with any particular denomination but how the streams can be manifest in many contexts.
The six streams he identifies are: Contemplative, Holiness, Charismatic, Social Justice, Evangelical, and Incarnational. He talks about the desert fathers, Teresa of Avila, William Wilberforce, John Wesley, Billy Graham, and numerous others.
It really gave me an appreciation of the depth and breadth of Christ’s church in all its manifestations and of other traditions not my own.
Thanks, Rod. A very timely and sage bit of advice given my on-going journey from MTD Protestant, to Anglo-Protestant, now searching for the more deeply traditional Anglo-Orthodoxy. Conversion does seem to bring to spiritual light and life, that which had fallen into shadow and forgotten.
I have found that Protestantism is more emotional and personal than the Catholic religion. Catholicism is more ritualistic and liturgical. This opinion of mine is a little biased by the woman I ended up marrying. She was just out of college when I met her and she had dabbled with the Assembly of God while in college. We went twice to Assembly of God services during our first year of dating and I was shocked at how emotional an Assembly of God service was. It wasn't for me. I wasn't religious at all at the time.
I drifted into Catholicism in 1994 because I began to believe then that Western Civilization was in severe decline. It became apparent to me that the Roman Catholic Church was the base of Western Civilization and that I ought to get up and go to Mass on Sunday mornings. My wife began going to church with me and our two toddlers in 1998, she converted in 2000 and we went over to the Latin Mass in 2002 because it was more demanding than the Novus Ordo Mass.
It is now 2026 and Western Civilization's decline is more dire than it was in 1994 but I am glad I did become a Catholic.
Rod, to me, you're at your best in contemplating these things. Sending love and prayers across the ocean today.
Thanks. As you know, I remember you in my prayers. We are in this long loneliness together. I bet many of the readers of this newsletter are too.
This quote from your piece is, I think, quite wise:
" the only way to respond to it is to stop thinking about it, and instead to pay attention to what is in front of you, and act with sacrificial love.”
Another way, perhaps, of "now seeing through a glass darkly, but then face to face” (1 Cor 13). One thing which has been apparent to me for awhile is that despite change of residence, as Christians we are always, in a way, exiles because the ruler of this world is not (yet) Christ.
Your blog has many fellow exiles but citizens of Heaven. It is comforting to consider how glorious it will be when we all meet there. (still praying for you and your tough family situation).
4:30 AM here in Kansas City, Missouri, 3° F windchill -15. I think, heavy snow… Worried about one of the stray kitty cats, I feed and help take care of. I pray that she’s safe.
Even though I don’t always agree with you, I respect you and appreciate your writing… This was especially good, and I’ve always do like hearing about the book you’re reading, or have read. Prayers to you, may you find sleep the next time you try, go ahead and have a coffee though :-)
I’ve been reading W. Somerset Maugham’s short stories… One of my favorites is Ashenden -the gentleman spy. And I was actually listening to a BBC radio drama of it, which is excellent, and then the beginning he talks about the character meeting with the Colonel and the spy service that recruits him. And at the end of the first interview where they hire him to be a spy the Colonel has one last thing to say to him. :
“If you do well, you’ll get no thanks.
And if you get into trouble, you’ll get no help.
Does that suit you?”
“Perfectly.“
From, Ashenden spy story by Somerset Maugham
I discovered Maugham a year ago. “In human bondage” and “Razors edge”. Unbelievable. I will reread them. I can’t recommend them highly enough.
"The Razor's Edge" is a favorite of mine. The 1946 film with Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb and Herbert Marshall is excellent. Anne Baxter won Best Supporting Actress as Sophie Macdonald.
To one of my favorite films too… And I like the Bill Murray one as well. Specially, the actor who took him up into the mountains to meet the wise man.
The Bill Murray version is interesting but the semi-comedic parts aren't part of the flavor of the novel. The section where Murray(Larry Darrell" is an ambulance driver with Brian-Doyle Murray(Piedmont) is very good. Theresa Russell plays a fine Sophie Macdonald.
I really enjoyed Bill Murray's take on "The Razor's Edge."
I came to that film with two great advantages.
I didn't know the novel at all and had only vaguely heard of Somerset Maugham.
I barely knew who Bill Murray was and thus didn't know he was a comedian.
Both of those things helped!
Decades later, I still like his version very much.
Yes, Maugham was an excellent writer. “Of Human Bondage” was, however, close enough to my own experience that it haunted - haunts - me like a nightmare (which is, I suppose, a backhanded compliment to the writer!). In the film version of “The Painted Veil” Edward Norton and Naomi Watts give, I think, two of their finest performances.
-1 F here at Fort Riley and the highway between here and Manhattan has not been plowed. I’m guessing it’s the same between here and KC.
Folks, if you do not NEED to be on the road, please do not be on the road. Crank up the heating, make some coffee, and enjoy a good book.
Why Do People Convert To Catholicism?
Turkey Keno? :-)
"I’ve never met anyone who was shamed or insulted into joining a particular church, or returning to one he has left."
For what it's worth, I do know a lot of people whom, I think, stay within their church because of shame, fear of rejection, fear of insult/condescension, etc. It may be that, subconsciously, this attitude is more about keeping sheep within the fold than bringing people back.
Truth:
God exists; Jesus is God; Jesus started a Church!
So God started a Church. Maybe that should be the reason for choosing.
Give Truth a Chance!
But they all rely on the same Scriptures... which one, if any, possesses The Truth.
If there is one set of Scriptures, then that is the set that possesses The Truth.
If you disagree, then be more precise by what you mean by "Scriptures."
Three major ancient divisions of Christian faith and innumerable subsequent Protestant denominations all rely on the same Scriptures. They all possess that Truth. So, which of them is the true faith?
It is true of course that Catholics and Orthodox endorse 72 books, so six that are not accepted by Protestants, and the Coptic churches endorse 83. But we all agree on 66, and the rest don't seem to be critically important.
“ all rely on the same Scriptures”
The issue then does not seem to be the Scriptures endorsed by these groups. The issue is elsewhere amongst those that don’t endorse the Scriptures. Why, because they believe the Scriptures are nonsense. They don’t believe there is any God who inspired the Scriptures.
This is what is new and the source of the political issues that consume most.
I became Catholic because I wanted to impress a girl I wanted to go out with. She didn’t go out with me, but I stayed Catholic. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
At age 25, I converted from serious Protestantism—as a devout Evangelical—to Roman Catholicism. I had been raised to believe Catholics went to heaven but were taught major error, hence the necessity of Protestantism.
My conversion was **both** intellectual and experiential. I want to stress that.
The first time I attended Mass was as a graduate student on TCU's campus. When the Nicene Creed was recited, I simply knew. The article we're discussing, written by an Evangelical, claims "Former Catholics often say they attended Mass for years and never once heard the gospel." They can say that, but the Nicene Creed *is* the gospel.
(Of course, no offense intended to brothers and sisters in Christ here who are Protestant.)
Intellectually, I knew my choice: Remain outside, protesting imperfect teaching, or, recognizing no church is perfect, join the original church (yes, I knew the history). Experientially, I knew from the first Mass that Christ is really present in the Sacraments. I loved His presence. Yes, He is omnipresent, and yes, He comes into hearts in a special way for all who accept Him, Catholic or Protestant alike. But His Real Presence in the Sacraments, such as the Eucharist, was something I knew experientially. My Baptist and later non-denomination Charismatic upbringing did not teach this, nor invoke His presence in Sacraments.
The day after that Mass, I bought City of God. I realized there was a whole world of saints and tradition I had missed. After completing the initiation classes, I was received into the Catholic Church.
The “I never heard the Gospel at Mass” trope is so common on Twitter (probably most of it coming from rage bots), and it’s about the most ridiculous criticism of the Catholic Church I can think of.
Yes - and I think maybe they mean they did not hear the words "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." (these are not magic words, and the same thing can be explained with different words)
- - My Catholic Charismatic community members do talk with other Catholics about actualizing the grace of baptism, about praying and talking with God often through the day, about a relationship. - - Yes, people can believe and just think Jesus was God and a person in history, now in heaven, without daily, in many moments, thinking of and talking with him. - - but they should read people like St. Teresa of Avila on this subject. It is Catholic to know the gospel and it is Catholic to have a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Linda, what does it mean to be a Charismatic Catholic? I dated a young woman about a year before I met my wife and she called herself a Charismatic Catholic.
T Y for the question. You ask something very close to my heart, though I may not have the words.
Theologically, first - Charismatic renewal speaks of the infilling - the baptism - of the Holy Spirit, as discussed in Scripture. The belief is certainly not that others Christians are sure not have this infilling. As I once said to Rod, yes I am Charismatic but I do not believe I have an experience called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that you do not have. And of course Rod had actualized the grace of his confirmation, this infilling. But actualizing this relationship, or even asking for the infilling is important and has not been stressed in many formal parish churches.
Scripture talks about Christ baptizing us with the Holy Spirit. That happened on the day of Pentecost. The clearest reference to this being separate from (water) baptism is in Acts 8 - 14: "Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)"
This actualizes the grace of confirmation, just as we, when we can understand it, actualize the grace of our baptism by asking the forgiveness of Christ and acknowledge with thankfulness his dwelling in our hearts, expressing faith in all that is in the Creed.
There are also the gifts of the Spirit, which Catholic Charismatics - and the Catholic Church itself - believe did not die out. Romans 12:6–8, 1 Corinthians 7-11.
I find the worship beautiful and meaningful. I do not find it happy clappy, though we can approach the Lord in various ways - joy, deep reverence, repentance, deep gratitude - it depends on the worship, particularly on the song.
Charismatic communities are support in the faith. We meet regularly, not just attending Mass and going home. We know needs, pray for one another, help one another. My community here in Budapest also has a ministry to the poor. We try to live out the life Christ calls us to. I may fail at this time and again but I ask the grace of the Holy Spirit to be a good and faithful servant.
Many past Popes have written very positively about the Charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church.
Ironically, this woman married late in life and moved to The Villages in Florida. She was a good woman but we were a bad fit because I wasn't religious at the time.
Thank you for your answer.
Thank you Derek. By the way, I was just DMing with a Hungarian Catholic from the Charismatic Catholic community here. I told him of the question. He first said, "It is easy. To have a real relationship with the Holy Spirit. Not just with the Father and the Son. There are some Bible verses, what can be seen from those, who are fulllfilled with the Holy Spirit. - If they would ask me, I would say, it is somewhat more deeper relationship with God. Plus serving the Lord a lot stronger. Or in some cases just start to serve the Lord and spread (speak about) the gospel." - Then he almost started writing a research paper, - it was great, various saints and popes were going to appear - but it would be ready tomorrow (late here and he has the flu) soi told him the commentary is mostly only seen the first day.
When I hear the Nicene Creed sung in Latin at Mass, I know that I have arrived.
Yes, beautiful! And we have Latin Mass here in Budapest - it is common in Novus Ordo and we have TLM (down on the main shopping street in a church there, of all places). - But Mass in Hungarian, the Creed, the Gloria, the Sanctus, the Angus Dei. Knock me over! The beauty!
And I believe I understand something of the translation issue - I'm happy with Mass that people can understand and those understanding Latin can go to that one, of course, if they wish. (or they might occasionally wish to without understanding) There, in Latin, the words mean exactly - never just approximately but exactly - what they originally said.
Plus Latin is aesthetically beautiful - though Hungarian much more so I think :) But I think Hungarian for worship is near mind-blowingly beautiful.
(You should see the bilingual Mass Book I made for myself: English - Hungarian. Though I do understand much of the Hungarian now.) I have a bilingual English -Latin Mass book as well, because I sometimes go to Latin Mass, especially in the cathedral.
Short response (a longer one, privately, is in the making) to your inquiry some time ago: I was born and bred in a lower middle class Irish-American practicing Catholic family; myself a reader from childhood onward and an introvert, well-read in religious matters by high-school time; not a "traditionalist"Catholic, but seriously put off by much of what was taught, practiced (and "excused,"but I won't go there) at a major Catholic university, I read myself into seriously entertaining the notion of becoming an Episcopalian - a notion strengthened by my experience of the Catholic chaplaincy at the ivy-league university at which I began graduate school, with the result that I began to attend the Episcopal chaplaincy there. In the midst of these thoughts I left for England, where I lived for eight years, at first persisting in my Anglican practice (although I never formally became one) but later - a long story - decided that this was all a mistake, and the question then became returning to Rome or becoming Orthodox. I chose Rome. When I returned to. America in 1986 to take up the position from which I retired in 2024 I began after a year or two to attend a local Ukrainian Catholic church, at first frequently and then always. When I got married and we had our first child (of three) I decided that I had to "regularize"my position, so in 1994 I underwent a formal "transfer of rite" (as it is technically termed) from the Latin Catholic Church to the Ukrainian Catholic Church. My first son, then aged two, was included in the transfer (he is now Cantor at our parish) and our two younger children, a second son and then a daughter, were baptized there.
Born, raised and educated Roman Catholic, got disillusioned for a couple decades, tried Presbyterianism with second husband, now deceased, and stumbled into a tiny Orthodox church in town. Feels like home. Need the sense of permanency, the unapologetic respect for tradition, the recognition that fasting and regular prayer times are necessary, and the humility and concentration on repentance. Finding Christ is a heart thing, not a brain thing.
One problem I observed while Protestant was the flexibility one could have. People jumped from Presbyterian to Baptist if they didn’t like the music. I had never heard of church shopping. It seemed what was important was that they enjoy themselves and the service was at a comfortable hour for them. Another was how weird some of Luther and Calvin’s ideas were. What an unloving God they imagined. No free will, predestination. I told the pastor when I joined that I could not accept these ideas and if I needed to to join, it was a deal breaker. But he said, no problem. There’s that surprising flexibility again. It was weird that Christianity seemed to have started in the 1500s. No Mary, no saints, just lots of NIV bible. Salvation was a one- day event. Confession was 30 seconds of silence during Sunday service and eucharist was once a month.
Anyway, since my husband’s passing I am free to pursue my Orthodox chrismation. The congregation is tiny but full of young couples and kids. Like you, Rod, I’ve endured some seriously painful family losses and estrangements. I struggle with anger and resentment too, and know I’m sinful and need to get past it and forgive. It’s so hard, this sense of betrayal. Anyway, I find this little congregation welcoming, non judgmental, and not pressing me for all the ways I can volunteer. I’m immersing myself in the rituals and traditions and trying to fathom theosis. Using my heart, silencing my aching brain.
Having discovered your writings a while ago and learning of your path to Orthdoxy has been an influence too. Thank you.
I love your input. Always. I desperately want to be happy, at peace and comfortable (i understand these are sinful desires) but we aren’t where we are supposed to be. We are “strangers in a strange land”. We will all be “home” very soon. Blessings.
It strikes me that our experiences which are so very different from one another are examples (or proof) of how God makes a way for us to find Him no matter what path we've traveled, and no matter how varied, even divergent, our paths may be. So many roads lead to the cross, thank heaven!
I converted to Catholicism after being brought to Christ as a child by a dear evangelical neighbor.
As an adult, I became a Catholic. I had gone to one Mass as a child, the church was deep and God-filled, and it was as if a rope with a gentle pull were placed around me.
The Catholic Church seemed vast and immovable, an anchor for my doubts and storms.
The Church protected the unborn.
The Church taught marriage for life. The pre-Cana priest counselled the engaged Catholics from intact families (my husband to be) to be wary of children of divorce (me). Turns out, I was the one who knew what treasure was, and he did not.
And now the leaders of the Church seem to blow in the wind. Yielding, not a rock.
I am so lonely, and the Church processes me like the American Healthcare system processes patients - anonymously, atomized, overworked. I have never found community in the Church and I tried.
Only the Body and Blood, food for my soul.
I am Catholic and after the storm.this weekend, I will go to vigil masses on Saturdays, and on Sundays I will go to an evangelical church, and an Orthodox one, and look for community, and home.
The late Archbishop Dmitri Royster of Dallas (who will likely be canonized one day; his disinterred and unembalmed body was found incorrupt after five years in the Dallas ground) used to believe that a parish shouldn't have more than 150 members. If your parish reached that number, it was time to start a new parish. His belief was that a parish couldn't be for its people what it needed to be if it was bigger than that. It would be too hard for people in that community to really know each other. I was blessed to find refuge in my immense spiritual brokenness there in Vladyka Dmitri's cathedral parish in 2005. The community I found there was like nothing I had ever experienced. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like had we stayed there in Dallas, in that great parish, instead of moving to Philly.
The Baptist preacher that I grew up with believed that too. I agree. Cathedral sized churches serve a very specific purpose, and there's a place for them, but most of the time when you have those numbers you need to start a mission church.
Agreed. I read somewhere that 100-120 is optimal.
The Dunbar number.
The Catholic Church slates parishes of 130 people for merging or closure.
Yes. Closing churches means selling properties for money which makes the bishop look good.
And for the sake of honesty, I am dying from lack of Orthodox community here in Budapest. It's not the fault of the parishes here. I just don't have the language to be a real part of their communities.
What language are they using inthe church where you are? Would I be correct that it's not Hungarian?
Serbian. But there's a Russian parish too. They have Old Church Slavonic, and after that, Magyar. Guess what, though? Literally, ten minutes ago, walking back from the market, I ran into a Hungarian guy who recognized me from the time I went to the tiny Greek parish two years ago. He told me they now have English liturgies every two weeks, and have assembled a small community of English speakers there! I gave him my details, and will be attending the next one. What a blessing!
Excellent! Hope it works out for you.
That's great. I was able to find side by side Slavonic/English service book online while I lived in Russia, but I can read Cyrilic. There might be some resources online to make it easier for you on the other weeks.
For that reason alone Rod you need to remove to a English speaking country.
I agree that England would be best for Rod Dreher but I am not sure that Keir Starmer's government would agree.
There's also Ireland from which Rod could visit England occasionally to see friends there-- and also visit Paul Kingsnorth regularly.
Yeah, but the Irish government is super-woke. I don't want to live in fear that something I write could bring the cops around, which would be the case in the UK and in Ireland. Sad but true.
Rod, I think if your spiritual life is actually endangered or even suffering significantly, that should take precedence over worldly concerns.
It sounds crazy but the Baltimore metropolitan area has several Orthodox churches. Greeks are one of Baltimore's biggest ethnic groups.
Ireland's fall has been frightful to watch.
Sometimes it's hard enough to find that sense of community even when you do speak the language, but the language thing is huge. I was baptized into the Orthodox Church in Munich; I've had some Russian, but at the very least, the priest spoke good German and although Russian was the dominant language spoken by parishioners, even among the adults, most of them had passable German, and there were even a few who had excellent English (including a couple of older British expat converts). It kind of worked, but living an hour away from Munich made it hard to feel part of the community anyway, but despite that, there were people I did get to know and become friends with.
As it is now, with the Serbian church where the priest can't really speak English... We've just about lost all the non-Serbs, and come this spring, we'll probably be down to just me and one other lady. I do things with another parish as well and I'm still somewhat involved with online stuff in Orthodoxy, but it's just still reasonably difficult when there's no clear sense of "home".
(Just to be clear, many of the Serbs at church are wonderful people, and many are extraordinarily nice to me. However, I'm not part of the Serbian community, and so I'm not part of the endless cycle of non-church and quasi-church goings-on that happens among the people of the four Serbian churches in southeastern Wisconsin. I don't have any clue how everybody is related to each other, and I don't know whose cousin married so-and-so and moved to Florida, or who had the baby ten years ago who was premature and nearly died. This type of thing is a lot of what binds these people together, and there's no way to really be part of that, even if I tried.)
Hi, Katja. Is there any connection between this community in southeastern Wisconsin that you mention and the Serbian presence in northeastern Illinois? It sounds a bit like the Greek community around here.
Strangely, that never bothered me much, as I can follow the Liturgy in whatever language (and I can pick up bits of languages quickly). What has bothered me a little (and, I fear in retrospect, has negatively affected my two younger children) is the relative lack of meaningful "community" there and the lack of adequate religious education for children, or its haphazard nature. I have always been something of a loner, and so never really took to heart that my children needed these things more than I did in my younger years.
Im in the despicable health care “system” and detest what it has become and am crushed that the Church could be anything like it.
I don't know where you are located, but if you can find a LCMS Lutheran church (or WELS, anything but ELCA), try them. My husband and I landed there after 10 years of Methodists, 10 years of other Evangelical, and 16 years of Anglican. The Lutherans protect the unborn, believe in the real presence in the Eucharist, have a liturgical service, and (in our church at least) celebrate the Eucharist every week. Also several scripture studies during the week.
https://www.lcms.org/ has a church search feature.
ROD I really appreciate the seriousness and honesty of this piece. In a culture of shallow takes and performative outrage, that already sets it apart. You’re right that many thoughtful young people today are drawn to Catholicism because it offers intellectual depth and moral coherence that much of modern Protestantism lacks.
But I think there’s a deeper reason as well: young people are starving for clear leadership, structure, and authority. In a world of confusion, instability, and endless choice, tradition feels like solid ground. That’s why so many are drawn to the Traditional Mass more than the Novus Ordo. It isn’t nostalgia. It’s hunger for reverence, discipline, and something that doesn’t bend with every cultural wind.
For nearly two thousand years, the Church has survived every major intellectual and spiritual assault — Gnostics, Arians, iconoclasts, Enlightenment rationalists, modern materialists, and everything in between. The Creed, forged in those early centuries, held Christian civilization together for over a millennium. On that foundation, Europe was built, universities were formed, hospitals were created, and the Gospel was carried to the ends of the earth. That kind of endurance is not accidental.
Blessed John Henry Newman once wrote, “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often,” but he also insisted that true development always preserves continuity. What young people sense is that much of modern Christianity feels like rupture, not development. They are looking for something rooted, not improvised.
Faith also cannot become a cultural credential for ambitious people. Catholicism doesn’t exist to win arguments or build résumés. It exists to form saints. As Chesterton put it, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”
We need to be careful not to substitute intellectual mastery for spiritual discipline. Silence, prayer, confession, fasting, obedience, and humility matter more than being able to quote Aquinas.
And we should remember that Christ did not preach only sentimentality. He preached mercy, yes — but also repentance, sacrifice, judgment, and spiritual warfare. He told His disciples to be prepared. Love without truth collapses into weakness.
Young people sense this. They don’t want a comfortable religion that blesses the status quo. They want something demanding, something worth giving their lives to.
The Church doesn’t need more influencers. It needs more faithful kneelers.
That’s what will last.
"You’re right that many thoughtful young people today are drawn to Catholicism because it offers intellectual depth and moral coherence that much of modern Protestantism lacks."
No shortage of intellectual depth and moral coherence at my PCA church here in South Florida. For a mega-dose of that, come to our March conference: https://institutefc.org/kcc
We have a heavy emphasis on the arts also, fantastic sermon on Right to Life Sunday last week.
Sounds like a great conference and a great church! Wondering where Eric Metaxas is at these days—worried that he did a kind of Tucker Carlson—i.e. getting sucked into a political ideology.
PS You know he's now SAINT John Henry Newman, right?
He was canonized in 2019 — a priest friend of mine was actually there in Rome for it. my era I should have remembered that. thank you
The miracle that led to St John Henry Newman's canonization involved a woman from Chicago's St John Cantius parish where she was about to lose her unborn child but prayed for his intercession.
I have a piece of his biretta, so a second class relic.
"The Church doesn’t need more influencers. It needs more faithful kneelers."
What will cause a faithful kneeler? Is that is where everyone should start?
"They want something demanding, something worth giving their lives to."
God started a religion? Maybe that is the place to start.
Christian experiences vary, each walking of The Way is different. For me, I have now been given such a happy life in Budapest. I have no family—no parents, children, or siblings anywhere. I have had many griefs, sorrows and losses in my life. Yet, for my part, I have found amazing joy and peace here.
Yes, I love Hungary: the beauty, the language, the history, the fascinating people I encounter every day – this brings joy. But something central to my happiness has been the Catholic Church and Catholic community. Yes, the beautiful (so beautiful!) Hungarian Masses. And – importantly - New Jerusalem Catholic Community in particular—they are essentially Benedict Option. They do accept Protestants and Orthodox alongside Catholics, by the way.
A person does not need to be a practicing Catholic to be greatly blessed by what is happening in the Catholic Church here. The community, the worship, the life together—it's open and life-giving in ways I never expected.
The Catholic Church in Hungary is special—perhaps this happens elsewhere, but I did not find previously what I have found here. It is their **hearts**. The worship is alive; they sing, not stand like statues. And Sunday Mass is full, often standing room only. The Catholics I know truly believe the teachings. At New Jerusalem, I have found friends. There is a sense of doing life together, not just attending services. We have small group meetings, a monthly Mass for the New Jerusalem community (the best Mass ever!!!! I think). I share meals. I share purpose. - - Rod - - the Benedict Option.
Rod, you are carrying sorrow. The above is not meant as a hollow "I know/have known how you feel." I don't presume our griefs are identical. But He came that your joy might be full. Mine was hard won. The above is what happened to me. God bless, and prayers for you!
(One quick edit for a typo.)
What a beautiful testimony, Linda. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks, Rod. And if you thought you saw an invitation to visit our Mass, you are correct, and it is up to you.
ONE MORE THING! because Rod’s reflections on conversion in this piece really got me thinking. He often returns to the Weimar period as a warning — and rightly so in some respects — because this is a substantial piece from ROD and it’s sparked one of the better conversations and comments we’ve had here in a while. — but that same era ROD mentions also produced some of the greatest modern witnesses to the faith. Think of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who gave his life at Auschwitz, or St. Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), a Jewish convert who embraced Carmel and died in the camps. Her philosophical and spiritual writings deserve far more attention today if we really want to understand what serious conversion looks like under pressure. In the very heart of Europe’s collapse, Catholicism did not disappear — it produced saints. Under the most brutal pressure, when conversion meant isolation , torture ,or your death, people still chose Christ. That says something profound about the Church’s strength. Decline and disorder do not only breed extremism. Sometimes, by God’s grace, they also produce heroic holiness.
You are right about decline and disorder prompting holiness (at least in individuals). One can go back to the first martyr (Stephen) and the subsequent conversion of Paul (who reportedly was among those who stoned Stephen) for early examples.
Most nights I remember to pray for revival.
What a treat to find this article freshly written on this icy cold southern winter morning! I love when you write about these things.
My husband and I are “cradle evangelicals” and left over a year ago only to find ourselves starting a house church this year. (January 11th to be exact.) There were many moves of God in this undertaking but one of the first was your book, The Benedict Option, which was required reading when I worked for the senior pastor at a very large church 8 years ago. (The church my grandfather helped start during WW2.)
We share much affinity for our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters, and we agree the “brains on a stick” model for humanity (to quote James K.A. Smith) is insufficient for helping people grow into maturity in Christ.
A shorthand model that guides our group is from Dr. Marcus Warner’s book, Breakthrough: body, beliefs, bonds, and spiritual warfare. It sounds very much like the Orthodox view you describe.
Anyway, I was hoping for an opportunity to share our endeavor with you since the idea behind this small church is to stay small and very involved in one another’s lives. To do so will mean that my husband and I will be starting these kind of outposts again and again in our community if we do, indeed, grow beyond 50 people or so. (With kids, we’re already at 23, so that seems possible.)
You sparked a dream in this homeschool mom when you wrote that book. And look, here we are, giving it a go with much prayer and fasting and courage. Thank you.
And glory to God!
On our road to converting to the plain Mennonites from Catholicism we attended a Mennonite house church for a while. There were many fine people there and good ideas, but pitfalls abound. It is nearly impossible for the founders and hosts not to exercise a kind of ownership over the enterprise that is dangerous. Worse can be the attitude of the children of the founders, who will ride roughshod over the other children. It is in the barbaric nature of children to do this, the “ my ball my game” age old practice.
I am not trying to be wholly negative, only to share our experience. Most of the relatively large membership of that church came and went but overall it grew and is nearly 40 years old today, so it can work. This is in Lancaster county PA where the number of disaffected anabaptists and seekers is larger than other places. I do wish you success. People are very lonely and need help.
One of the sweeter things that happened was a few years after we had left the son of the pastor wrote one of our sons a letter apologizing for his behavior. He was about to be baptized and wanted to clear things up.
We are aware that house churches generally have not flourished in the US like they have in places like China.
As we are middle aged with grown children and four grandkids, we bring some life experience that we wouldn’t have at 30, but if I weren’t sure this was a clear path for us, I’d pass.
I truly believe small outposts of Christ-following communities will be critical for my children and especially my grandchildren. Culture is becoming more fractured, not less. Those who are willing to count the cost of following Jesus will need each other. And those who are choosing to come surprise me… in a good way.
I guess in the end, I see God calling us to faithfulness. He’s in charge of results. I can live with that.
I think what you are doing is definitely worthwhile, and the needs out there are great. Not having young children and being more experienced is a plus.
I did not mean to sound discouraging.
The specific people I referenced had their own issues, one of which was the wife’s strong conviction that she was meant to be a minister’s wife. She was a very gifted woman but the larger church body of which they were a part and which we eventually joined had not ordained him. The founding of the house church was the solution.
You seem to know what are doing. May it prosper.,
Thank you for your book recommendations!
I am a Protestant (while strongly disagreeing with ALL sects among Christians: “One faith, one Lord, one Baptism) and find it over-intellectualized. I appreciate the Protestants encouragement to “be in the word” which I think is lacking in the Catholic Church. I think the Catholic Church does a better job encouraging “works”(“faith without works is dead”). My experience in the Protestant church has been utterly devoid and hostile to “mystery” which I found spiritually disturbing. It sounds as if the Orthodox Church exemplifies this more successfully.
It sounds as if the entire body of Christ(the true Church) can all learn and uplift and encourage each other.
Paul reminds us that in this life we know only in part. All Christian traditions are in touch with the Truth, but in part, and all have something of value for the believer. The Lord will lead you where you need to be. For us, it involved wandering into our present congregation by mistake -- the Lord's way of leading us where we would work out our salvation.
There is a book by Richard Foster called “Streams of Living Water” which I highly recommended. He identifies six movements of the Spirit through history and around the world, and in an ecumenical way, not associating a “stream” with any particular denomination but how the streams can be manifest in many contexts.
The six streams he identifies are: Contemplative, Holiness, Charismatic, Social Justice, Evangelical, and Incarnational. He talks about the desert fathers, Teresa of Avila, William Wilberforce, John Wesley, Billy Graham, and numerous others.
It really gave me an appreciation of the depth and breadth of Christ’s church in all its manifestations and of other traditions not my own.
Thanks, Rod. A very timely and sage bit of advice given my on-going journey from MTD Protestant, to Anglo-Protestant, now searching for the more deeply traditional Anglo-Orthodoxy. Conversion does seem to bring to spiritual light and life, that which had fallen into shadow and forgotten.
Anglo-Orthodoxy: Enjoy this: https://markclavier.substack.com/p/the-anglican-spirit-of-the-riverbank
I have found that Protestantism is more emotional and personal than the Catholic religion. Catholicism is more ritualistic and liturgical. This opinion of mine is a little biased by the woman I ended up marrying. She was just out of college when I met her and she had dabbled with the Assembly of God while in college. We went twice to Assembly of God services during our first year of dating and I was shocked at how emotional an Assembly of God service was. It wasn't for me. I wasn't religious at all at the time.
I drifted into Catholicism in 1994 because I began to believe then that Western Civilization was in severe decline. It became apparent to me that the Roman Catholic Church was the base of Western Civilization and that I ought to get up and go to Mass on Sunday mornings. My wife began going to church with me and our two toddlers in 1998, she converted in 2000 and we went over to the Latin Mass in 2002 because it was more demanding than the Novus Ordo Mass.
It is now 2026 and Western Civilization's decline is more dire than it was in 1994 but I am glad I did become a Catholic.