My first Divine Liturgy

This Sunday will be the first service I attend since I was 11 years old. I've been an atheist for most of my life, but am actively trying to seek God, and hopefully find something to believe in. Have any of you taken a path similar to this recently?

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What flavor?
Catholic? Methodist? Baptist?

Little baby needs a comforting lie because he can’t handle the truth
Lol

Orthodox. I've always been intrigued by that particular faith.

I was unironically looking for local churches to start attending. Gonna visit an Orthodox, a catholic and an agnostic one in the next week or so. As an Aussie they tend to hide religion from you as a kid, unless of course its the religion of peace.

I'm visiting an Orthodox Church. I hope you find what you are looking for user.

as an atheist you should know that if there is a god, its not gonna be church where you find him.
Church is where critical thinking goes to die, so you have a choice to make here.

>faith is separated from reason
t. post-enlightenment retard

Maybe, maybe not. I really don't know what to expect. And I understand your thoughts on critical thinking, and that is where I'm going to have some difficulty. I won't really know what to think unless I start to seek. I often spend too much time in my head, critically analyzing every single aspect of life and reality in general. I guess I don't know what I am looking for, but I have to start somewhere.

so are you saying faith is a reliable path to truth?

seeking is good, as long as you keep being honest, not just to us but to yourself aswell, wishfull thinking and willfull ignorance are strong things.

Im considering going for the vecherna (the late-night thing) in an hour or so.

youtube.com/watch?v=Z10vtMojiwg

here, some inspiration, I hope, to strengthen your will in going to the church on sunday.

Its psalm 141, you can look it up if you want to understand the text.

You ask god to not lead you into the temptations and to guard your lips from your enemies.

Honest as honest can be friend. If anything, this adventure into religion may provide me with some structure for my life, as well as an anchor for when things are really bad. I grew up in an extremely toxic environment, and had not been properly reared, and this has lead to a life of chaotic behavior that has not been beneficial to me in the slightest. I sincerely appreciate your thoughts and input.

we dont need your atheist reasoning here untill you admit you re lost yourself and by being so on-offence you re trying to reach the spirituality itself

You should be glad that your spiritual needs led you to the true church. Most people, especially in America, fill up that void with star wars, porgs, porn and other idiotic stuff of this world.

And you took on the path to the enlightement of your heart. Just go out there and may the God's light shine on you. You just have to do a small step and when you feel it, you wont need anything more.

check this site www.reasonablefaith.org

Thank you so much for your thoughts friend. Fantastic post, very inspiring.

>the true church
nobody saw that coming...

this is a good example of who not to listen to, what is the point of seeking if you have already decided what the answer is?
you are supposed to follow the evidence, not lead it.

I very much appreciate you posting this. I took a long while figuring out which church to attend. Orthodox, as far as Christianity is concerned, made the most sense to me. And all of those things that we typically fill ourselves with are what lead me to the decision to finally take the first step. I am very glad in the endeavor user, and truly do appreciate your input.

going to try out a catholic church. would try orthodox, but living in the west it would look kind of autistic.

>this is a good example of who not to listen to
I weigh all opinions that are made honestly. I am glad to be taking this step, and am very excited for it. It may turn out that it's not for me, but I have to do all things with effort and honestly, or I won't be able to experience it correctly. I hope that makes sense, I'm still very tired.

>but living in the west it would look kind of autistic
I didn't see it that way. It is my understanding that it's as close to the original thing that we can get. That's the perspective that I took.

>but I have to do all things with effort and honestly
Then im sure you have already realised that there are countless religions and even several major ones.
going to one church doesnt really seem all that honest does it?

Amen brother! Just a thought, I'm seeing a lot of focus in this thread on which denomination you should pick, which church you should go to, etc, but I propose an alternative: start with the Scripture itself. After all, what good is a church and its teachings if they aren't rooted in the Word?

I started with a guided reading program that provides daily passages and historical context. There's a number of good ones but I personally use The Bible Project one (it even comes in an app for easy reference and reminders).

Nothing against any of my Christian brothers here, but I personally believe that focusing on doctrinal and legalistic differences not only divides us, but distracts us from Jesus's message and sacrifice.

God be with you brother.

I take it you are going to Divine Liturgy. May God bless you.

T future priest

it's funny and a little sad that you fedoras maintain that "just be rational and skeptic and fair man" is a valid argument until the very end.

>going to one church doesnt really seem all that honest does it?
This is where I am starting. If it doesn't seem like a good fit for me, then I will move on. I do understand what you are trying to say though, and I understand that if I cannot experience, honestly, all faiths, how am I to be sure of this one. The answer is, I can't. I can only do what I can do, and this is where I am in my journey.

Thank you for your input and your well wishes. I truly do appreciate it.

a few months ago I went to my first service in years (Lutheran church). I still don't really get anything out of the service itself but I really like the community.

Yes, and thank you friend.

ma boiiii
greek? russian? georgian?

I feel like a lot of people go specifically for that reason. Community adds a lot of value to life, even for those of us, like myself, who have shunned society for so long.

i on the other hand find it funny and a little sad how you can just chuck aside rational thinking and skepticism as is they are not important at all and what you feel is all that matters.

>This is where I am starting. If it doesn't seem like a good fit for me, then I will move on.
my point is you cant make a good decision based on 1 church or religion, no matter how it feels you should take a look at all the options before even considering if you found the right one.
i also find it a little troubling how you are basing it on the church, there are many churches and not 2 are the same, im 99% sure that if you kept at it you would find a church where you feel like you belong, but how on earth are you going to tie the church with a religion?

My pleasure friend. I always try to remember that God is so much bigger than the walls in which we give Him praise, and that He sent Jesus so that first and foremost our relationship with Him could be personal.

I'm not sure. I have only one Orthodox church in my town, and there is nothing on the site other than Orthodox. I am planning on having a sit down with the sub deacon after service though. I know that probably sounds horribly uninformed, but that's the point of this Sunday is to learn more about this church.

PAGANISM
A
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A
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M

>god speed user

Yes, I am very intrigued by Orthodoxy after reading excerpts from the Church Fathers, Fathers of the North, Lausaicon, Geronticon, Fathers of the Desert.

Incredible stuff, no turning back it's just like Sup Forums.

Thank you friend, I truly appreciate that.

>it's just like Sup Forums
Haha! Not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

I'll have to look into this, thanks brother.

yw friends not sure Lausaicon is googleable but look into the saints of the Church it's excellent material

The God is calling upon you.
youtube.com/watch?v=wXiIzLwBbEI

Let us all witness the Christ Resurrection and bow before the Holy Lord Jesus Christ, the only one without sin. We bow before your Cross, Christ, and we praise and chant your Resurrection.

Because you are our God, and we do not know any other before you, we refer to Your Name.

Let all the Faithful come, and let us bow before the holy Christ Resurrection, as all the joy of the world comes to the Cross.

Eternally praising the Lord, we chant His Resurrection, as he endured the crucifiction, he defeated death with death.

>an agnostic one
>agnostic church
uwot

I've been on a similar path. Been doing a lot of reading on theology and all that nice stuff. I definitely recommend: "Blue Like Jazz" and "The Rage Against God". Real good books that'll hopefully help you find God.

>retard

Like it or not, it's happening and you won't know what's going on.

I'm definitely going to check those out. Thanks for the recommendation friend.

The only true religion is science.
> Learn, fail, adapt, improve
Until you're fit to engineer robots with sentient AI. The true absolution is mechanical life.
> Become a god

>ORTHOKEK

You're braver than most for stepping right into Orthodoxy user. Let me give you some tips
>You will probably stand for most of it
Orthodox tradition is to stand during most of the service. There are a few parts where you will be told to sit, but just look around at everyone else.
>memorize The Lord's Prayer
"forgive us our trespasses"
"As we forgive those who trespass against us"
Orthodox version uses trespass instead of "debts" like Roman Catholics do.
Most people recite that and The Nicene Creed from memory. You also recite a creed before communion, but most churches have that written in the liturgical book you get at the front entrance
>Go with the Greek
Russian are hardcore. Greeks do most services in partial English, you will understand most of it. Russians do their service in Slavonic only, from what I have experienced.
>DO NOT TAKE COMMUNION (where they spoon feed you bread/body and wine/blood of Christ from a cup)
It's for baptized or chrismated Orthodox Christians only. If you really want, you can line up for communion and ask for the priest's blessing (but tell him your not baptized and you just want a blessing).
>Look up on YouTube how to cross yourself as an Orthodox
It's a little hard movement Orthodox do, Catholics have their version of it as well

If you're at a Greek church they're going to say what sounds like "keelie eleyson" which just means "Lord have Mercy" and you should repeat it as others do.

You really want to call us cucked? The Russian Patriarch just claimed we were nearing the prophecies of Revelations due to our degeneracy. Orthodox are Nationalists. Cathlicucks are Globalists.

>chuck aside rational thinking and skepticism
But the funny part is that you see no daylight between your atheist conclusions and "skeptical rational logical objective empiricism" even after I point it out to you.

Thank you for such a useful post friend. I have been trying to learn as much before I go. There is a youtube channel by the name Theoria, and they go through a lot of what happens during service. I am pretty nervous though, as there is a lot more involved than, say, a Baptiste church.

>catlicks

If you're interested, you should also check out Bishop Robert Barron's work. He's got books and a ton of YouTube videos that cover just about any question I could have asked. Definitely helped me with my faith. In fact, I started following him as an atheist, and his work helped convert me. I hope that if you do check out his work, that it may fill your soul with the Divine love as it did to me. God bless.

Good I'm glad to see you're taking steps to go back to the fold I hate atheists more than Muslims at least I Muslims believe in something even if it is wrong atheist don't believe in anything therefore worthless

I certainly will look into it. I've got your recommendations on a note, so as not to forget. I'm happy that you found what you were looking for user!

>pic related are my icons
You'll be alright, I went in knowing as little as you. Every Orthodox priest I have met has been one of the most friendly people. Choose a seat near an elderly lady at the start of service. She will help you figure out what to do.

You are on the right path user. God bless you.

I learned about the Orthodox Church last March on a general Christianity thread in pol, now I'm baptized.

It's great. I found the woman I want to marry, extremely smart, beautiful, traditional Russian/Georgian girl who wants a huge family.

Slava Bogu!

The only thing wrong with the Orthodox church is all the subhuman slavs in it.

The comforting lie is that you don't have to repent for thine sins.

>Choose a seat near an elderly lady at the start of service.
That made me chuckle a bit, because that's exactly what I was planning to do. When in doubt, find the elderly, they know what's going on.

Thanks friend! I surely do appreciate the kind words.

And I'm happy you're taking this journey. I hope you find what you're searching for. Because it really is wonderful!

>I don't care what religion you believe in, as long as you believe in a religion
>not believing in a religion = not believing in anything

How do you reconcile the fact that you are a religious person who hates women, is a porn addict, obsessed with pundit-tier politics, is a neet loser, etc?

I suppose religion makes you feel better about being a permavirgin loser. You can pretend you are an ascetic mendicant instead of an under-socialized, inexperienced shut-in.

How do you presume to know so much about a random poster?

>it's as close to the original thing that we can get
Wrong.
Be prepared for some odd looks as a new convert or someone looking to become catcheumen will always be seen as a fucking weirdo.

Nice, I just went to one of my fellow Catechumen's baptism. I'm still waiting to be Chrismated. Make lots of Orthodox children, every priest I know has 2+ kids. One priest I know is a father of 7 and each has multiple children of their own. His entire parish is basically his offspring.

I'm a devout follower of terror management theory. It explains religion very well.

Horseshit. 90% of my church was Anglo, it depends on the area mostly. The older church members will probably be ethnic to the church. It's not like it was 50 years ago, we're probably going to be autocephalous in America in a couple decades.

>Wrong.
And I probably am. Honestly, I'm not very knowledgeable about all this, but I am hoping to learn. I'm not worried about being viewed as a weirdo. People will always look at others as different, but at the end of the day, it is my life to live, and I will do so as I see fit, regardless of what others think.

May God bless and keep you, user!

Thank you friend, I truly appreciate your kind words.

Try to find an Orthodox that does service in English. There are a lot across the US. It is of little benefit to go to a church where you don't know what the priest is saying.

Welcome back to god's embrace brother. Orthodoxy is definitely a great choice. It's gonna take more devotion than other versions but it's definitely worth it.
Flavours don't matter too much, I'm russian orthodox but I've been to a greek service and it's similar enough.

That was something I was kind of worried about. If the Church near me doesn't do service in English, it would be very difficult for me to attend a different one, as the next closest is an hour and a half away.

I've been a Christian my whole life, but only started attending an Orthodox church in October. It is a great thing, and hanging around after to talk to the clergy or just other members is a great way to get to know the church and the faith. People will definitely not look at you weird - everyone I have talked to so far has told me that the fact that I decided to join their church is amazing and very encouraging for them.

Retard

>chatokeks

It's a shame you live in such a remote location. If it is an ethnic church I'm afraid it will only have small portions of liturgy in English and much of the church life will revolve around cultural traditions of that particular country. You might begin to feel like too much of a stranger.

Pic related.

I'm glad everything went so well for you, and that you are enjoying your experience. It's a bit reassuring, and I hope to have something similar. Thanks for adding to the discussion user!

Thank you for the kind words friend. I am excited to see for myself everything involved in this process, this is going to be quite the departure from my standard every day.

If the church community is good he may as well double-down and start learning the language. Always a useful skill.
Even if he doesn't, he should start to be able to follow the key points of service, plus all the other churchgoers should be eager to help.

Yes.

I feel drawn to it after 50 years in the wilderness.

I'm also attracted by orthodox (Russian), though I really loved the sing song aspect to my Church of England/Catholic childhood experiences.

Midnight mass is a tradition I'd like to experience Spain too.

I don't think you need to believe Jesus wants you for a sunbeam to love your Christian heritage.

Jesus is the prince of peace and surely, if we followed his rules for living, we would all be living in the kingdom of heaven.

Imagine a world of loving, forgiving, compassionate souls, wouldn't that be heavenly?

I'm not sure as a child or adult I ever believed the virgin/resurrection/walking on water etc etc, but I believe Jesus tried to save mankind through his beautiful teachings.

Regarding those who say he never existed, the Romans were a bit like the Germans, meticulous record keepers, Pilate's writings on Jesus even give a physical description, so no controversy there.

Also, to those gobby, aggressive atheists.... You guys are even bigger bores than those nutters who try and force religion down the throats of others. I forgive you (duuh) but wish you all laryngitis for the coming festive season.

To everyone else HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

From Amsterdam xxxxx

I think this Church has only been in the community for 5 or 6 years. The area I live is highly saturated in Roman Catholic churches and just about every Protestant denomination, and I think they started it to serve the smaller Orthodox community. I'm very curious to see how Sunday plays out.

Thank you for your contribution to this thread, and have a very Merry Christmas yourself!

Can any cathocucks debunk this? Otherwise I'm converting to ordodogs right now!

>Not realizing that science is merely the process of understanding God's universe
Someone's been listening to (((them))) a bit too much

You don't have to literally believe in a magical man to find God, you must find that the way of life presented by religion is far superior to the lifestyles lead by others, and then relegate yourself to social interactions encompassed by the sort of lifestyle you want... Why do you think the only thing that works to reform drug addicts is religiously based? It is also the only thing that will relieve you of the degenerate life you once led into the light of being TRAD. Also, you will find a much better caliber of woman in a shared values setting like a church as opposed to on Tinder or at a bar.

>I've been an atheist for most of my life, but am actively trying to seek God,
We've only caught about 4000 lying larpers already pretending to be former atheists with this same exact fairy tale. Fuck off, liar!

Gtfo faggot

huh
cunts gotta cunt
well they point out the left bull shit with spreading right bullshit..........i cant smell the difference.......can jew
bwaha
huh

I understand where you are coming from, but I can only present myself as I am. You may not believe me, and that's okay. It's hard to find an honest person these days.

can i just have the community and family part of church without the whole jew-on-a-stick thing and associated nonsense

u know what we orthodox didn't use burning on a sticks, we impale heathens like you fucktard so gtfo

Who can compete?

Proud of you user.

What in particular sick or for you about Orthodox Christianity? I still don't really understand the appeal of it or why /pol seems to deem it the best Christianity. I went to a Greek Orthodox Meeting a couple weeks ago (pretty blindly) and didn't see the appeal of the service they were holding (the chanting recitation of the Bible). I'm trying to find a church myself, I have a similar story to you, but I'm wore baffled by Orthodoxy.

No. If you don't have faith then you are not a part of the community.

You go to church to worship.
You study the Bible on your own time.