Pilgrim Journey Movie

[Orestes Hardy]

PilgrimJourney guides newly baptized Christians to discern the mysteries of the gospel. It is a sequel and companion volume to Pilgrim Letters (Fortress, 2020). Like its predecessor volume, Pilgrim Journey is a series of letters written by Interpreter, the teacher, to Pilgrim, the newly baptized Christian. The theological and ecclesial scope of the letters is evangelical-catholic, free church-ecumenical, and ancient-future. Each letter is shaped by the prophetic imagination of the biblical illustrations of William Blake and informed by the narrative spirituality of The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Pilgrim Journey begins with an introduction into the mystery of redemption hidden through the ages and revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The program of instruction contains the exposition of seven mysteries, each of which displays the central mystery of the gospel: (1) God speaks one true word in Jesus Christ; (2) the two Testaments form the one canon of Christian Scripture; (3) the one true God is made known in the three persons of the Holy Trinity; (4) true knowledge of God is discerned through reading the sacred Scripture literally and spiritually, especially in attention to the formation of faith, hope, and love; (5) a clear understanding of God's mysterious providence is aided by a sense of the scope of God's story from creation, covenant, Christ, and church, to consummation; (6) the marking of Christian time attends to God's unfolding revelation in Scripture as shown in the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost; and (7) the infinite reality of God becomes present in finite forms in seven sacramental signs of preaching, baptizing, blessing, breaking bread, washing feet, forgiving sins, and anointing. There is a final summary and conclusion about the way things deep, hidden, and mysterious shape the daily active living of Christians as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Curtis W. Freeman provides a series of elegant epistles that enlighten pilgrims on the Christian journey to understand more clearly the mysteries of the gospel. A gifted theologian, skillful teacher, faithful pastor, and fellow traveler, he crafts biblical, scholarly, literary, and ministry sources into an accessible text that unpacks deep insights to illuminate the path of Christian formation. Freeman invites pilgrims to join him on the way to learning and living the gospel more faithfully.

We couldn't have a more wise, insightful guide than Curtis Freeman to lead us deeper into the mystery of the God who, in Jesus Christ, has journeyed toward us. In Pilgrim Journey, Curtis celebrates the wonder of Christian discoveries about the God who discovers us. He helps us preachers, who talk about God to others, speak about the wonder of God With Us without taming the mystery. No Christian will come away from an encounter with Pilgrim Journey without being brought closer to Christ. Here are the riches of our faith made available, practical, and fresh by a master teacher of the faith.

The last hundred years of Western society have been a relentless quest for certainty. In Pilgrim Journey, Curtis Freeman reminds us that the heart of the Christian faith is a mystery that will never be fully explored or completely explained. Yet in trying to untangle that mystery, we find purpose, meaning, and hope.

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As I walked away from the bus and the 39 other pilgrims I had shared the past five days with, visiting religious, historical and cultural sites in Utah and northern Arizona, I felt a pang of disappointment.

We had traveled together, experienced God in His creation and His servants, worshipped in beautiful large cathedrals and smaller, more intimate churches, rubbed shoulders with our fellow Catholics and received warmth and hospitality every step of the way.

After leaving Kanab, Utah, we began the journey home with a trek along Highway 89 and a different view of Marble Canyon southwest of Page, Arizona. On the way, we made a 20-minute stop at the mighty Glen Canyon Dam, where water is collected and stored for use by the state and its Southwestern U.S. neighbors. Our driver permitted enough time to take photographs and a long gaze at this spectacular structure before moving on toward the Tuba City area and a look at the life, culture and history of the Navajo Nation, which lays claim to having the largest land area of any U.S. tribe.

Others were impressed by the story of the Navajo Code Talkers, a group of tribe members who became Marines, allowing the U.S. to avoid disclosure of military plans during World War II through use of the Navajo language.

During Mass, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted focused at one point in his homily on the joy and wonder we had experienced at several of the natural landscapes we had seen during visits to Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks.

Over the course of my journey, nearly everything I thought I understood about mercy, grace, faith, hope, and even about love fell away, until there was nothing left but Christ. And then Christ brought me home.

Upon returning to the States in 1978, we moved to California, where I earned a degree from Biola University. Following graduation, I served as interim Director of College Ministries at the Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, California under Chuck Swindoll. In 1981, LuAnn gave birth to our first child, James. Soon afterwards, I secured a position as program director and resident musician at Mount Hermon, a Christian conference center near the beaches of Santa Cruz, California.

During those early music leadership years, I was more concerned about a song being singable than sensible. As a result, it was easy to sneak bad theology into my repertoire by tying it to the back of a good melody. I was unaware of my ignorance until, after one meeting, the speaker informed me I had sung two songs about the second coming of Christ with two opposing perspectives.

I was embarrassed. How many other contradictions was I guilty of in my singing? How was I to know for sure which songs could stand the test of theological accuracy? What was the standard of measurement for that accuracy, and who held that standard? Too many of us worship leaders chose our songs based on popularity or on how well they showcased our voices and instruments. That had to stop.

In 1987, during his papal visit to the United States, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass at the Laguna Seca Raceway outside Monterey, California, about an hour from Mount Hermon. I was invited to attend as ecumenical clergy.

The day began with a dense fog limiting vision to a matter of yards. Those low clouds added a heavenly quality, and the music seemed to come from everywhere. As the fog cleared, I began to get a glimpse of the estimated 70,000 people sitting on the surrounding hillsidese. I saw flags and banners. I saw candles in candelabra and men in robes. I saw the altar. I saw the crucifix. It was as if a curtain was being lifted and everything was becoming known.

Something changed that day. It was as if I had stepped into a dif- ferent country and culture. I had no idea what was happening, but I loved it. I longed for it. I had been moved deep within my soul, in a place untouched by any other spiritual experience.

Yet, with all the winds of change blowing inside me, not much changed on the outside. Other than a few new songs in my repertoire, I kept my growing interest in Catholicism to myself. My library, on the other hand, populated by contemporary Evangelical authors, began to change. For some reason, the Catholic author Henri Nouwen was accepted in my circles. I began there. Nouwen introduced me to Thomas Merton, and with that, the doors to the world of Catholic writing and ancient texts flew wide open.

Sadly, there seemed to be nothing we could do. We felt stuck, tethered to the limited traditions of our past. So we decided to live with the spiritual tension. I would remain in Evangelical ministry but do it with a Catholic spirit. Perhaps, we thought, I could lead people into a deeper and more complete relationship with Christ without revealing the Catholicity of that relationship.

In 1991, I joined the staff at Forest Home, a Christian conference center in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. But after only two years, I was diagnosed with calcified nodules on my vocal folds and severe scarring on my larynx. Thanks to too much singing in too many difficult and damaging environments, my musical career, my vocation, my employment, and my identity came to a screeching halt.

Inspired by the Catholic spirit of Renovare, I began regularly visiting Catholic churches and finding, as I had found in that cathedral in Venezuela, they were more beautiful on the inside than the outside. Sadly, I could not yet see the whole truth of that metaphor. I was still a Protestant, still on the outside looking in.

During one last attempt to recover from our financial losses, we attended a popular money management seminar, where we met a young couple from the local Catholic parish. Jared and Rhonda invited us to their home. We learned Rhonda was a convert to Catholicism. We told them about our romance with the Catholic Church. They told us about something called RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. They wondered if, after all our searching, we might like to become Catholic.

There it was. Someone finally said the words and suggested we could become Catholic. Who would have thought it? After all those years, we had begun to think that becoming Catholic was like becoming Italian. It was something we simply could not do.

We knew if we were to become Catholic, we would run the risk of leaving a lot of friends and family behind. None of them would understand our journey. Most of them would resent our decision and reject our Catholic faith. Some of them might reject us. Yet, every Sunday, as we returned to class, having faithfully completed all our assignments, we were confronted with the incontrovertible truth of Catholicism. This was real, and regardless of the cost, it was a risk worth taking.

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