The Original Church
Spirituality/Belief
The Original Church, with Dr. James L. Papandrea, is an ecumenical Christian community exploring our common roots in the early Church for the purposes of spiritual growth and practicing the Christian faith. No politics, debates, or proselytizing, just "faith seeking understanding" from the perspective of the early (and medieval) Church and the Church fathers. Jim Papandrea is an author and Professor of Church History and Historical Theology.
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Updates

Well, I don't usually share a lot of personal stuff here in the community, but you may be wondering what's going on with me, so I thought I would give a couple of updates.

The insurance adjusters are going to be taking stock of the damage in our home, which will eventually lead to a ballpark estimate on when it will be habitable again. The good news is all my books survived, and all of our irreplaceable personal or sentimental items also survived. No losses that a check from the insurance company can't fix. Once there's nothing else I can do but wait, I will make the trip over to the Philippines to join my family.

In the meantime, it looks good for our grandson to be getting his visa to come to the US this month, and while there are a few hoops to jump through still, in God's timing, this might all come together at about the same time, and then we will all come back to a newly renovated home, whenever it's ready. Hopefully that will be by the end of this month, but it very well might not be. (And as if that wasn't enough travel, I'm supposed to go to a conference in Oxford in August).

Thankfully, I worked ahead and recorded the podcasts for July, so those are "in the can" as they say. (That means finished and ready to go, not that I recorded them in the bathroom, though the acoustics might be good there). On that note, the podcast series on The Heresies has a new episode coming out on Wednesday, then three more episodes, I think, and then a wrap-up/conclusion episode. From there I'm going to back to the lesser-known (but still important) Church fathers - the ones Mike didn't do in his seasons - and after that we will begin a longer series on the Doctors of the Church.

As far as the community here, and The Journey (Saturday Bible Study), it looks like the return date for that will depend on when we get back into our home (and when I have access to my books). So your prayers are appreciated for all the travel and logistics, and I can say I'm really longing for the day when my family is together under one roof again.

In the meantime, feel free to post here - talk amongst yourselves - and I will chime in as I get the opportunity to check the feed. I hope you're having a great summer (I hope it's more relaxing than mine!). Ciao!

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Sneak Peek into my NEW OFFICE!

I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:

00:02:17
In case you missed it, here's my Gospel Reflection

This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App

00:02:57
The Journey is BACK!

Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.

Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.

Enjoy!

00:36:42
Here's another song... Come Let Us Climb the Lord's Mountain

I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:

In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

I hope you like the song!

Here's another song... Come Let Us Climb the Lord's Mountain
THE JOURNEY 101

This is Part 6 of our mini-series on John Chapter 6

Here's the latest from The Way of the Fathers

The second episode on St. Hildegard of Bingen

Here is Episode 100 !! of The Journey

Something to celebrate! 100 Episodes! Here it is, Episode 100 (which is part 5 of the series on John, Chapter 6) - post comments and questions!

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