Fr. Joseph Huneycutt: So I’m sitting here with Agatha, who is our unique catechumen. She showed up at St. Joseph Church I believe on Holy Tuesday for Bridegroom Matins service, her first in-person Orthodox service—why?

Agatha: I had been inquiring into Orthodoxy for maybe seven months when I showed up, and I thought to myself, “It’s Holy Week, and I’ve been wanting to become Orthodox for such a long time,” and so I walked up to my mom on Monday, the day before, and I’m like: “Mom, tomorrow, can I go to Orthodox church? There’s one nearby; it’s called St. Joseph,” and I went the next day.

Fr. Joseph: So that was interesting. I actually took the night off from serving in the altar that night, and I was near these strangers, a woman and her daughter. I figured they were Orthodox. It was only later that I found out that Agatha’s mother, like any good mom, accompanied her just to make sure the Orthodox weren’t kooks or something like that.

What was the reason you started looking at Orthodoxy? You were poking around on the internet one day and something fancy showed up?

Agatha: Well, yes, but I’m going to make it sound better and say that I’ve been interested in researching religion, spirituality, all these kinds of ideas. That’s just what I like to do. I like to read about everything I can and try to understand it. I didn’t take Christianity very seriously because I just didn’t find it interesting. It was like, outdated, not interesting. I didn’t really concern myself with it until I happened to come by this name, Orthodoxy, on the internet, and I was just intrigued, and I started researching it on my own and trying to understand: Why haven’t I heard of this in the first place? There’s so many people who practice it. I mean, I researched it for months. I really wanted to go to church, but I didn’t feel like I was ready enough, and one day I just woke up and decided I was going to go the next day.

Fr. Joseph: Good grief! So, other than just acquiring head-knowledge, did you pray? Did you include God in the decision, or was this just an intellectual pursuit?

Agatha: Well, at first it was intellectual, but then I started to discover why Orthodoxy’s important. It’s the true Church of God, that’s what they say, and it’s a very spiritual thing. It’s not just being about a scholastic or an academic, and I thought to myself, “Maybe this is the truth,” and there was a very profound… It’s not just intellectual, but it’s also spiritual. And if it’s God, then it’s something very important, so I learned more and more about it.

I bought a Bible, because, surprisingly we didn’t have any in my home. I thought that we would have one, but I bought a KJV one, because that was the only translation I was sort of familiar with. And I began to read that. I tried to stay away from over-intellectualizing Christianity, because it’s not all about, you know, your brain. It’s about God; it’s not just about you. And I wanted to keep that in mind.

Fr. Joseph: You said something one time we were talking that you considered yourself at one time an atheist because that’s what all the cool kids do.

Agatha: Yeah… Um, I think my… I think I became an atheist more as a reaction and not like an informed choice. I think that’s the case of a lot of people, because they’re let down by Christianity or whatever their parents follow—it could even be Islam or Hinduism—but some people carry it on, and they don’t want anything to do with any kind of religion. For me, it was more of like a reaction to being let down, not seeing any fruit in the religion that my community, what other people believed. From being an atheist, thank God, I didn’t become a New Ager, but I was close.

Fr. Joseph: Who else had an influence on your pilgrimage thus far in Orthodoxy?

Agatha: I would definitely say that Fr. Seraphim Rose has been the biggest influence on me, determining how my theology and I guess spiritual life is shaping. Now, I mean, I still have a very long way to go, but the reason for this is that I could relate to him very, very much when I read his life story, how he came from a Protestant family—well, I came from a Roman Catholic family, but still non-Orthodox. He became an atheist secularist and then, when he got into college, he was involved in Eastern spirituality and René Guénon—I don’t know if you know who he is? And then after college I think he became Orthodox, and he started going to an Orthodox church and he decided, “This is the truth! And I don’t want to be involved in Hindu pilgrimages,” because he did that, like me.

Fr. Joseph: Do you think there’s others like you? I mean, 17 years old? Woke-ism and all kinds of stuff is taking over the world. If you get on the internet, which is always treacherous, but if you get on the internet, you don’t see a whole lot of 17-year-old young women talking about Seraphim Rose, do you? Or Orthodoxy?

Agatha: Well, no. I think almost all of the influential Orthodox online, first of all, they’re all men. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but I’ve noticed that a lot of people who are becoming Orthodox now, they’re mostly men. So I kind of felt like I was the only woman who was doing this on her own. I’m not saying it’s bad, but I hope there’s more women my age who like this stuff.

Fr. Joseph: You know, that’s interesting, because I think a lot of times, at least in my experience, when it’s a married couple, it’s more often than not the man sometimes finds Orthodoxy—at least that was the case with me and my wife—and she kind of gets “drug along”—and embraces it fully.

So what do you see? You’re not Orthodox yet; you’re just a catechumen. What do you see in your pilgrimage thus far?

Agatha: What do I see? Well, it’s been a journey, and I’ve learned to not try to overwhelm myself, because that is going to mess me up in the long term. Now that I’m a catechumen, I think I can start to read more and take it a step up, but I’m glad that I didn’t try to over-exert myself all at once, because that often leads to falling back.

Fr. Joseph: True. What can you tell me about God?

Agatha: Honestly, looking back, my journey here has been really interesting, and I’m sure it’s unique for everyone. It’s just amazing to me how God can let you go into somewhere, let you go into these places, atheism and even being a New Ager, pagan, then slowly on your own coming back to him through his grace.

Fr. Joseph: He’s more patient than we are.

Agatha: Yeah, he’s very patient. He’s a very good God, and he’s the one who took me here in the first place. He founded this Church for us. He made the world, and he wants all of his children to be part of his body, which is the Orthodox Church.

Fr. Joseph: Dang!