High up in the Arkansas Valley (right), I was blessed to encounter some Protestant youth groups. I had fun there. Music, skits, food fights, some preaching, and even some altar calls were mixed in to the first 18 years of my life. That’s right, I did an altar call, to this day not sure what that really means. Regardless, the combination of Catholic Mass and Protestant youth groups left an impression that Christianity was a decent ‘thing’ one was suppose to do daily. And that’s about as far as I got…Christianity was this thing in the world.
As my beloved sister Sarah quotes from Tolkien time and again, ‘not all who wander are lost.’ Touché, thankfully I only wandered for one year in college at the University of Colorado at Boulder, an old past time in that city!
My sophomore year in college, 2005, his excellency, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, placed two young priests at the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center, the parish serving the university. But really, I believe Archbishop, or at least his guide here on earth (Holy Spirit), knew that my wandering in and out of Christian limbo needed to come an end.
And it did.
Fr. Kevin Augustyn and Fr. Peter Mussett took the Catholic world by storm in Colorado, calling all Catholics at the university to reconsider ‘the foundations upon which they had built their lives.’
You see, I did not know what it meant TO BE Catholic my sophomore year of college. God be praised for my experience with Protestant youth groups high up in the Rocky Mountains, but one reality hit me upon encounter with these two young priests.
How? Their authority to teach me, Seth James DeMoor, on Christian history, ethics, and liturgy, came directly from Jesus Christ, and nobody else, period. How? Through Holy Orders. They have a direct connection to Jesus Christ through their ordinations in to His priesthood.
What?!?! How? Through the unbroken inheritance of Catholic tradition, sacraments, and apostolic succession, Fr. Kevin and Fr. Peter are able to participate in the priesthood founded upon the first apostles by Jesus Christ himself, which has been passed apostolically through 2,000 years of history, right down to the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Instantly, my Christian limbo, and wandering with this ‘thing’ called Christianity came to a halt. My entire worldview focused instantly. I knew, that my parents had actually raised me in a legitimate religion, and that every tradition handed down to me through 2,000 years of history was authentic, meaningful, and faithful to Jesus Christ.
Under their guidance, I began to learn about Padre Pio, St. Augustine, the ‘dumb ox,’ and countless other saints who sacrificed their entire being for the Gospel, Jesus Christ. And of course, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church founded upon St. Peter in Rome; another sweet bonus of being Catholic that I did not understand before digging into my Catholic faith at university. I finally knew and saw what it meant TO BE Catholic.
After four years of digging into Catholicism at the University of Colorado, the story really begins to pick up speed, literally.
On January 3rd, 2010, I ‘cast into the deep’ on a 2,400-mile bicycle ride across the United States from Florida to Colorado. Why? Because at the University of Colorado, I encountered stories from people of authenticity, who were young, and all about sacrificing their lives for the Catholic faith. It was a beautiful encounter, so much so that I knew the world needed to hear their stories. And so was born www.OneBillionStories.com.
And that is the goal at OneBillionStories.com, to gather millions (and someday billions) of stories rooted in fidelity to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic faith. Therefore, armed with a video camera and laptop, I interviewed 300 Catholics along the pilgrimage route from anyone willing to share their personal story within the Catholic faith. Every night, I sat down to edit the next day’s story to share on the ‘digital continent’, which has continued to this day.
Through the coldest winter in 50 years in the South, 13 flat tires, semis flying by at 70 mph, and bouts against the Devil (especially in New Orleans), I managed to answer the burning question of the 21st century. What kind of impact will the Catholic faith have on the modern world? It took three months of biking, but the answer was found by all who shared their stories for the mission. In the present, our team hopes that the daily video will answer that same question in your life, and perhaps inspire you to ‘get out of the boat’ and share your story on what our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, calls the ‘digital continent.’
If you are ready to join this story, e-mail [email protected] to learn how you can get involved in this movement for the Catholic faith in the 21st century.
Remember.
“It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this “digital continent”. PBXVI
