“I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.” So cries Frankenstein’s monster at the end of Mary Shelley’s most famous work, published in 1818, when the author was just 21. In her introduction to the 1831 edition, Shelley attempts to answer the question “so frequently asked” of her – “How [did] I, then a young girl, [come] to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?”... Read more
A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 56:1-3A, 6-8 I’m a misfit, especially as a person of faith. I’m a Pentecostal Episcopalian, who’s never given up being Pentecostal (even though that is really not cool in the academic and literary circles I run in), and I haven’t yet been baptized Episcopalian (to the confusion of my priest and bishop). I also pray the rosary, venerate St. Mary of Egypt (was there ever a saint with a more charismatic conversion?),... Read more
When my roommates first told me that they were going to get time off their Purgatory sentence by going to confession, praying for the Pope’s intentions, and walking through a holy door in a church downtown, I didn’t know what to do with my face. I asked a lot of questions that night. I’m a volunteer in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and I often feel like a fraud because I don’t believe in God. I want to, but I... Read more
I’ve been listening to Sister Sinjin’s new album, Incarnation, as a daily Advent prayer, and I was so inspired by their dark-folk-Medieval vibe that I wrote this essay last week about women and suffering and art and faith instead of the album review that I’d set out to write. Sister Sinjin is Elise Erikson Barrett (vocals, keys), Elizabeth Duffy (vocals, cello, banjo, guitar), and Kaitlyn Ferry (vocals, violin, mandolin, keys). They’re three mothers who connected through various church events in their... Read more
I grew up in the Baptist tradition, and though we celebrated Advent, I didn’t know much about it, other than that it was the countdown to Christmas, which meant a new horde of G.I. Joe toys to war with, tons of food to eat at my grandmother’s house, and that we got to play with fire in church. Two boys were chosen each week, one to do the reading and the other to light the candles. I don’t know what deacon... Read more
Be strong, fear not! Here is your God –Isaiah 35 I don’t know much about Advent. Either all we ever did was light candles when I was growing up or I didn’t pay attention to the sermons at our Baptist church that time of year. All I know is that there are five candles (the middle one is the Christ candle, I think) and the word means “the coming.” I think. There is a lot of hope, it seems,... Read more
My maternal grandfather was born on December 8, 1912, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I barely remember him now, only that he was a heavy smoker and a Wild Turkey drinker, that he wore thick-lensed, heavy black-framed glasses that would be hip today, and that he often growled at my complaining grandmother to “go on, y’ol bitch” (under his breath, but loud enough that we could hear that Georgia smoker’s rumble). But my mother loved her daddy with... Read more
It’s Advent season, which means you’re probably scrambling around trying to find a white elephant Christmas gift for that office party no one really wants to attend. Have you ever thought “I wish I could give a gift that would offend just about everyone while making sure no one asks me to do this stupid tradition ever again?” If so, I have the list for you. Guardian Angel Bears What happens when you take the cuddly teddy bear and... Read more
Tuesday is the feast day of St. Nicholas and as usual, the story of him slapping Arius in the face during the Council of Nicea is making the rounds on social media. To be honest, I used to think the story was funny and I applauded the spirit. That is, get so passionate about truth that you end up punching someone in the mouth over it. In my Mark Driscoll Presbyterian Minister Days, I engaged in many passionate and useless... Read more
An archeologist writes about the empty tomb. He says, “Pilgrims come to touch Golgotha and the tomb because the events that took place here define our faith. Everything we believe flows from this center. Tourists travel away from their center to go and experience other lands — to learn, or to rest, or to be entertained. But a pilgrim, in contrast, travels toward the center. The core of his faith in essence is to touch and be touched by the... Read more
Sick Pilgrim
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