I grew up not far from St. Louis University, a Jesuit institution in the middle of downtown St. Louis. As fans of the original Exorcist movie know, it’s the site of the real life events that inspired William Peter Blatty to write the novel The Exorcist which was adapted into the scariest film of all time. Full disclosure: Blatty is one of my writing heroes. He embraced writing theological thrillers and enjoyed producing what S.T. Joshi called “The Catholic Weird... Read more
This week’s Gospel reading is Jesus’ postmortem parable of the nameless rich man and the poor dog-licked beggar, Lazarus. It’s a popular story in Christian circles, an uncomfortable analysis of what comfort looks like to Christ. Though the story of a rich man damned because he tends only to himself should shake me to my selfish core, I find myself struck most by the last lines of this passage. “Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,... Read more
There are summer days in Northwest Michigan when the temperature hovers at 80 degrees, a soft breeze blows in off the lake, and the sky is an impossible Marian blue. On these days, it is easy to believe that this near-perfect weather is mother nature’s make-up gift for the nearly eight months of snow and ice we must endure. We live only thirty minutes south of the 45th parallel, that invisible line that marks the halfway point between the North... Read more
When the email circulated that there would be a traditional Latin Mass at our parish for the Feast of the Assumption on August 15, I immediately and foolishly wrote back that I wanted to be in the Schola Cantorum, the chant choir. The extent of my Gregorian chant experience at this point was one weekend at the Abbey of Gethsemani five years prior, a year of Latin in college, and a CD of hymns by Beth Nielsen Chapman in heavy rotation... Read more
A guest post from a Lutheran Sick Pilgrim, Joel Westerholm I’m in what I hope is the final stage of writing a book, and I’m getting more and more aware of the fact that the book will not change its readers’ lives. At least, not substantially. I say this from experience: my experience as a reader of books written by people wiser than myself. I just finished two books by people I heard at the Festival of Faith and Writing: Norman Wirzba’s... Read more
As a Catholic poet, I was excited to read this article about why the Catholic Church desperately needs artists, and was particularly taken with Pope Saint John Paul II’s reference to art as an evocation of our “nostalgia for God.” But as I kept reading, I felt something was missing, and this something was the question of what to do when art is dark. It’s great to talk about the role of beauty in our communication and evangelism as a church. This... Read more
After accepting that the mystical experience I had was about being drawn into full communion with the Catholic church, I found myself attracted more and more to Mary. Mary, to whom I’d inexplicably reached for prayer during the pulling aside of the veil between heaven and earth. Mary, whose “yes” to God opened the door for God’s salvation to be born among us. I remember walking on a South Carolina beach that summer, dusk pouring washed colors through the sky,... Read more
My heart broke when I read Chase Padusniak’s catfishing post and his story of being taken in by someone passing herself off as a 23-year-old single woman under the Twitter handle “That Catholic Girl.” He gave his heart to her, and it got stomped on by a woman who is actually 30 and married. Of course, those of us who read his story were appalled. We should be. But if we practice self-reflection, we will see how much we are like this... Read more
One of our priests gave a rousing homily on the Prodigal Son on Sunday. Priests love to preach on this one, he said–you got your prodigal son, your pharisaical son, your all-forgiving father–there’s so much to work with! But then he remembered this weekend was the parish ministry fair. *Sad trombone* How to tie these two together? The ministry fair is the day you’re supposed to sign up to contribute your time to your parish through acts of service–lectoring, cantoring, ushering, feeding the... Read more
When it comes to the story of the Prodigal Son, it’s hard to come up with a new angle. It’s been done. The story has been dissected over and over again. Is there anything new that we can learn from it? The popular picture of Jesus’ parable is about the wayward son who sins like a Catholic at Mardi Gras and then gets forgiven by the father. That’s a great story, but it’s not really the point of... Read more
Sick Pilgrim
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