Hello friends, this isn’t a real post. I’m writing an actual post in a tab right now. This is just the every-several-weeks boilerplate about what I’ve done lately, where to catch me when I’m not on Patheos, and how to keep my lights on so I can keep writing!
This past holiday season has been bleak and bright all at the same time in the Pezzulo household.
Here on the Patheos blog, I finally put my garden to bed for the year. We’ve been meditating on why Christ didn’t answer clearly when asked if He was a king. We’ve had sermons on the beautiful Advent readings, including the scary apocalyptic ones that make me nervous. The shooting of Brian Thompson led to some meditations on what it means to be a killer. We’ve had more posts than I expected on the Virgin Mary and the strange lineage of Jesus. We heard the continuing adventures of Jimmy the Mechanic and how I was able to help him out instead of him rescuing me for a change. Do keep them in your prayers because they badly need a new car. And we have more of my meditations in nature, where I go to pray.
Also, as of the first week of November, I have a second blog over on Substack.
It’s just more practical to divide my writing over two platforms because some of what I write isn’t specifically religious, and because I have always wanted to branch out into audio posts which Substack makes very easy. So, please do subscribe on Substack to read my posts that aren’t specifically “Catholic” about American politics, chronic illness in the current anti-vaccine lunacy. I’ll continue to post my more Catholic-flavored political writing on Patheos as always. On Substack, I’ll also have short video and audio content which I’m learning to do as I go along. Almost all the Substack posts are free for everyone, but there’s a weekly video meditation on the Sunday Gospel and one other weekly post behind a paywall for my paid subscribers to help me make ends meet.
If you are already a regular subscribed tipper to my PayPal tip jar and you’d like a paid Substack subscription, just let me know and I’ll send you a complimentary one so you don’t have to change anything!
If you follow me on social media, you should know that I am still on X which used to be Twitter, and will probably stay there until the earth is absorbed by the sun. But Twitter has become useless as a social media platform unless you’re a p!rn bot or a crypto scammer, so I’ve moved my main base of operations to Bluesky. You’re much more likely to see me there! I have no plans on leaving the Meta platform, even with the changes that Zuckerberg announced, but my only real public presence there is on my old Steel Magnificat Facebook Page. I don’t take friend requests to my personal profile from people I don’t know personally.
Which brings me to the omnipresent tip jar.
I hate writing about needing money twice as much as you hate reading it, but writing is how I support my family. I get a little check from Patheos, sometimes as high as three figures, for clicks in the United States and nothing for clicks on Patheos in most other countries. I get a bit of royalties from my books. I occasionally get published at a newspaper and I’m always taking on other writing projects to make ends meet. But a huge chunk of my income comes from my tip jar and from people who subscribe to pay me a bit every month, either here or on Substack.
My income took an enormous hit over the summer and into fall, because I mostly relied on Twitter to get seen and shared, and Twitter was devolving into an unusable mess. During that time, my family got stuck when our car was undriveable and fell behind on all the bills. We are picking up again now that Bluesky and Substack are making up for what Twitter once was, but all the unpaid bills rolled over into 2025 with late fees. We are just about a thousand dollars behind where we ought to be right now with rent due the fifteenth. So, this would be a great time to leave a tip in my tip jar, or to sign up to tip me a bit monthly, or to become a paid Substack subscriber.
In order to become a free or paid Substack subscriber, go to my substack, click on one of my written posts, and hit the “subscribe” button. Substack will walk you through.
In order to leave a tip, you can give to my Paypal here, or my Venmo here. The Paypal button says “donate” but it’s not a charitable donation, it’s just a gratuity I pay taxes on. The name on the paypal is “The Little Portion” because it’s the name of an Etsy craft shop I used to have, the money just goes to my bank the same as the Venmo does.
Thank you all very much for supporting my writing and literally keeping my lights on!
And now, back to posts worth your time!
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In