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February 2021

February 16, 2021

Let the Good Times Roll!

When I was a freshman in parochial high school, the nun I had as a...

April 2020

April 01, 2020

Things Keeping Us Going, March 2020

If you're a long-time reader of Sick Pilgrim, you'll know that we used to have...

February 2020

February 28, 2020

Mental Illness and and the Darkness of Lent

As someone with depression and anxiety, it’s always with mixed emotions that I approach Lent--and...

February 28, 2020

Our Lenten Wilderness: Unknown Pleasures and Revelations

Lent is a season, yes, a time. But it is also a place. Lent is...

February 26, 2020

Ash Wednesday with St. Anne

St. Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, grandmother of Jesus, is the patroness of mothers....

October 2019

October 31, 2019

Untangling the Bones

In the town where I grew up, the first day of doe hunting season...

June 2019

June 05, 2019

Making Space for “Yes”

“The great wisdom teachers and mystics say in various ways that you cannot truly...

February 2019

February 27, 2019

Just a Little of That Human Touch

Tell me, in a world without pity Do you think what I'm askin's too much...

November 2018

November 07, 2018

Why I Can’t Stay

Something changed inside of me during the week following this summer’s shattering Pennsylvania Grand Jury...

July 2018

July 31, 2018

Heavenly Protest: On the Afterlife of Radiohead

On June 16th, 2012, as Radiohead’s crew was setting up the elaborate LED stage lighting...

July 30, 2018

I Want To Believe: Matt’s Story

I’m not sure about this. This whole series, I Want To Believe, scares me, even...

July 18, 2018

Sick Pilgrim Goes to the Movies: Kiki’s Delivery Service

If you happen to visit our house sometime and find yourself invited down to our...

June 2018

June 19, 2018

Sick Pilgrim at the Movies: The Art Imitating Life of Incredibles 2

People, this is full of spoilers, hide your eyes (no, really, there have been some...

June 14, 2018

Sick Pilgrim Goes to the Movies: Adrift

It really was on a whim. I had nothing to do that evening, and a...

May 2018

May 16, 2018

To the Top of the Bleachers! – FA Awareness Day

I raised my head, looked up at our reserved seats, and felt a stomach-punching flood...

March 2018

March 01, 2018

Rare Disease Day: A Sick Pilgrim Lobbies on Capitol Hill

The sun was setting, and this Cajun was still not freezing. In the distant north...

January 2018

January 29, 2018

Things Keeping ME Alive

One of my favorite features at Sick Pilgrim is the monthly “Things Keeping Us Alive”...

December 2017

December 14, 2017

I See a Darkness (St. John of the Cross Feast Day Dark Devotional)

Here I am at 11pm, in the final hour of the Feast of Our Lady...

December 12, 2017

The Shadow Side of Advent

Yesterday—the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent—I read a poem by Nikki Giovanni, and...

November 2017

November 06, 2017

Spirit and Flesh: The Spiritual Experience of Getting a Tattoo

Aaron greets me at the counter of Carmel Ink: “What can I do for...

October 2017

October 09, 2017

The Bleeding Woman

When two friends told me that not only was the Bleeding Woman their favorite...

September 2017

September 12, 2017

Songs As Sanctuary: Justin Hopper on Steely Dan and Dive Bar Gothic

This was not what you might expect for the kind of place that had people...

September 06, 2017

Wind River and The Death of the “Godly Man.”

(Spoilers Ahead) A few nights ago, I returned from dropping off my kids and decided...

August 2017

August 15, 2017

The Cajun Saint and The Cajun Doubter: Charlene Richard and Me

The sun shone starkly and the humidity hugged us unwelcomingly as my mom and I entered...

July 2017

July 20, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Timekeeping

Some of the most interesting writing happening today exists in the liminal space between genres—micro-memoir,...

July 14, 2017

Dark Devotional: Alive With Decay

Seed work is work for the dark. It is growth to be entrusted to soil...

July 10, 2017

I Love a Good Clean Murder

Best are those with minimal blood: perhaps poison, asphyxiation, or even strangulation. But even better...

June 2017

June 14, 2017

Pest’s Letters: To My Friend Who Died of an Overdose

They found your body on the floor of your house last week. I don’t know...

March 2017

March 30, 2017

Sick Confessions: I’m a Bad Pray-er

"You arrive at enough certainty to be able to make your way, but it is...

March 19, 2017

St. Joseph’s Altar: The Lenten Feast?

Every year in my school, the classes would take a bus to a nearby banquet...