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March 2017

March 02, 2017

Dark Devotional: How Do I Get to the Desert?

I learned I had no discipline or willpower at age nine when my fourth grade...

February 2017

February 21, 2017

Why Are We So Afraid of Mercy and Our Own Heretical Little Hearts?

As I sort through the events of the past few months, I've tried to figure...

February 17, 2017

Dark Devotional- The Stepford Jesus?

The word “perfect” makes me cringe. It conjures images of syrupy-sweet holy card saints, and...

February 09, 2017

To Bill Nye, Fellow Ataxian

...while Nye dreams of outer space, it's his own DNA that worries him. "My family...

January 2017

January 24, 2017

Screwtape Does America

(At four o'clock this morning, I (Jonathan) woke up and thought about the events...

January 10, 2017

Praying with Depression (and Children)

"I want us to recite the Lord’s Prayer together in the mornings as a family...

January 08, 2017

Dark Devotional: Baptism in the Crapper

My parish has persevered for over a century, resisting many of the trends that reduced...

January 03, 2017

A Letter to the Devout Mother’s Son Who Skipped Christmas Mass

This week, I read an article on a Catholic blog about a son’s absence from...

December 2016

December 23, 2016

A Christmas Card to Those Who Go to Church Once A Year, Love Sick Pilgrim

Every year, my local church divides each Mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day into...

December 22, 2016

Dark Devotional: It’s Christmas, Let’s Get Drunk!

One of my earliest childhood memories is my dad getting tipsy from the communion wine...

December 14, 2016

Adventures of an Agnostic in the Weird World of Catholicism

When my roommates first told me that they were going to get time off...

November 2016

November 22, 2016

Hot Mess Hospitality: Against the Art-Directed Life

There are two truths I must tell you. I have to tell you that I...

November 07, 2016

Bear One Another’s Burdens This Election Day.

I looked around at my fellow Confirmands, most of them hiding zits with heavy doses...

November 07, 2016

Pornography, the Election, and the Problem of a Woman in Power

I first experienced pornography when I was 10 years old. It was 1985. One of my...

November 01, 2016

Slavery Still Haunts Us

On November 2, the Catholic Church celebrates All Souls' Day, to remember and pray for...

October 2016

October 25, 2016

Jack Chick and The Year of Mercy.

HAW! HAW! HAW! My parents threw themselves into the charismatic movement of the late...

October 04, 2016

Why Are Your Kids Leaving the Church? They’re Materialist Magicians

As someone who watches Catholic media for a living, it's hard to ignore the mass...

September 2016

September 22, 2016

Raising my son in an age of gun worship and racial violence

There are summer days in Northwest Michigan when the temperature hovers at 80 degrees, a...

September 21, 2016

I took a crash course in Gregorian chant. Literally.

When the email circulated that there would be a traditional Latin Mass at our parish...

September 21, 2016

Art Won’t Make You a Better Person

A guest post from a Lutheran Sick Pilgrim, Joel Westerholm I’m in what I hope is...

September 18, 2016

Dark Devotional: Mother of Sorrows

After accepting that the mystical experience I had was about being drawn into full communion...

September 07, 2016

“For the [Not Quite] Dead”

When I was a junior in high school, I was having a rough time. Learning...

August 2016

August 31, 2016

A Back to School Prayer for the Weirdos (and their weirdo parents)

I wrote this essay six years ago, before my daughter was diagnosed with autism and my google...

August 29, 2016

3 Things That Every Convert/Revert Wants Cradles to Know (No, This Ain’t a Cosmo Article)

Since I work in the Disneyland for Catholics (Notre Dame), I see all kinds of...

August 24, 2016

Lament for the Louisiana Flood

I was born and raised in southern Louisiana, and flooding was a fact of life in...

August 24, 2016

The Mystery is Right Next to Us. Learn How to Find It.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda pokes Luke Skywalker with his walking stick and...

August 22, 2016

Being Catholic, Being Cajun: Catholic Identity and its Discontents

The calamity in my neck of the woods, Southern Louisiana, is pervasive. My entire community has...

August 13, 2016

Come Back, Elliott: A Man Writes a Tear Stained Review of Pete’s Dragon

(Spoilers ahoy) When the original Pete's Dragon came out in 1977,...

August 11, 2016

Dark Devotional: Enduring Unto Death

Hebrews 12:1-4 Brothers and sisters: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud...

August 04, 2016

We Don’t Need Another Hero

Last week Jonathan asked me to write about Sick Pilgrim's mission and/or "charism." The way I understand it,...