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July 2018

July 08, 2018

Dress Like a Saint: What’s Actually on Display in the Met’s Heavenly Bodies Exhibit, Part II

In these descriptive essays, guest contributor, Susan L. Miller, captures the incarnational dimension that lies...

July 02, 2018

The Catholic Imagination: What’s Actually on Display in the Met’s Heavenly Bodies Exhibit, Part I

In these descriptive essays, guest contributor, Susan L. Miller, captures the incarnational dimension that lies...

May 2018

May 09, 2018

Here’s Yer Catholic Culture: The Met Explores the Enduring Influence of the “Catholic Imagination”

You know you're from Southern Louisiana when you're shocked that people are shocked by the...

May 03, 2018

Mystery and Absurdity: Colin Dickey’s Afterlives of the Saints

Think of the Catholic Church and you might think of pedophile clerics, financial malfeasance....

September 2017

September 30, 2017

Welcome to Spooky Pilgrim Month: Looking for Places of the Uncanny and Strange

The Nicene Creed tells us that God is the Creator of all things "Seen and...

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...

April 2017

April 11, 2017

Stations of the Cross: A Spectator to the Execution

You have my whole heart. You always did. —Cormac McCarthy, The Road Imagine for...

March 2017

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...

March 15, 2017

That Old Catholic Magic: Jacob Popcak Explains St. Patrick’s Day to Sick Pilgrim

We invited some Sick Pilgrims over to talk about one of our favorite saints, St...

November 2016

November 28, 2016

Advent: Kicking your Darkness

Since I first heard the song in college, I've meditated on a lyric by Canadian...

November 18, 2016

The Anointing of a Sick Pilgrim

I hobbled into church yesterday for the Rite of the Anointing of the Sick, holding the...

November 15, 2016

La Toussaint: How Cajuns Care for Cities of the Dead

In October we clean graves. We gather in the early morning or late afternoon...

October 2016

October 24, 2016

Blessed, Bewildered: A Former Altar Boy Remembers Benediction

Of all the mysterious rites of Catholicism, perhaps the most mysterious is the Benediction of...

September 2016

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 12, 2016

Sick Pilgrim at the Ministry Fair

One of our priests gave a rousing homily on the Prodigal Son on Sunday. Priests love to...

June 2016

June 21, 2016

Adventures in Popular Piety: Confession

There has always been something unappealingly puritanical to me about getting up early. It’s so...

May 2016

May 17, 2016

Marian Apparitions: Blessings or a Curse?

As a kid, I grew up in the Charismatic renewal that swept its way...

May 12, 2016

Three Reasons I Don’t Pray to Mary

Mary, it's not you. It's me. I promised that this month, your month, I would...

May 04, 2016

They Call Me Parrain: On the Strange Practice of being a Godparent

Cajun Country is a unique little hub in southern Louisiana. Nestled in the steroeotyped Southeastern...

May 01, 2016

I have a Problem with Mary…and Possibly Women in General.

I wear a rosary around my neck and not for a fashion statement. My best...

April 2016

April 26, 2016

The Bloody, Enchanted Host

About seven years ago, I took a job as an assistant minister in Columbus, Ohio....

April 24, 2016

About a year ago, I took one of my many trips to Utah, which has...

April 12, 2016

(With this post, we're kicking off a series called Popular Piety, exploring the physicality and magic...