Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Sick Pilgrim

Home
Catholic

2017-10-21T21:39:45-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Approaching Mystery: Simeon Berry’s Backstory

Last updated on: October 21, 2017 at 9:39 pm By Guest Contributor

My Cub Scout leader was built like a dump truck. He was squat and jowly, with a huge belly and a retreating wave of dark, curly hair. No one would share a tent with him due to his incessant farting, but he was kind and jolly, and made jokes around the campfire about whose turn it was to fetch the left-handed smoke-shifter from the car, or how great last year’s snipe hunt was. He had the sturdy, dependable air... Read more

2017-10-19T09:21:37-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dark Devotional: Playing Both Sides

Last updated on: October 19, 2017 at 9:21 am By Guest Contributor

The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”... Read more

2017-10-16T11:45:21-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dark Devotional: Being a Wave

Last updated on: October 16, 2017 at 11:45 am By Guest Contributor

“I have only one thing to do and that’s be the wave that I am and then sink back into the ocean.” –Fiona Apple This lyric comes from a song called “Container,” but I’ve always found that to be a bit of a misnomer. If I close my eyes and imagine life as a wave, I can feel myself spreading out and melting away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pRvn7J9ZPQ Imagine what it is to be a wave: to retreat inside yourself and then... Read more

2017-10-12T14:49:37-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Approaching Mystery: Marie Kopp Travels Those Haunted Appalachian Roads

Last updated on: October 12, 2017 at 2:49 pm By Guest Contributor

I grew up in the Appalachians of Western Pennsylvania, enfolded in these ancient, forested mountains. It’s a place of constant drenching rain and mystic fogs. Oaks and maples, emerald in the summer, blaze out come October frosts, before waning to spindly bare branches beneath the snow. The roads through my mountains turn and swerve every which way. Our friends from Texas hated them, missing the gridlines of their home. Their mother said Pennsylvania roads must’ve been plotted by “a drunk... Read more

2017-10-09T15:18:07-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Bleeding Woman

Last updated on: October 9, 2017 at 3:18 pm By Jessica Mesman Griffith

When two friends told me that not only was the Bleeding Woman their favorite story in Grit and Grace, a book of “creatively re-imagined” Bible stories I wrote for tween-age girls, but that they cried while reading it, I chalked it up to their being women of a certain age and, well, perimenopausal. Hormones. After all, I’ve heard enough stories from my older friends about periods gone wild as menopause sets in that I figured these two... Read more

Personal Essay

Publishing

women in the Catholic Church

The Hemorrhaging Woman

women in the church

2017-10-09T11:19:52-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dark Devotional: In Praise of the Wild Grapes

Last updated on: October 9, 2017 at 11:19 am By Guest Contributor

It’s hard to write when you’re hugely distracted by really entertaining friends. The type of friends who have all the snark, and more wit than you can ever aspire to possessing. That’s what I realized when I sat down to write this, a week ago, attempting to submit something early for once. Look, roomie! I did it! It’s hard to reflect when the song on your Pandora station is happily chanting like a drunk 1990s jock, “Welcome to... Read more

Dark Devotional

Flannery O'Connor

Marie Kopp

2017-10-09T11:15:48-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Approaching Mystery: Marybeth Bishop Haunts the Dead

Last updated on: October 9, 2017 at 11:15 am By Guest Contributor

States of Matter * I don’t know why the idea of dead bodies didn’t bother me. They never did. Maybe it was because I believed the resident was no longer home, had somewhere better to be, and what was left was delightfully quiet. We could respect each other and go about our business unbothered, theirs stationary, mine frenetic, different states of matter. Solid to liquid, liquid to gas. There is this old cemetery in my home town where we... Read more

2017-09-30T13:19:55-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dark Devotional: Saint Paul Say WHAT?

Last updated on: September 30, 2017 at 1:19 pm By Guest Contributor

I love to pray. I love to spend time with God, in silence, in community, in Word and in liturgy. Sometimes, though, at the most inopportune times, I’m called upon to lead prayer and I just want to laugh in despair (Who, me? Lead you in something vulnerable and heart-opening? When I feel like THIS?!) At a recent planning meeting in which I was supposed to launch a new ministry, I gave our pastor the look, turned to the person next... Read more

2017-09-30T11:09:57-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

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

Last updated on: September 30, 2017 at 11:09 am By Jonathan Ryan

The Nicene Creed tells us that God is the Creator of all things “Seen and Unseen” or “Visible and Invisible.” Sick Pilgrim owes its existence to the blurry lines between the two, places that are not quite “night” and not quite the “day,” places of the the uncanny where Mystery, not certainty, rules. A few years ago, we (Jonathan and Jess) met for a beer at a faux-pub near Notre Dame. Jonathan, who was working as an editor at a... Read more

2017-09-28T22:12:03-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Things Keeping Us Alive, September 2017

Last updated on: September 28, 2017 at 10:12 pm By Matt Lafleur

Maybe this is contradictory to what is expected from a somber sick pilgrim in a post reminding us of the small joys right now, but September has been great to me. Maybe the blusteriness and deathly season of autumn and the approaching of THE BEST HOLIDAY- HALLOWEEN stirs something within us unwell sojourners. The Great Pumpkin comes soon; be glad. Last month, I visited a graveyard with my mom after her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, and wrote about it here.... Read more

canine companions for independence

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Elijah Paul Isaiah Jesus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Approaching Mystery art Book Reviews Catholic Ghost Story Catholicism community Confession Current Events Dark Devotional Deconstruction Deconstruction Fellow Travelers I Want To Believe Interview Laudato Si Lent Mary Matthew's Letters Movie Reviews Music Reviews Our Charism Personal Essay Pilgrims Pope Francis Popular Piety Prayer Publishing Richard Beck Saints Satan Sheed and Ward Sick Pilgrim Charism Sick Pilgrim Chats Sick Pilgrim Events Sick Pilgrim Travelin' Medicine Show Sick Pilgrimage to The West Sick Pilgrims Small Joys Spiritual Autobiography Spooky Files of Ave Maria Magazine Spooky October Spooky Pilgrim Spooky Pilgrimage Strange Journey The Inklings Things Keeping Us Going Trying to Say God TV Reviews Uncategorized women in the Catholic Church Wonder Podcast Write the Vision

Select a Month February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 October 2019 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Catholic