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

Catholic

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

May 2021

May 28, 2021

Dark Devotional: After the Fire

Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire,...

March 2021

March 18, 2021

Recalibrating Your GPS

This is our fifth article in our Lenten series about pilgrimage, Sick Pilgrim's Progress. You can...

March 04, 2021

Taking the Long Way Home

This is the third week of our Lenten Series: Sick Pilgrim's Progress. You can read...

February 2021

February 17, 2021

Yippee, It’s Lent. Again.

“Hey, Mom. Are you excited about Ash Wednesday?” This is my daughter, who gets excited...

January 2021

January 22, 2021

Dark Devotional: Haunted by God

Four years ago, I parked my wheelchair behind the rows of pews in the...

January 08, 2021

Welcome Back, Sick Pilgrims

From its inception, Sick Pilgrim was intended to reach Catholics and Catholics-in-exile on the margins....

August 2018

August 16, 2018

Dark Devotional: The Case of the True Presence, and the Hoarding of the Manna- A Eucharistic Tale

I found myself inside an Episcopal church one Sunday morning last fall, partly an...

July 2018

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 23, 2018

I Want To Believe: Introduction

I can remember my first class in grad school, Intro to Counseling, almost a decade...

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...

May 2018

May 23, 2018

Family Photos, Statues, and Intergenerational Worry

Republished with Permission from the blog Crone Cafe That awkwardly-framed 80s photo is...

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....

March 2018

March 26, 2018

An Offering in Betrayal – A Holy Week Meditation

"Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack,...

November 2017

November 15, 2017

Stranger Things is the Most Catholic Show on TV

“Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of the bogey. What fairy...

October 2017

October 12, 2017

Approaching Mystery: Marie Kopp Travels Those Haunted Appalachian Roads

I grew up in the Appalachians of Western Pennsylvania, enfolded in these ancient, forested mountains....

August 2017

August 28, 2017

Narcissism, Exorcism, and the True Nature of Evil

Sixty years ago, C.S. Lewis began his book, Mere Christianity by giving us an example...

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...

May 2017

May 16, 2017

Looking Past the Miracle: The Poetry of Mary Szybist

I first heard Mary Szybist’s poems about 13 years ago in a St. Louis reading...

May 11, 2017

I Walked into Suffering on the Road to Santiago

“For as long as humans have walked, they have walked to get closer to their...

May 08, 2017

The Theology of Suffering Questions the Benedict Option

Allow me to tell you a story. A few years ago, I went through the...

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 16, 2017

Introducing Brian Jocks, Sick Pilgrim’s Illustrator

Louisiana artist Brian Jocks will be contributing original illustrations to the Dark Devotional, Sick Pilgrim's...

February 2017

February 10, 2017

Destruction As Grace – Dark Devotional

I stared up at the Basilica in hate. I hated them. Every single one of...

January 2017

January 18, 2017

Trying to Say God (as artists)

A few years ago, Kaya Oakes wrote in America Magazine that "Catholic literary culture today...

October 2016

October 17, 2016

Burn the Catholic Witches! (Like Me)

I've been doing some research on American saints and martyrs. A few of these stories...

September 2016

September 14, 2016

We’re All Catfishers….

My heart broke when I read Chase Padusniak's catfishing post and his story of being taken...

September 08, 2016

Dark Devotional: I Don’t Believe in the Fatherhood of God, do you?

When it comes to the story of the Prodigal Son, it's hard to...

August 2016

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 15, 2016

The Tradition of the Catholic Ghost Story: Call for Submissions!

Last year, Ave Maria Press (my place of gainful employment) celebrated 150 years of...

August 08, 2016

Confession: Is it Really Good for the Soul? Or is that just BS?

A few weeks ago, I attended the Applied Biblical Studies Conference at Franciscan University...