When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety” (Luke 2:48). ’Twas the Sunday after Christmas and all through conservative Catholicland the great post-Christmas drama for fundamentalist Catholics is whether the lector will read the “long” version of the epistle during the liturgy of the word. Never mind that the rubrics permit using the... Read more
The Scriptures sacred to Christians say “These three abide: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.” [1 Cor. 13:13] What happens for persons in whom faith no longer abides? Can they still practice hope and love? A few weeks ago, friends who find they have lost their faith wrote of still setting up their Advent wreaths and candles out of lifelong habit and custom. But they were asking themselves why they were... Read more
Dark Devotional: Mary, Motherhood, and Mixed Feelings Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. The final Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Mary’s assent, the Sunday of motherhood. It is also the Sunday of Mary, did you know? and Breath of Heaven. Let’s dispense with Mary, did you know? forthwith – yes, she bloody well did. We’ll come back to Breath of Heaven. Motherhood. I’ll never forget... Read more
Well, this week has gotten away from me. It was a seemingly endless stream of cumulative small stressors leaving me feeling bone tired. That was before I had to drive two hours each way in a dense fog during a driving rainstorm to attend the memorial service for a young man who struggled so painfully for so long. Every radio station along the way recounted more of the horror unfolding in Arkansas and Kentucky from devastating tornadoes. As if some... Read more
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged! The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior (Zeph. 3:16–17). “It’s the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the closing of the Year of Saint Joseph,” my roommate told me when she invited me to attend Mass with her. In the Diocese of San Diego, the bishop lifted the general dispensation for the Sunday and holy day Mass obligation, put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, on July... Read more
Thanksgiving was bittersweet. Traditionally, it is the holiday we celebrate with my Personal Chef’s clan in midcoast Maine. The oldest sister and her husband fly in from out west. The oldest niece comes up from Virginia. We drive up from Massachusetts. Three, and now and again four, generations of the family spend the holiday together. It’s something I look forward to each year. Only, the folks out west couldn’t find flights, the sister who hosts was under the weather, and... Read more
What are you waiting for? Kristen challenged me with this question on the first day of Advent. I was at once giddy to have a focus for the season, and heartbroken because the answer isn’t so simple. I’ve shared before that I’m at a low point faith-wise. When we left the Catholic church during Holy Week this year, I really thought it was just a geographic change. I told myself that I still believed all the same things, I just... Read more
Another advent season has begun, the second one in this Covid-19 pandemic. It snuck up on me this year. In fact, the realization that today is the first Sunday of advent woke me up out of a sound sleep in the wee hours of this morning—not with a feeling of panic that I completely forgot to plan our annual advent series (which I totally did), but rather with hopeful expectation. But for what? What exactly am I expecting? In this... Read more
This Sunday is the last Sunday in the liturgical year, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This solemnity was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in his encyclical, Quas Primas, at a time when secularism was on the rise. His hope was for a threefold blessing from the solemnity: “When we pay honor to the princely dignity of Christ, men will doubtless be reminded that the Church, founded by Christ as a perfect... Read more
Just because I married a chef, doesn’t mean I cannot cook, you know. That wasn’t always the case. I came into this marriage as a TERRIBLE cook. My mama is a good cook. She can really throw down. She couldn’t stand how messy I was in her kitchen, though, so she gave up trying to teach me. In fact, in exasperation one day, she exclaimed, “Your only hope is to marry a chef.” It was excellent advice. Our first date... Read more
Sick Pilgrim
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In