The Pilgrim Soul

Giuli, Sofi and Adrianna have a conversation about the relationship between suffering and desire. The central claim we discuss is that suffering presents us with an alternative: either my desire is for something impossible and thus life is meaningless, or my desire is undergoing a positive test of its meaning. The Christian proposal is that suffering can be a privileged place of encounter with God. This episode was based on an article by Francesco Botturi in the magazine Traces. You can find a PDF on our website at www.pilgrimsoulpodcast.com/a-trial-of-desire or an audio recording by our friend Fr. Mike on Apple Podcasts www.tinyurl.com/3w64cts8 or Spotify www.tinyurl.com/4ahbmmzb //

Our media recommendation is C.S. Lewis' novel The Great Divorce: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Divorce. Our monthly challenge is to pray with Psalm 22 and unite it to your own experience of suffering. //

We’d love to hear from you! Write to us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram at @pilgrimsoulpodcast. Our website is www.pilgrimsoulpodcast.com. //

Other resources we mention:

- Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Join all three hosts for an episode on unity. What does it look like to experience unity in our selves, our lives, our families, and the Church? What can generate and sustain unity? How are we tempted to reduce it to a work of our own hands—and what is our calling instead? //

We’d love to hear from you! Write to us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram at @pilgrimsoulpodcast. Our website is www.pilgrimsoulpodcast.com. //

Our media recommendation is Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony” (No. 2) as conducted by Leonard Bernstein: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgtSa6XYWdE. You can find a helpful program here: www.tinyurl.com/w68zv3en Our monthly challenge is to pray with the canticle of the three young men in the furnace from the Book of Daniel, specifically the section that invokes all creation in a litany of praise to God: www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=449 //

Other resources we mention:

- The Fraternity Exercises of Communion and Liberation, a retreat preached in 2021 by Fr. Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori: www.english.clonline.org/pubblications/other-texts/fraternity-exercises/christ-the-life-of-life

- Adrienne Von Speyr’s book “Three Women and the Lord”

- Hans Urs von Balthasar’s book “Engagement with God”

- Bishop Erik Varden’s book “Chastity” //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Adrianna, Giuli, and Sofi are joined by Paolo again for a final conversation about The Religious Sense. What does it mean to observe the “I” in action? Why does Giussani exhort us to live in the present moment as we seek answers to our ultimate questions? And how does this follow from his methodological premises about reason? If you’re following along with the text, we’re on Chapter 4. You can find the text in PDF form at www.scritti.luigigiussani.org or an audio recording of the chapter at Fr. Mike’s podcast www.tinyurl.com/34vnewy3. //

Our media recommendations are the poems “Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America” by Matthew Olzmann (www.tinhouse.com/letter-to-the-person-who-carved-his-initials-into-the-oldest-living-longleaf-pine-in-north-america/) and “Staying Power” by Jeanne Walker Murray (www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/42166/staying-power). And the monthly challenge is to pray a nightly examen, seeking to find the meaning of what you are living now and how the Mystery may be speaking to you through reality. //

Other resources we mention:

- Sofia’s episode with Catholic Stuff You Should Know: www.catholicstuffpodcast.com/podcast/2024/06/27/farsi-belle.html

- The podcast of Giussani’s original university lectures called “Il senso religioso” www.english.clonline.org/giussani-podcast-religious-sense

- Reimagining the Examen App: www.ignatianspirituality.com/reimagining-examen-app/ //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

We’re back with a third episode on The Religious Sense. This time, we are covering “the impact of morality on the dynamic of knowing.” By this phrase, Don Giussani means that the embodied feelings that objects provoke in us condition our reason’s access to the truth. He suggests that the proper response is not to eliminate our feelings, but to order them to a love of truth. You can find the text in PDF form at www.scritti.luigigiussani.org or an audio recording of the chapter at Fr. Mike’s podcast www.tinyurl.com/23nn7ym3. We’ll be back next month with Chapter 4. //

Our media recommendation is the play Twelve Angry Men, which you can find in movie form on Amazon Prime or YouTube. And the monthly challenge is to identify someone in your life who lives with vivacity: who is moved by what they encounter and forms judgments about things, but orders these ideas to a love of truth. //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Join Adrianna and Sofi for a second episode on The Religious Sense. This time we’re discussing Chapter 2, in which Don Giussani introduces the idea of “reasonableness.” You can find the text in PDF form at www.scritti.luigigiussani.org or an audio recording of the chapter at Fr. Mike’s podcast www.tinyurl.com/562pncac. We’ll be back (with Giuli!) next month for Chapter 3. //

Our media recommendation is the film The Holdovers. And the monthly challenge is to examine your life, especially in your relationships and your faith, and ask whether you are applying a false standard of logic or rational deduction instead of following the method of moral certainty. //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

In this episode, Giuli, Adrianna, and Sofi talk about “realism,” a concept from Luigi Giussani’s book The Religious Sense. We are joined by a special guest, Sofi and Giuli’s father Paolo! If you’re following along with the text, we’re on Chapter 1. //

Our media recommendation is the film The Truman Show. And the monthly challenge is to ask yourself why you live the vocation you live. If you are married, why do you stay with your spouse? If you are consecrated, why do you give your life completely to God? For everyone, why do you try to follow Christ? Why do you go to work? Why do you belong to your communities? //

Other resources we mention:

- David Ramirez’s song “The Bad Days”

- Julian of Norwich’s revelations or “Showings” //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

We are starting a new miniseries inspired by "The Religious Sense," a book by our spiritual father Don Luigi Giussani. In our next few episodes, we will be discussing Chapters 1, 2, and 3. If you'd like to read with us, you can find a PDF at www.scritti.luigigiussani.org (just make a free account!). Or if you prefer to listen, check out Fr. Mike's recordings here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-go-walk-and-listen/id1702088561?i=1000624264131.

In today’s episode Adrianna, Giuliana and Sofia consider simplicity. What is the simple truth of the Christian life? How can we discover every circumstance as a good for us? Where are we experiencing new life through cultivating simplicity of heart? //

Our media recommendation is a page from Julian of Norwich’s Showings: the 10th revelation of the 24th chapter, which you can find here https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Revelations_of_Divine_Love/Chapter_24. In the spirit of accepting the gratuity of salvation, this episode doesn’t have a monthly challenge. //

Other resources we mention:

- The Life of Saint Catherine of Siena by Raymond of Capua

- Luigi Giussani’s address in St. Peter’s Square in 1998: www.english.clonline.org/archive/fr-giussani/in-the-simplicity-of-my-heart-i-have-gladly-given-you-everything

- T.S. Eliot’s poem The Four Quartets

- "The Beauty Within", an interview series with Trappistine nuns www.podcasts.apple.com/tt/podcast/beauty-within/id1573992790

- The Silence of Mary by Fr. Ignacio Larranaga

- “In the Beginning”, a book of homilies by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Bishop Varden’s reflections on St. Anthony from this interview: www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/02/15/the-one-thing-worth-fearing-is-separation-from-him-who-is-a-conversation-with-bishop-varden/ //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

This episode concludes a three-part mini-series in which we put some of you, our listeners, behind the mic. The episode was inspired by our gratitude for the rich friendship and Christian witness that the podcast has brought into our lives. Today’s guest is Kathryn Sheffield, a mother and lawyer based in Virginia. Kathryn shares about her conversion to the Catholic faith and the path of mission that she has walked since, in response to the Lord’s invitation to care for vulnerable children. //

Other resources we mention:

The USCCB Domestic Policy Office www.usccb.org

Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, paragraph 180

The Saint Joseph Ministry www.txcatholic.org/stjosephministry/ //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.” We are part of the Spoke Street media network: check it out at www.spokestreet.com.

This episode continues a three-part mini-series in which we put some of you, our listeners, behind the mic. The episode was inspired by our gratitude for the rich friendship and Christian witness that the podcast has brought into our lives. Today’s guest is Jessica Laenger, a medical student in Pensacola, Florida. Jess tells us about the early experiences that awakened the ultimate questions in her heart, where she has sought and found answers in the years since, and what her desires are for the future. //

Jess offered (multiple!) songs as the media recommendations for this episode. Here are the links to each on YouTube:

O Salutaris Hostia, Erik Esevalds: www.youtube.com/watch?v=blUTC7zzzRI

The Ascension, Phil Wickham: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsp_sOmG-2A

Hope, Tom Rosenthal: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaUx7X7iU6A

A Little Bit of Everything, Dawes (recently covered by Lizzie McAlpine) www.youtube.com/watch?v=vin0U-ej1L8

You Could Start a Cult, Niall Horan and Lizzie McAlpine: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXy335X5xKs //

Other resources we mention:

Communion and Liberation’s “Beginning Day” www.english.clonline.org/cl/t218/life-in-the-movement

Graham Greene’s novel “The End of the Affair” //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.” We are part of the Spoke Street media network: check it out at www.spokestreet.com.