The Pilgrim Soul

We're excited to announce our December and January episodes will focus on the theme of Christian vocation, taking inspiration from the book Time & the Temple, by Luigi Giussani, translated by our own Sofi. //

You can read an excerpt at the Church Life Journal. And you can purchase a copy of the text from the publisher, ⁠Slant Books⁠, or on ⁠Amazon⁠, ⁠Barnes & Noble⁠, or ⁠Bookshop⁠. //

Fr. Giussani reminds us that the vocation of every baptized Christian echoes the calling of the apostles: it is not something that ultimately depends on us, nor does it require particular conditions. Rather, it comes about through the encounter with an exceptional presence within a concrete place and time. In other words: the temple, in time.

The method of discernment outlined in these pages has implications for every moment of our lives. Nothing is useless—and everything reveals an ultimate positivity. A new morality arises in those who thus begin to follow God’s method, as it did for Simon Peter when, to Christ’s question, he replied: “Yes, you know that I love you.” Thus all of life becomes the offering of every instant for the glory of Christ, so that he may be recognized as having the capacity to save the present moment.

This month’s conversation is on fear.

Is our original relationship to reality one of fear or attraction? What do we most fear? What does servile fear reveal about our hearts? How can we instead accept our finitude with reverential fear of God? //

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:

Bishop Varden’s interview from Lent 2024

The story of Chiara Corbella Petrillo

A letter of St Thomas More to his daughter Margaret

A homily by Cardinal Pizzaballa on St. Peter //

Our media recommendation is Sigrid Undset’s trilogy Olav Audunsson, specifically Tiina Nunnally’s translation. And our monthly challenge is to identify a fear and bring it, in prayer, to Christ at the foot of the Cross.  //

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

Giuli, Adrianna and Sofi dive into the topic of tradition. What do we lose when we instinctively reject authority as a limitation? Can tradition instead be something living that enhances our reason and freedom? How is tradition handed on from one person to the next, and how can we be authentic authorities of our tradition? // 

Our media recommendation is the novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and its most recent film adaptation. And our monthly challenge is to both recall someone who has been an authentic authority of the tradition for you, and to consider that you are called to propose this tradition to the freedom of another. // 

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:

• Dei Verbum
• The Communion and Liberation Christmas poster
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s third sermon for the vigil of the Nativity of the Lord
• An audience of Pope Benedict XVI from 2006
• Luigi Giussani’s books “The Religious Sense”, “The Risk of Education”, and “Generating Traces in the History of the World”
• Hans Urs Von Balthasar’s “Movement Toward God” in volume 3 of Explorations in Theology
• Alberto Savorana’s biography “The Life of Luigi Giussani”
• Max Weber’s lecture “Science as a Vocation”
• G.K. Chesterton’s book Orthodoxy
• John Henry Newman’s “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine”
• Jaroslav Pelikan’s lecture “The Vindication of Tradition" // 

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

Adrianna joins Sofia in Chicago for our first-ever live episode, on prayer and companionship as the two banks of the river of our relationship with God. Drawing on Fr. Luigi Giussani's definition of prayer as awareness of dependence upon God, we explore how this awareness grows in the heart and invites us into a radically new way of being with others. Many thanks to St. Mary's for the hospitality, and to our listeners both old and new who attended! //

Our media recommendation is Bruce Marshall's novel The World, the Flesh, and Fr. Smith. Our monthly challenge is to offer Holy Mass for your parish. //

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

This month, we're sharing a testimony Sofia recently gave about her experience ten years ago at Fundación San Rafael in Asunción, Paraguay, a center for the poor started by Fr. Aldo Trento. Through the story of his life, of the mission, and of her summer in Paraguay, the talk explores how Christ reveals Himself in our poverty and in the Eucharist, transforming our hopelessness and monotony into the dawn of Heaven. //

You can find out more about Fundación San Rafael on their website. Please consider joining the Friends of San Rafael to support their work; here is the registration form, and opportunity to donate.

We are excited to announce our first-ever live recording of The Pilgrim Soul!

Join Adrianna and Sofia in Bridgeport, Chicago on July 31st for an episode on "The Two Banks of the River: Prayer and Communion."

We are grateful for the hospitality of St. Mary of Perpetual Help, and hope to see you there!

• 6 PM: Mass
• 7 PM: Dinner & Live Episode

Tickets are available at this link, and include dinner, refreshments, and dessert. Free parking is available in the church lot. All proceeds benefit Sofia's parish, St. Mary of Perpetual Help.

Join Sofia in praying the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, guided by reflections from Father Luigi Giussani.

Please know of our prayers for you—and please pray for Giuli (and baby Luke) and Adrianna (and baby Cecilia) during their maternity leave!

You can find the other set of mysteries here:

• Glorious Mysteries
• Sorrowful Mysteries
• Joyful Mysteries

Join Giuli, Sofi and Adrianna for a conversation about identity. How is the identity of a Christian both a gift and a task? What falsehoods about identity tempt us away from this reality? Which experiences and relationships have built and revealed our identity to us? //

Our media recommendation is Mike Posner’s song “I Went Back to Ibiza”, with his prior song “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” for context. And our monthly challenge is to reflect, at the start or end of your day, on your encounters and actions, asking the question: “What does this have to do with my identity?” //

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:

• Quo Vadis, Humanitas? (especially Chapter 3), a document released by the International Theological Commission led by our friend Fr. Javier Prades
• St. Edith Stein’s “Essays on Woman”
• then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s collection of homilies ”In the Beginning” //

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

Adrianna, Sofi, and Giuli have a conversation about failure. How do we, shaped by our modern culture, often face failure reductively? How does God respond to human failure? Is it possible for failures (ours and those of others) to be places of encounter with Christ? What helps us live with the posture of a beggar? //

Our media recommendation is Rembrandt’s painting The Return of the Prodigal Son. And our monthly challenge is to pray with Habbakuk 3:17-18.  //

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:

- “Collected Works: Theology of the Liturgy” of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

- Sofia read Walker Percy’s quote about the sinners in the Church in an excellent essay by John O’Callaghan in First Things //

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

This month, we are discussing culture. What is the source of an authentically Christian culture? How does it differ from retreating into exile from the world, on the one hand, or conforming oneself to its mentality, on the other? What helps us judge everything in light of the Christian event? //

Our media recommendation is the memoir The Shadow of His Wings by Fr. Gereon Goldmann. And our monthly challenge is to visit the cathedral of your diocese, ideally with a tour guide to explain its history and art. //

Check out Sofi’s translation of Time and the Temple, published by Slant Books. The book is available for purchase on Bookshop or Amazon. A beautiful presentation of the text by Fr. Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori, in dialogue with high school students, is available on YouTube. //

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:

- Luigi Giussani’s book “In Search of the Human Face”

- The Beginning Day text for 2025, “Christ: The New Principle of Knowledge and Action” 

- Fr. Julian Carron’s letter at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

- Josef Zverina’s Letter to the Christians of the West 

- A Christmas homily by Bishop Erik Varden 

- Our episode on hope with Amanda Achtman //

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