Jonathan Ryan and I have set up a soapbox over at Patheos.com in the hopes that some interesting people will show up.
We’re calling the new blog Sick Pilgrim, because we’re all pilgrims drifting toward God whether we realize it or not, sick as dogs, wounded and fallen, in need of healing and rest and companionship. Sometimes we sing on our way, and sometimes we kick and scream. We long for fellow travelers who can help bear our burdens and illuminate the good and beautiful when the way turns dark
We’re not going to try to make Catholicism relevant, though we may sometimes reveal how relevant it stubbornly remains.
We want to talk about the ways in which many of us are searching for something that’s been there all along. Like how I spent all morning searching for the glasses that were on top of my head.
I hope Sick Pilgrim will be a space of attraction, not proselytizing, that it will remain blessedly free from snark and sentimentality, ideological thought policing and toxic outrage. I hope we’ll be unafraid to speak truth but insatiably curious and unfailingly compassionate. That might be an impossible dream, but it’s worth dreaming.
I want to invite people into the church, encourage them to look around, raid the place for treasures, and claim what’s theirs.
Because I’m convinced the Church is our sanctuary in this world, a place to be fed, nurtured, forgiven, a place to grow up together. A family, a mystical body, a hospital for sinners—not the hidebound rulebook of patriarchal oppression so many of my friends seem to imagine. And I believe the best way to show it is by telling stories.
jessicamesman.com 