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 pilgrimsoulpodcast@gmail.com 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 ⁠⁠⁠pilgrimsoulpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠ 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 pilgrimsoulpodcast@gmail.com 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.