Jonathan Ryan's Blog, page 23

Family Photos, Statues, and Intergenerational Worry

Republished with Permission from the blog Crone Cafe     That awkwardly-framed 80s photo is a picture of three generations, plus the BVM statue in the corner (for non-Catholics, that’s the Blessed Virgin Mary). I believe it’s Mother’s Day of my senior year in high school, so I was 17, my mom was 57, and […]

Mary and the Cosmos

  The incarnation is cosmic in its significance. God the Word, the Logos, became man. He who is the first and the last, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, entered into time. The eschaton was immanentized. Heaven joined with earth. All of creation found itself included in the work and ministry of […]

To the Top of the Bleachers! – FA Awareness Day

I raised my head, looked up at our reserved seats, and felt a stomach-punching flood of emotions: extreme embarrassment, palpable nervousness, unspeakable shame. This emotional combo was a familiar one to me, and it hit me hard as I faced the long and steep staircase that led to my school’s reserved seating area in the […]

The Theotokos: A Protestant Love Song

A deep spiritual friend and mentor is the founder of an Orthodox monastery on the Isle of Mull, which among other things seeks to recover Egyptian iconographic style within a Celtic context. When he sent me the image of a Theotokos icon that he had commissioned, I could not look away from her eyes. Thus […]

When NFP Doesn’t Work: A Conclusion to Our ‘You Are Not Alone’ Series

  I’ve been reluctant to write an essay like this. I wanted to let the essays we published on NFP speak for themselves. I don’t want to speak for any of our contributors, or attempt to somehow interpret their experience. At the same time, this is precisely why I feel compelled to write an essay […]

Dark Devotional: More Than a Slave?

Art by the colorful and wovenly Brian Jocks. In last Sunday’s gospel reading, Jesus commands his disciples to love one another as He loves them. It mostly makes sense to me. Even the corollary makes sense – that if I don’t cherish all those for whom Christ died, then I am no friend of His. […]

Here’s Yer Catholic Culture: The Met Explores the Enduring Influence of the “Catholic Imagination”

You know you’re from Southern Louisiana when you’re shocked that people are shocked by the “appropriation” of Catholic symbols and traditions. We call our professional football team Saints and sing “Bless You Boys” at games. St. Joan of Arc, affectionately known as Joanie on a pony, guards the entrance to the French Market. The Met […]

Reclaiming Mary

I was an evangelical Christian first, a convert to Catholicism later in life. Mary was a point of contention, for years, in my soul. But if I am honest, I will admit that I had both an odd fascination with her, as well as fear. I feared the Mary of admonition: “be more Mary-like. Check […]

Mystery and Absurdity: Colin Dickey’s Afterlives of the Saints

  Think of the Catholic Church and you might think of pedophile clerics, Vatileaks, financial malfeasance. Even before those scandals erupted–even if they had never occurred–some have found plenty to criticize about official Church policies in the last couple of decades: its intolerance of other religions; its hostility to women’s ordination; its long-term campaign to […]

You Are Not Alone: Catholic Women’s Real Life Experiences of NFP, Part VIII

In anticipation of the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae this summer, Sick Pilgrim will be featuring a series of essays on Natural Family Planning, the only acceptable method of achieving or avoiding pregnancy according to the teaching of the Catholic Church. These essays will not present ideological stances or theological arguments, but will simply offer unvarnished testimony […]