Jonathan Ryan's Blog, page 58
April 27, 2016
God at Platform 9 and 3/4
For the last year myfaith has been a gritty, dig in and get dirty in real life affair. I’ve stirred the beans and served the soups and lifted newborn babies from the womb to the breast, dirtying myself with the smell of the gorgeous flock my missionary life here in Costa Rica has generously given [Read More...]
April 26, 2016
The Bloody, Enchanted Host
About seven years ago, I took a job as an assistant minister in Columbus, Ohio. It was my third position in seven years and I could never get comfortable in ministry. Nothing seemed right to me and I felt this constant tugging towards something. If you had asked me what, I couldn’t have told you. [Read More...]
April 24, 2016
Popular Piety: A Vision of the Sacred Heart
About a year ago, I took one of my many trips to Utah, which has become my go-to vacation spot. I have a ton of friends out there, including one of my best friends. She’s your typical California hippie, open to anything spiritually. Lately, she’d been going to a Christian reiki healer who, supposedly, really [Read More...]
April 22, 2016
The Dark Devotional: Christians Drive Me Crazy
“My children…This is how all will know that you are my disciples,if you have love for one another.” (John 13) I was involved in a mom’s group at our church. Just a couple of women each time, led by a nun a little on the serious side. There were no thrills, no frills. We looked [Read More...]
April 21, 2016
A Eulogy for Prince
Huh? Prince can’t die. Prince isn’t even human. Prince is ageless, immortal.Prince does not get the flu. Prince does not go to the doctor. Prince doesn’t do anything so ordinary and mundane and predictable as death. I’ve seen dozens of FB statuses like these. Like so many of my friends, when I heard the news [Read More...]
April 19, 2016
Catholic-Attracted? Come Sit By Us. A Reflection on the Festival of Faith and Writing
We’re still recovering from our first-everFestival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College–where Jonathan and Iwere bothblown away by the greatstuff and people and books and art and music we heard and encountered. Wow.Nothing like beingjolted out of the darkness by the goodness and beauty of God and our fellow man. Those Calvinists are kicking [Read More...]
April 18, 2016
Popular Piety: Holy Water
“One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith.” –St. Bernadette April 16is the Feast of St. Bernadette, when Catholics celebrate a poor, sickly, teenager of Lourdes, France, who had visions of theVirgin Mary. ThoughI’ve never had a particularly strong Marian devotion, I’ve always felt a special connection to Bernadette, [Read More...]
April 13, 2016
I had a Dream about Amoris Laetitia (A Divorced Dad’s Thoughts)
I had a strange dream over the weekend. I was in a hospital with a bunch of patients who suffered from a variety of terrible diseases. Some people looked healthyeven though adeadly disease ate away at them from the inside. Others had hideous red and purple scars all over their bodies. I soon realized [Read More...]
April 12, 2016
Scapegoats for Each Other
(This article is for the Patheos Town Square discussion,The Sacrifice: Religions and the Role of the Scapegoat. You can find the other insightful articles here) “If you want to live in pride and division and anger, you can. But if you will be a part of the best of us, and live and laugh [Read More...]
Popular Piety: An Interview with a Traiteur
(With this post, we’re kicking off a series calledPopular Piety, exploring the physicality and magic of traditional, cultural Catholicism.) GeraldBoullion is atraiteur, a Catholic faith healer popular within the Cajun culture of southern Louisiana for hundreds of years. Like the Native Americans, the Protestant Christians of the Appalachians, and countless other remote populations for whomdoctors [Read More...]
