The Pilgrim Soul

This month we’re sharing responses to questions asked by you, our listeners. The questions center around living a charism in the Church, accompanying others in the spiritual life, discerning God’s will for your life, and growing–daily, concretely–in a loving relationship with Christ. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question! //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:Pope Leo’s June 6th 2025 address to lay movementsLumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the ChurchPope Francis’ October 15th 2022 address to Communion & LiberationAlberto Savorana’s biography The Life of Luigi GiussaniAn excerpt of a dialogue with Fr. Javier Prades called The Rhythm of the MysteryMother Mary Francis’ book “My Beloved is Mine and I am His” \\Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Join us for the first-ever in-person episode of The Pilgrim Soul! During their vacation together in Idaho, Giuli, Sofi and Adrianna had a conversation about leisure. What is leisure? How are we tempted to distort it? What instead is its right relationship to prayer, work, and community? How are we educated in a true use of our free time? //Our media recommendation is Louis Armstrong’s song What a Wonderful World, which you can find on Spotify or on YouTube. Our monthly challenge is to take a moment one evening to look at the stars. //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:Josef Pieper’s book “Leisure, the Basis of Culture”Fr. Luigi Giussani’s book “The Religious Sense”The Diary of St. Faustina KowalskaAn excerpt from The Portal of the Mystery of Hope, a poem by Charles Peguy \\Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks."

This month, Adrianna, Sofi, and Giuli are joined by their friend Fr. John Nepil for a conversation on how the encounter with Christ transforms the experience of the wilderness. Fr. John is a priest of the Archdiocese of Denver, a member of the Companions of Christ, and co-host of the podcast Catholic Stuff You Should Know. This conversation draws on his excellent book “To Heights and Unto Depths: Letters from the Colorado Trail” which was recently published by Ignatius Press and is also available on Amazon. //Fr. John’s media recommendations are the writing of Wendell Berry, such as the novel Jayber Crow (or Sofi’s favorite is his book of sabbath poems, A Timbered Choir), and the music of Gregory Alan Isakov. His monthly challenge is to reread Chapters 1-2 of Genesis in a place of creation, whether the backcountry or your own backyard. //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. We’d be happy to pass on any questions to Fr. John. //Other resources we mention:Luigi Giussani’s book The Religious SensePope Benedict XVI’s address “The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty”Romano Guardini’s book The Essence of ChristianityThe testimony of Jone Echarri about her paralysis \\Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

This month, we’re sharing a talk Sofi gave to the Word on Fire Institute on Our Lady as “The Certainty of Our Hope”. You can find a PDF of the paintings Sofi references on our website. //The great desire of the human heart is for perfect happiness, total love, lasting fulfillment—for union with God. This destiny is possible in Jesus Christ. But we can lose hope, stumbling or growing discouraged over the ordinary challenges of life. Mary, the Mother of God, gives certainty to our hope. Mary stands at the heart of salvation history as the one through whom God fulfills his promises. Throughout her pilgrimage of faith, from the Annunciation to the Cross to her Assumption, her virginal surrender to the Mystery gives form to His presence in the world and strength to those who believe in Him. In her, each member of the Church discovers a mother who accompanies, educates, and sustains us on our path to our destiny. //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.”

Adrianna, Sofi, and Giuli have a conversation about mission. What is the communal task entrusted to the baptized? What does it look like to live our individual responsibility for the glory of Christ? How does God’s initiative of mercy enable us to embrace the slightest fragment of truth or goodness wherever we find it? //Our media recommendation is The Universal Call to Holiness, a relief in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC (virtual tour). And our monthly challenge is to reflect on the apocryphal story of Jesus and the dead dog (cited on page 117 of this PDF), and to ask, in whatever situation of death or emptiness comes to mind, to recognize and embrace the good present there as Christ does.  //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:An excerpt from Generating Traces in the History of the World on mission and ecumenism The video The Faith of Fr. GiussaniA speech by Pope Pius XII cited in Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Christifidelis laici Bishop Erik Varden’s April 27 interview in The Pillar on the conclave Fr. Luigi Giussani’s letters to the first missionaries from Communion & Liberation to BrazilThe Ways of the Cross organized by Communion & Liberation throughout the USAPope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium Bishop Erik Varden’s recent talk on “Living with Wounds” at the University of Notre Dame The story of Elvira Parravicini’s work in neonatal palliative careLumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church //Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Join Sofia and Adrianna in praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, guided by reflections from Father Luigi Giussani. We pray this Easter finds you "overcome with Paschal joy" at the presence of the Risen One.

Join Giuli, Sofi and Adrianna for an episode on baptism. Is it true that this is the defining event of our lives? How is baptism relevant to our every day? What are the marks of the new creature created in baptism, the one who belongs to the body of Christ? How can we grow in awareness of our baptism? //Our media recommendation is Brideshead Revisited, a novel by Evelyn Waugh. And our monthly challenge is to renew your baptismal promises, and reflecting on what has been given to you in your baptism. //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:Fr. Luigi Giussani’s book Generating Traces in the History of the WorldFr. Luigi Giussani’s book The Religious SenseThe Rite of Baptism of the Catholic Church //Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

This month Giuli, Adrianna, and Sofia had the pleasure of interviewing Bishop Erik Varden. Bishop Varden is a Cistercian monk and, since 2019, the bishop of Trondheim in Norway. We met with him to discuss his latest book, Healing Wounds, which is a prayerful exploration of the wounds of the crucified Christ. Bishop Varden invites a contemplation of the vulnerability of God in Christ—which leads to growth in compassion for Christ’s suffering, the wounds of others, and our own wounds. Through revealing the life that flows from Christ crucified, Bishop Varden challenges us to seek and receive the grace of healing. //Bishop Varden's media recommendation is Dieterich Buxtehude’s cycle of cantatas Membra Jesu Nostri, specifically as conducted by René Jacobs with the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (YouTube). And his monthly challenge is to pray with the story of the healing of the man at the Sheep Gate (John 5:2-9), dwelling on Christ’s question “Do you want to be healed?” and reflecting on our implicit and explicit responses in various areas of our lives. //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 blog, CoramFratribusA Fragment of Being, a conversation from the 2025 New York EncounterThe Rule of St. BenedictBach’s oratorio St. Matthew Passion //Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

This month, Giuli, Sofi and Adrianna discuss compunction–a state of abiding sorrow for our sins. How can we distinguish compunction from what St. Paul calls “worldly grief”? What role does compunction play in our relationship with Christ? Have we seen this bear fruit, especially in hope and joy, in our lives? What practices help us beg for this gift from God? //Our media recommendation is Antonín Dvořák’s arrangement of the Stabat Mater, as conducted by Philippe Herreweghe. The verse we highlighted is the “Fac ut ardeat cor meum” (Spotify and YouTube). You can find the text and translation here. And our monthly challenge is to pray with Peter’s denial of Christ (Matthew 26:69-75) and subsequent reconciliation on the shore of Galilee (John 21), asking for the gift of compunction. //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: Pope Francis’ homily for Holy Thursday 2024 Irénée Hausherr’s work The Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East Dietrich Von Hildebrand’s book The Heart A dialogue with Fr. Luigi Giussani from 1978 entitled “What is Christianity?” Luigi Giussani’s book The Religious Sense  //For Lent this year, we will be reading Bishop Erik Varden’s new book together. Please join us! You can order Healing Wounds now through Bloomsbury or Amazon. //Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Join Giuli, Sofi and Adrianna for an episode on work. What is work, beyond our 9-to-5 job? How do instinctive and cultural approaches to work enslave us to our circumstances? Is it possible to instead start from friendship with Christ and obedience to the Father? What helps us approach work in this way? And what are the fruits? // Our media recommendation is an excerpt of Charles Peguy’s poem The Portal of the Mystery of Hope, entitled ‘Finding the Eternal in Our Daily Toil’. And our monthly challenge is to spend a day repeating the prayer, “Lord, I am not worthy,” as you go about your daily tasks. // 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: Fr. Luigi Giussani’s 1999 talk A New Man Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Laborem exercens  Fr. Walter Ciszek’s memoir He Leadeth Me Fr. Luigi Giussani’s 1975 talk God is Mercy  The Rule of St. Benedict // For Lent this year, we will be reading Bishop Erik Varden’s new book together. Please join us! You can pre-order Healing Wounds now through Bloomsbury. // Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Adrianna, Giuli, and Sofi discuss givenness, or God’s gift and entrustment of men and women to each other. What profound truth about God and the cosmos does this givenness reveal? How can a loving preference, or predilection, for one person help us discover the givenness of all others? In the face of the fallenness of our hearts, why does Pope St. John Paul II exhort us not to be afraid to receive this gift? // This episode draws on a meditation by Pope St. John Paul II. You can find the text at Communio: https://www.communio-icr.com/files/jpii41-4.pdf and an audio recording on Fr. Mike Cairnes' podcast: on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts. // Our media recommendation is the novel By What Authority? by Robert Hugh Benson, which is available for free online. And our monthly challenge is to think back to the last five people you spoke to or texted, and ask yourself how they might be a gift to you. // 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: Our episode on virginity: Ascending the Ladder of Love The story of Fr. Aldo Trento’s vocation, some of which you can find here: https://www.ilsussidiario.net/news/cronaca/2011/8/27/giussani-2-aldo-trento-la-sua-amicizia-una-domanda-che-fa-risorgere/203098/ The film “Of Gods and Men" St. Edith Stein’s writings “Essays On Woman” // Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Join all three hosts for a discussion of the invocation of the Holy Spirit, which takes place at Mass through the prayer called “epiclesis.” What does the Church beg of God at this moment, and why do we need this? Have we seen the epiclesis transform the way we live the rest of our daily lives? Who are models for us of living in the posture of a beggar? // Our media recommendation is the film The Taste of Things (or ‘La passion de Dodin Bouffant’ in the original French). And our monthly challenge is to pray with the Eucharistic prayers, which you can find at www.ibreviary.com/m2/messale.php?s=preghiera_eucaristica. // To help us enter into prayer this Advent, Sofia has made another playlist of sacred choral music. You can find it on Spotify at this link: www.tinyurl.com/ymdxma4w or by searching "O founding, unfound Wisdom." 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: Our episode on Creation: www.tinyurl.com/4wjsmxyh Communion & Liberation’s text for Beginning Day 2024: www.tinyurl.com/38k837cj The Rule of St Benedict The testimony of Jone Echarri about her experience of Guillain-Barré syndrome: www.tinyurl.com/mu26t5k8 Our episode on the Holy Spirit: www.tinyurl.com/mtca9vwt // Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Sofi, Adrianna, and Giuli have a conversation about Christian memory–or anamnesis. What is the difference between the secular and Christian conceptions of memory? How does the prayer of anamnesis in the Eucharistic liturgy take up the whole of the Christian life? What changes about our days when we are given the grace to live in the awareness of the continued presence of Christ? // Our media recommendation is Arvo Pärt’s setting of St. Patrick’s Breastplate, “The Deer’s Cry”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir3htl3UlBk. And our monthly challenge is to choose a line from scripture in the morning to keep in mind throughout the day, possibly by writing it down. // 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: An address by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on Conscience and Truth The biography of St. Maximilian Kolbe Louis Bouyer’s book “Eucharist” // Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Giuli, Sofi and Adrianna have a conversation about the relationship between suffering and desire. The central claim we discuss is that suffering presents us with an alternative: either my desire is for something impossible and thus life is meaningless, or my desire is undergoing a positive test of its meaning. The Christian proposal is that suffering can be a privileged place of encounter with God. This episode was based on an article by Francesco Botturi in the magazine Traces. You can find a PDF on our website at www.pilgrimsoulpodcast.com/a-trial-of-desire or an audio recording by our friend Fr. Mike on Apple Podcasts www.tinyurl.com/3w64cts8 or Spotify www.tinyurl.com/4ahbmmzb // Our media recommendation is C.S. Lewis' novel The Great Divorce: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Divorce. Our monthly challenge is to pray with Psalm 22 and unite it to your own experience of suffering. // 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: Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi // Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Join all three hosts for an episode on unity. What does it look like to experience unity in our selves, our lives, our families, and the Church? What can generate and sustain unity? How are we tempted to reduce it to a work of our own hands—and what is our calling instead? // 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 media recommendation is Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony” (No. 2) as conducted by Leonard Bernstein: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgtSa6XYWdE. You can find a helpful program here: www.tinyurl.com/w68zv3en Our monthly challenge is to pray with the canticle of the three young men in the furnace from the Book of Daniel, specifically the section that invokes all creation in a litany of praise to God: www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=449 // Other resources we mention: The Fraternity Exercises of Communion and Liberation, a retreat preached in 2021 by Fr. Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori Adrienne Von Speyr’s book “Three Women and the Lord” Hans Urs von Balthasar’s book “Engagement with God” Bishop Erik Varden’s book “Chastity” // Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

Adrianna, Giuli, and Sofi are joined by Paolo again for a final conversation about The Religious Sense. What does it mean to observe the “I” in action? Why does Giussani exhort us to live in the present moment as we seek answers to our ultimate questions? And how does this follow from his methodological premises about reason? If you’re following along with the text, we’re on Chapter 4. You can find the text in PDF form at www.scritti.luigigiussani.org or an audio recording of the chapter at Fr. Mike’s podcast www.tinyurl.com/34vnewy3. // 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 media recommendations are the poems “Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America” by Matthew Olzmann (www.tinhouse.com/letter-to-the-person-who-carved-his-initials-into-the-oldest-living-longleaf-pine-in-north-america/) and “Staying Power” by Jeanne Walker Murray (www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/42166/staying-power). And the monthly challenge is to pray a nightly examen, seeking to find the meaning of what you are living now and how the Mystery may be speaking to you through reality. // Other resources we mention: Sofia’s episode with Catholic Stuff You Should Know: www.catholicstuffpodcast.com/podcast/2024/06/27/farsi-belle.html The podcast of Giussani’s original university lectures called “Il senso religioso” www.english.clonline.org/giussani-podcast-religious-sense Reimagining the Examen App: www.ignatianspirituality.com/reimagining-examen-app/ // Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

We’re back with a third episode on The Religious Sense. This time, we are covering “the impact of morality on the dynamic of knowing.” By this phrase, Don Giussani means that the embodied feelings that objects provoke in us condition our reason’s access to the truth. He suggests that the proper response is not to eliminate our feelings, but to order them to a love of truth. You can find the text in PDF form at www.scritti.luigigiussani.org or an audio recording of the chapter at Fr. Mike’s podcast www.tinyurl.com/23nn7ym3. We’ll be back next month with Chapter 4. // Our media recommendation is the play Twelve Angry Men, which you can find in movie form on Amazon Prime or YouTube. And the monthly challenge is to identify someone in your life who lives with vivacity: who is moved by what they encounter and forms judgments about things, but orders these ideas to a love of truth. // 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.”

Join Adrianna and Sofi for a second episode on The Religious Sense. This time we’re discussing Chapter 2, in which Don Giussani introduces the idea of “reasonableness.” You can find the text in PDF form at www.scritti.luigigiussani.org or an audio recording of the chapter at Fr. Mike’s podcast www.tinyurl.com/562pncac. We’ll be back (with Giuli!) next month for Chapter 3. // Our media recommendation is the film The Holdovers. And the monthly challenge is to examine your life, especially in your relationships and your faith, and ask whether you are applying a false standard of logic or rational deduction instead of following the method of moral certainty. // 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.”

In this episode, Giuli, Adrianna, and Sofi talk about “realism,” a concept from Luigi Giussani’s book The Religious Sense. We are joined by a special guest, Sofi and Giuli’s father Paolo! If you’re following along with the text, we’re on Chapter 1. // Our media recommendation is the film The Truman Show. And the monthly challenge is to ask yourself why you live the vocation you live. If you are married, why do you stay with your spouse? If you are consecrated, why do you give your life completely to God? For everyone, why do you try to follow Christ? Why do you go to work? Why do you belong to your communities? // 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: David Ramirez’s song “The Bad Days” Julian of Norwich’s revelations or “Showings” // Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”

We are starting a new mini-series inspired by "The Religious Sense," a book by our spiritual father Don Luigi Giussani. In our next few episodes, we will be discussing Chapters 1, 2, and 3. If you'd like to read with us, you can find a PDF at www.scritti.luigigiussani.org (just make a free account!). Or if you prefer to listen, check out Fr. Mike's recordings on his podcast here.