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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 ⁠[email protected]⁠ 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 ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠ 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.

In today’s episode Adrianna, Giuliana and Sofia consider simplicity. What is the simple truth of the Christian life? How can we discover every circumstance as a good for us? Where are we experiencing new life through cultivating simplicity of heart? //

Our media recommendation is a page from Julian of Norwich’s Showings: the 10th revelation of the 24th chapter. In the spirit of accepting the gratuity of salvation, this episode doesn’t have a monthly challenge. //

We’d love to hear from you! Write to us at ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠ or find us on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠@pilgrimsoulpodcast⁠⁠⁠. Our website is ⁠⁠⁠www.pilgrimsoulpodcast.com⁠⁠⁠. //

Other resources we mention:

• The Life of Saint Catherine of Siena by Raymond of Capua
• Luigi Giussani’s address in St. Peter’s Square in 1998: www.english.clonline.org/archive/fr-giussani/in-the-simplicity-of-my-heart-i-have-gladly-given-you-everything
• T.S. Eliot’s poem The Four Quartets
• "The Beauty Within", an interview series with Trappistine nuns
• The Silence of Mary by Fr. Ignacio Larranaga
• “In the Beginning”, a book of homilies by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
• Bishop Varden’s reflections on St. Anthony from this interview //

Our theme music is Nich Lampson’s “Dolphin Kicks.”