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 World
• Fr. Luigi Giussani’s book The Religious Sense
• The 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, CoramFratribus
• A Fragment of Being, a conversation from the 2025 New York Encounter
• The Rule of St. Benedict
• Bach’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.”