Things Keeping Us Going: We Published a Book Edition

We are SO EXCITED! After years of talking about it, we have published our first book!

We started at the beginning: with our own stories. Many of the writers involved with Sick Pilgrim worked together to put together an anthology of biographical essays that tell the very personal stories of our faith journeys.

Sick Pilgrims: An Anthology of Catholic Spiritual Biography is now available for you at Booklocker, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

In this collection we show our messy side. We show our vulnerable side. It is not a collection of sweet stories with neat little happy endings.

Mark Shea sums it up this way, ” If you are looking for a book by authentic disciples of Jesus who don’t have all the answers, are seeking love and not power, and are trying their best to ask the right questions in humility and with genuine love for God and neighbor, this will feed your soul.”

We wrestle with some of the Big Questions. We wrestle with the Church. We wrestle with the Almighty. Mostly, though, we wrestle with ourselves.

For many years, we have heard from others–in hushed, secretive, shame-filled tones–that they, too, have done their fair share of wrestling with their faith. We get that. We TOTALLY get that. As Irim Sarwar noted, when sharing the news about the publication of our book on social media, “A lot of people have asked for my story & I hesitate, b/c it’s too close to the heart & it needs dinner, drinks & trust.”

Every author in the collection has said something along those lines. These stories are real and raw. And as we shared them with one another, we began to recognize that none of us were alone. Our stories are our own, but the struggling in, with, for our faith seems to be a universal experience. Sorrowfully, stuggling alone seems to be a universal experience, too.

So, with more than a little anxiety, each of us wrote our stories down. Because sharing our stories with each other has brought some light and healing to us. Because sharing our stories knit us together as a faith community. Because sharing our stories is sacred.

As you will read, most of our stories are unfinished. Still , we find ourselves to be people of faith, who long for community, justice, and the sacred. We are all ambling towards heaven together.

We are, after all, Sick Pilgrims walking the Way.