Jessica Mesman is founder of the blog Sick Pilgrim and coauthor of Love and Salt: A Spiritual Friendship in Letters. Her essays have been published in US Catholic, Lit Hub, Elle, Vox, America, and Christianity Today. Jessica joins Elise talk about writing as a form of accompaniment and how the experience of mourning shaped her, both as a Christian and as a writer. They discuss the Catholic practice of memento mori, the unique way horror movies can convey truth, and how to live a Christian life when you can’t let go of grief.

• How place shapes you

• The unique religiosity of New Orleans

• Horror movies and haunting

• A Christian look at grief

• Memento mori

• Why remembering the dead is a work of mercy

• Wrestling with the darkness of the human experience as an Easter people

• St. Therese of Lisieux

• What makes a good friendship

• Writing as accompaniment

Links:
Laudato si
The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology by Douglas Christie
The Exorcist
The Babadook
Poltergeist
Awakened by Death by Christiana Peterson