Prevailing Spirits: Place, Loss, and Hope with Jessica Mesman

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 to discuss writing as a form of accompaniment and how the experience of mourning shaped her, both as a Christian and as a writer. They talk about 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:

Jessica's website

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