Solanus, Yeast, and Discernment of Spirits
Morsels for the Road
Hello! I’m Walther from Peregrino, and welcome to a bonus edition of the newsletter. I’ve been thinking about the ethos of this publication and where I think it should go. As much as I have been enjoying writing 40 Before 40, there have been topics that have popped up in my head that I want to share that don’t necessarily fit into the personal essay bucket.
Being a peregrino is all about the journey; in my case, and hopefully, yours too, my destination is heaven. We have our map in the teachings of Holy Mother Church and the lives of the saints—the Eucharist, and the life of grace, our sustenance.
But sometimes, you need encouragement to keep on going; this is where I hope to be of assistance. Think of me as a beggar telling you where I found bread. So, without further ado, here are some morsels I’d like to share with you.
Solanus
July 30th is Blessed Solanus Casey’s feast day. I was first introduced to Father Solanus by my spiritual director. Since then, I have befriended this capuchin friar, and he has been very good to me. His humility and attitude of gratitude towards God have been inspiring. He’s also the patron saint of Barbatus Catholic Podcast, a podcast I had with a couple of friends.
I want to share an episode on Blessed Solanus's spirituality. Let me know in the comments if you have heard about Solanus before or if this is the first time you’ve heard about him.
Yeast
During the pandemic, I baked a lot of sourdough. I religiously fed my starter every night to have a vibrant wild yeast on the weekend—when I baked.
Why am I talking about sourdough? Well, I thought about it because of the Gospel for the Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Matthew 13:31-35, where verse thirty-three says, “The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”
Like love, yeast is also in the air, and it liked feeding on the wheat flour and water mixture I left on my kitchen counter daily. This wild yeast mixed with more flour, water, and salt turned into something better than the sum of its parts.
Yeast affects the wheat flour; it changes it, feeds on it, and releases air bubbles that make the dough rise. We hear from Jesus that the kingdom of heaven is like yeast, something present everywhere that changes what it comes in contact with.
If we want to build the kingdom, we ought to be yeast to our families, parish, community, country, and ultimately, the world.
Discernment of Spirits
Say what you want about the Jesuits, but we can’t ignore St. Ignatius of Loyola’s writings on the discernment of spirits; in this conversation with Fr. Paul Sullivan from the Diocese of Phoenix, we go over most of the fourteen rules of discernment.
Before you go
I have some questions
What do you think of this format? Yay, Nay, Meh?
Have you made sourdough from scratch?
I love this! 2 minute reads in my inbox are 👌 perfect little pop-in-pop-out length
I've actually never heard of Bl. Solanus Casey before. I'm not really all that familiar with American Saints as a whole. So thanks for letting me know.