12 Comments
User's avatar
M.R. Waters's avatar

You did a beautiful job with this essay. I am not as familiar with Catholicism (I'm a woman who falls somewhere under the Pagan umbrella that can't quite find a label nor wants one), but the way in which you spoke about it, with such reverence, was stunning. I am looking forward to educating myself more on mystic Catholicism. Thank you, Saint, for a lovely and thought-provoking read.

Expand full comment
Saint (S.T.) Gibson's avatar

Thank you so much for your kind words, and for reading!

Expand full comment
Kathryn Julian's avatar

So much of this resonates with me as a leftist Catholic who loves iconography and an occasional Latin Mass. Identity is complicated. So eloquent and well said!

Expand full comment
Saint (S.T.) Gibson's avatar

yes and yes! identity is so complicated. Thank you <3

Expand full comment
jane maudwren's avatar

As a lesbian cradle Catholic who ran away from my faith only to come back to it in my mid-20s, this piece put into words a lot of my observations about Catholicism becoming politically, culturally, and spiritually relevant again. I'm drawn to Catholicism because of its radical kindness. And, I think about Mary a lot, because her life was so profoundly unfair, but she persisted, because she had hope that it would all be worth it, and because she loved. There was power and bravery in the love and hope of a teenage girl. <3

Expand full comment
Saint (S.T.) Gibson's avatar

This means so much, thank you for sharing your perspective with me. The radical kindness is such a draw for me, and the bravery and power in a teenage girl's hope and love....woof, tears in my eyes about it.

Expand full comment
Elena's avatar

This was such a lovely essay that I loved reading! I have been Catholic since birth and I have always loved my religion and I am so happy that you have found something in the faith that greatly resounds within you :)

Expand full comment
Saint (S.T.) Gibson's avatar

I'm so glad we could find kinship in this way! It was such a wild, culturally specific time

Expand full comment
Saint (S.T.) Gibson's avatar

That’s so kind! Thank you 🙏 ❤️

Expand full comment
Karis Rogerson's avatar

This is a beautiful essay. And though it was a small part of it, I have never so viscerally related to something as your paragraph about your evangelical upbringing and what that does to one's relationship to Catholicism. As a child of evangelical missionaries to ITALY who also briefly attended Hillsong in NYC...idk, I just felt seen by footnote #3, lol.

Expand full comment
Jade Coleman's avatar

Beautiful read. Thank you for sharing this.

Expand full comment
Saint (S.T.) Gibson's avatar

And thank you for reading! ❤️

Expand full comment