The Dispatch

A funeral feeling from Emily Dickinson

October 28, 2021 Sean Fitzpatrick 1

The season of souls is upon us, marked with playful front-porch ghosts and ghouls, prayerful cemetery remembrances, and all things spine-tingling, mind-shaking, and funereal. It is a chipper, cheerful time of year, despite the deathly […]

The Dispatch

Demons, Sin, Death, and Damnation

September 25, 2021 Carl E. Olson 10

Readings: • Num 11:25-29 • Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14 • Jas 5:1-6 • Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 What do demons, sin, death, and damnation have in common? An obvious (and correct) answer is that […]

The Dispatch

When I die, do not cremate me!

May 15, 2020 Casey Chalk 23

There’s something inexplicably profound about the dead, buried body, even as it decays to bones and dust. It reminds man of his morality, while suggesting, via the tension of a corpse that looks and feels […]

Books

A Novitiate for Eternity

August 15, 2019 Timothy D. Lusch 6

Death generally makes for unsettling reading. Unless, of course, we’re talking about true crime fanatics or mystery lovers. Those people can’t get enough of it. But death, especially our own—The Big One, the thing none […]