Returning from the ends of the earth…

Hey everyone! This is just a quick note to say that I’m safely back from pilgrimage to the Camino De Santiago in Spain. Over the last month, I walked over the Pyranees from France, all the way on foot to the Cathedral of St. James. For good measure I then walked the final three days to Finisterra and the Atlantic Ocean!

finished

Please expect to see regular activity on this blog resume in the coming days, including a more detailed reflection of my time away on pilgrimage. Buen Camino!

A little update from me…

MeSo, as you may have noticed, posts have once again started to appear here at Restless Pilgrim. After several grueling months, my project at work is now basically done.

I was meant to be on vacation this week, but I’ve been dragged back to my project, albeit half-time. As a result, the posts here thus far have been of the simple, short variety.

However, the good news is that I’m slowly chipping away at some longer, more substantial posts (to be tagged as featured). I’m hoping that some of these articles will be ready to post sometime next week.

There’s a lot of changes coming, both in my “real” life and also here on this blog. I’m really looking forward to sharing with you what’s there on the horizon…

Most Popular Posts of All Time

PopularI’ve recently been writing to different Catholic sites offering to write some guest posts. As I’ll be taking my book manuscript to publishers shortly I thought it’d be good to get my name appearing on more websites 🙂

As I wrote my first email to an editor, describing the kind of topics I typically discuss, I wondered which of my articles have been the most popular. I knew which of my posts I most enjoyed, but what were the posts which were most popular among the readers?

Fortunately, WordPress has a variety of admin tools which allow you to gauge this. I found some of the entries rather surprising, so I decided to write a post identifying my top eleven most popular posts…

#1 OSAS and three cups of tea (11,000 views)
I was initially surprised this post came out on top. It was the first part in a three-part response of a rebuttal to my post on Eternal Security. I think it received so many views because it was reproduced in its entirety over at Shameless Popery.

#2 He-Man, Christian Allegory and Transubstantiation (9,000 views)
This is one of my favourites! This was a post I wrote for April Fool’s Day. Earlier in the year I had been visiting Washington DC and gone out for a drink with Joe Heschmeyer where I shared my tongue-in-cheek theory about He-Man. At his urging this insanity finally made it down on paper.

#3 IC XC (8,000 views)
This was one of my early posts about the the letters found all over the interior of most Byzantine Churches. Apparently a lot of people want to know what they mean and Google sends them to me!

#4 Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Catholic (5,000 views)
I think this one got all this traffic purely because of the title.

#5 What is the significance of “IHS”? (3,000 views)
This was another post about Church decoration. Posts like this unfortunately attract the conspiracy theory loving, Jack Chick reading, surfers of the Internet (see the comments), but still, these posts seem to be very popular and I think I’ll write some more articles on symbolism in the next few months.

#6 Discernment with Fr. Matt Spahr (3,000 views)
On my blog I host the recordings from the local Theology On Tap sessions and this has, by far, received the greatest number of downloads, even beating a talk on relationships by Jackie Francois-Angel! Fr. Matt is the pastor of the Immaculata in San Diego and is, in my humble opinion, one of the best homilists in San Diego.

#7 The end is nigh (3,000 views)
Remember when Harold Camping said that the world was going to end?

#8 What Planned Parenthood does and does not do (3,000 views)
This was a very recent post but got shared a bunch on Facebook. I feel a bit bad since it was originally Abby Johnson’s material, but still, it was good to get the information out there.

#9 Jesus, the New Moses (3,000 views)
This was a real surprise! I’m not sure why, but apparently a lot of people want to read about the parallels between Jesus and Moses.

#10 Catholic Dating: Not wanting to be “that guy” (2,000 views)
I had guessed that at least one entry from my “Catholic Dating” series would make the top-ten list. It turns out the most popular is the post where I talk about Catholic guys not wanting to be creepers…

#11 Vatican Wealth (2,000 views)
This last entry also gained most of its popularity through Facebook shares. In this article I address the common assertion that the Pope lives like a king and that the Vatican should just sell everything they have…

2,000th Post

Today’s is just going to be a very short post. This entry marks my 2,000th post here at RestlessPilgrim.net. I wanted to thank everyone who has read, commented and shared this blog. I’m always extremely humbled when I find out that people take time out of their lives to read what I have to say and I love receiving responses from people I’ve never met in person.

As well as being my 2,000th post, today marks the beginning of my two month sabbatical. I will be posting during this time, but it’s also going to be a period of discernment for the road ahead. I’d very much appreciate your prayers as I try and work all this out.

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