Tag: pilgrimage

• The Medicine

  A young man leaves the ordered stillness of an abbey and steps onto a dusty road, choosing solitude and faith over security in this memoir excerpt from Path Perilous: My Search for God and the Miraculous.

  RMDell’Orfano

  February 13, 2026

  Autobio

  abbey, bell tower, calling, crossroads, decision, departure, discernment, dusty road, faith, farewell, monastic life, perseverance, pilgrimage, silence, solitude, spiritual journey, surrender, vocation, young seeker

• Terror in the Night

  A night of shelter at a remote monastery descends into terror when a fellow traveler appears at the foot of the bed with a knife. What follows is a silent vigil of fear, prayer, and survival beneath the Abbey’s ancient walls.

  RMDell’Orfano

  February 4, 2026

  Autobio

  contemplative life, evil and grace, faith under threat, memoir, monastic life, moral testing, near-death experience, pilgrimage, prayer and deliverance, psychological terror, sacred space, spiritual memoir, trauma and faith, violence and survival

• Living Deliberately—In Quiet Desperation

  My soul longed to stand tall, even as it remained shackled to the cowardice of my flesh.

  RMDell’Orfano

  January 21, 2026

  Autobio

  1960s America, academic materialism, faith and providence, Harvard, Henry David Thoreau, Jr., Living Deliberately, Martin Luther King, memoir excerpt, MIT, moral courage, Path Perilous, pilgrimage, Primitive diets, quiet desperation, Ralph Waldo Emerson, roots and branches, spiritual search, transcendentalism, Walden Pond