About this episode
Fr. Roderick reflects on the challenges of balancing obligations and creativity while preparing a sermon about fantasy.
Some weeks feel like spring sunlight breaking through the trees. Other weeks feel like standing in the hail with your hands in your pockets, wondering why everything suddenly turned cold again. This past week felt like both at the same time. After returning from the Camino, I found myself immediately pulled back into a whirlwind of obligations: parish life, fantasy festivals, interviews, talks, trains that weren’t running, late nights, and a stubborn cold that refused to leave. Somewhere between coughing fits, crowded convention halls and endless cups of tea, I also had to write something that unexpectedly terrified me: a sermon about fantasy. Not a church sermon, at least not really. This was for a fantasy festival held inside a former church in Nijmegen. The organizers had invited me, partly as a priest and partly because I’ve somehow become known in Dutch fantasy circles as “that priest who likes fantasy stories.” And despite years of public speaking, despite television work and podcasts and interviews, I suddenly felt like an impostor. Like I didn’t belong there. Not enough of a writer. Not enough of a fantasy expert. Too religious for one world, too geeky for the other. So…
People in this episode
Host: Fr. Roderick Vonhögen
Topics covered
- imagination
- fantasy
- obligations
- sermon
- Camino
- self-doubt
Keywords
- imagination
- fantasy
- sermon
- Camino
- self-doubt
- obligations
- Fr. Roderick
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Nijmegen
Books & works: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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- The Walk - The Pressure That Finally Caught Up With Me · May 21, 2026 · 54 min
- The Walk - Returning to Work After the Camino · May 6, 2026 · 46 min
- The Walk - What the Camino Taught Me · April 29, 2026 · 1h 9m
- The Walk - My Camino Week 4 · April 23, 2026 · 1h 12m
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