The Musical Priest

I just wanted to wish a Happy Belated Birthday (9/28) to Loretta Marquard!!!!

It is with a great deal of pain that I type this. Agony, really, so I shall be short. In addition to the bruised ribs that I earned the other night while praying (for those of you who didn't read the post below, I engage in full-contact prayer) I have yet another new injury. You see, several weeks ago I ordered a beautiful set of Calphalon knives. Gorgeous blades, really, and while they certainly aren't executive chef quality they are still an enormous improvement over our other utensils. So I was preparing supper last night when, in a fit of magnanimity, I decided to slice some apples for the baked Brie I had prepared. In the midst of slicing (oh so easily, thanks to the knife) I basically removed a really good portion of my thumb. I can only imagine how much more exponentially painful it would have been had I used a dull knife so, I reckon I'm a mite bit lucky that I had a lovely new knife to take a nice hunk of skin off of my finger. Moral of the story: Calphalon knives ...

I write this from the Rec Room where my Rector - Father Vincent Sullivan, SJ - is learning how to upload material to Blogger. In his honor, I include this video that Drew Marquard, SJ, has created as a contribution to ThinkJesuit.org

Several months ago I purchased a physio ball. You know the kind: those HUGE balls that kids love to kick around and adults love to buy because it seems like a cool, and harmless, piece of workout equipment. Anyway, I really enjoyed using it for stretching and for my abs, so when I returned to the Bronx I brought my ball with me. Well, I had some time in between dinner and watching a movie so I thought I'd go to my room to pray. In the still silence of my room, I had a great idea: "Boy Ryan, wouldn't it be cool to pray on the ball? You could balance yourself on it like some Zen-master and look like Yoda as you commune with God." And so I alighted upon the ball, drawing my legs up underneath me and I sat triumphantly on the ball for several moments. Assured of my stability, I closed my eyes and tried to relax. That seems to have been my mistake. For upon relaxing, the ball shifted and I began to wobble to-and-fro upon it. With my legs pinned beneath me, I had little cha...

It's hard to believe that I've been back in NYC for nearly a month and that classes are now entering their third week. Time seems to fly by so quickly and I'm ashamed that I've not been more vigilant about posting updates on the blog. It just seems as though I've not been doing anything blog-worthy! I do want to share, however, some of the ministry opportunities that I'm going to active in this semester. First, I am again teaching the high-powered and rigorous " Introduction to the Irish Tin Whistle " course here at Fordham. I've also been asked to offer the course at Fordham Prep and I'll meet with the principal on Wednesday to discuss what shape that will take. I am particularly excited about a new venture entitled "Faces of Catholicism." As I described it in an email Faces of Catholicism" will be a bi-weekly group of students who will attend a diverse array of liturgies throughout New York City. Whether we celebrate the Euchar...

Before I head off to the gym, I wanted to alert readers to the following blog: Jesuit Tertianship in the Phillippines maintained by Father Ray Guiao, SJ, an alumnus of and teacher at my own Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Of this experience he writes: Lots of people ask me, "What exactly are you going to the Philippines for?" My answer to them is, "I'll be doing my Jesuit Tertianship there." And after scratching their heads, they go ahead and ask, "What's Jesuit tertianship?" Here's a simple explanation. Jesuit tertianship is the final phase of training for a Jesuit. It is a program that usually lasts seven to nine months, and it is a requirement for all Jesuits (priests and brothers) prior to pronouncing final vows in the Society of Jesus. There are currently about 27 Jesuit tertianship programs all over the world for Jesuits who are invited to this final phase of training. While a few tertianship programs exist in the U.S., I ...

I was just informed that my article "Being in the Face of Nameless Mystery: Levinas and the Trace of Doctrine" has been accepted into the January 2008 issue of the Heythrop Journal . The referee wrote of the article This is an erudite and clearly thought out defense of Karl Rahner's doctrine of God against the charge of reduction or assimilation of the transcendence of God into the experience by man of his own finitude, using cleverly Levinas' distinction of the saying, said, and unsaying to defend a limited capacity to speak about the wholly 'Other' while recognizing at the same time the limits of our conceptual tools. The author shows real potential for the future. This is really exciting news for me and I really wanted to share it with my readers. It's a great affirmation to know that others appreciate your theological reflection, particularly when engaging in theological reflection is what one wants to do with his life!

Before I head off to Mass, I thought I'd post a quick update. Since I've not really done anything of note this last week - read a few books, bought an exercise ball, napped - there's not been much to blog about. With classes resuming on Wednesday, however, I expect to have more to kvetch about within the next week! I'm having a little dinner get-together for some friends tonight. On the menu: Mixed greens salad with bleu cheese crumbles and cranberries Four-Cheese Orzo with Fresh Basil Lemon-Pepper Chicken with gravy served over grilled herbed-polenta Garlic/Spinach/Parmesan stuffed Portobello mushrooms and, for dessert, we have caramel brownies a la mode. It's not necessarily a spectacular meal, but I'm hoping for it to be fun and tasty. I found some frozen imitation crab meat that I'd like to turn into some sort of appetizer dip, but that's only if I can find the time. While we're on the topic of recipes, let me encourage one and all to check out J...