The Musical Priest

I guess it is one of the consequences of teaching 100+ adolescents each day that they come up with sobriquets, or nicknames, for you. I've never really had many nicknames. My brother used to call me "Bumster" and my father used to refer to me by a modified version of my middle name Gerard and would call me "Gerard-o". My mom generally called me "Ry" and as a Jesuit most people, at least to my face, simply call me "Duns." So I've been most interested by the creativity shown by my students in developing nicknames for me...although, I fear, I know only the vanilla ones! Commonly heard: Mr. D Big D Big Daddy D Dunsy (the y in this case is held long, akin to Duns-eeeee) Duns-y (the y in this instance in emphasized, sort of like Duns-E) Abba D Abba Duns The latter two - the Abba series - are most common with the underclassmen whereas the first five tend to be bigger with the seniors. With some trepidation I am including this link to the Abba Du...

Things are still silent on this end - I've no in-room access to the internet! The only time I can post is when the kids are out of my classroom...which is seldom, it seems! Speaking of, the invading horde is upon us!

I apologize for the week's silence: my Jesuit community is on the same internet server as the school and last weekend, after the school's server was upgraded, there were complications getting my computer (an iMac) into the system. So I've been relegated to checking email using my cell phone and responding to messages during the day during my off periods. I hope everyone's Lent is off to a good start. As it has been my custom, I have chosen a text to be my guide throughout the Lenten season. This year, I have chosen Archbishop Bruno Forte's To Follow You, Light of Life . I read this book last summer during my 8-day retreat and I found it so moving that I'm returning to it. This morning, I found myself tremendously moved by Forte's explication of the well-known parable of the "Prodigal Son" which he renames the parable of the "Merciful Father." Forte masterfully uses this parable as a window into the drama of God's love, human sinfulne...

The University of Detroit Jesuit High School & Academy has the nickname (whether duly earned or not) of "Holiday High." I don't know the history of the name and, frankly, I don't much care: all I know is that classes don't resume again until Ash Wednesday. Winter Break was made all the sweeter when school was canceled yesterday due to the snow, giving us a full week of vacation. These last few weeks have been very busy. I'm teaching three different courses and one of those courses is brand new to me. I'm on several different committees and I'm working with various candidates interested in a vocation to the Society of Jesus. There are also basketball games, swim meets, wrestling matches, hockey and, if I can make it some afternoon, bowling matches that I'd like to attend. After school, I usually have a few kids lingering in the room, some who just want to talk about life, some who have questions about faith, some who just need someplace to go. T...

Almost five years ago, while I was on an experiment in Wyoming, I began a blog site to capture my then-growing interesting in cooking. The blog, JesuitRecipes , was created in order to share recipes I found interesting and delicious. In June of 2007, Loretta Marquard (mother of Drew Marquard, SJ) began contributing extraordinarily delicious recipes to the site. After a period of relative quiet, I'm glad to announce a third cook to the mix: Jason Welle, SJ. Jason is now in his second year of philosophy studies at Fordham University and holds the position of Menu Coordinator for the Scholastic Community of Ciszek Hall (I held the same post for the last two years). Please feel free to stop by the site to check out the various recipes. Over the next few days, I hope to help organize the site better by labeling the old recipes under handy categories such as "dessert" or "entree" or "appetizer" in order to make them easier to navigate. Bon Appetit !

Just a quick post to wish a very Happy Birthday to my uncle, Jack Duns. Jack turned 58 today, an amazing accomplishment to be sure, given the stories I've heard of his younger days. Such a feat is surpassed only by my own father who will turn 60 on March 19th.