The Musical Priest

One of the best parts – well, at least one of the important parts – of being a priest is being with families in times of crisis. Often enough, this means I attend a lot of wakes. Especially if I have to do the funeral the next day, the wake is a privileged opportunity to learn about the deceased and the family who mourns them. Seeing how others grieve gives you an appreciation for the deceased…and, as it turns out, it helps you to realize how your own family isn’t as crazy as you previously thought. Sometimes as I lead the family in the Rosary, or as I eavesdrop on the conversations, I hear the things people say: “Her make-up is awful.” “Oh my, she’d be appalled to meet Saint Peter wearing that dress.” “Ah, he looks better dead. It suits him.” But sometimes, when you’re at an especially tragic wake or funeral – a teenager’s suicide, an overdose, a young parent dying of cancer – you’ll hear people say, “There but for the grace of God, go I.” I get the meaning of the phrase: at hea...

At 3:34 this afternoon, I saved a completed draft of the fifth and final chapter of my dissertation. I semi-knew yesterday that I was nearing the end: the argument I was making just felt right and it all seemed to hang together. So, I woke up early this morning and edited pages 1-50 between 6:00 am and noon. I do this pretty regularly, usually after each section, so I can re-tool the beginning to reflect what I've done on the way. After six hours of work, I ate lunch and returned to my computer at 12:30. In a flurry of writing, I managed to tie up a number of loose ends and managed to knock out a pretty decent transition to the Conclusion (to be written in January). I moved to Cleveland on May 24th, began writing on July 15th, and today is December 12th. In less than seven months I produced around 325 pages to be read by my advisor and probably another 60 pages in the "deleted from chapter X" files. Not every day has been a triumph, but I have never gone to bed with a ...

An old acquaintance, seeing my blog post from yesterday, emailed me this morning. He, too, is enrolled in a doctoral program and he was shocked to read how much progress I had made on my own project since July. He asked if I would offer him some tips which I'm glad to do. Of course, these are not the musings of an expert: I'm still in the throes of writing, although I am glad to see I have far more pages behind me than before me. So instead of this being advice about what worked  let me frame it as some thoughts about what is working. Treat writing like your job . Theology students in Boston College's doctoral program have their whole fourth year to write without any teaching obligations. Accordingly, I have treated the task of writing as my full-time job. Monday-Friday, usually 6:50 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon. Lunch breaks, workout time, and a nap are built into this schedule.  Think, and write, in sections . So I apportion in my mind how long a secti...

Every now and again, I feel a pang of guilt for not updating the blog. Just a year ago, I took my PhD comprehensive exams and began preparing to write my dissertation. I then moved to Cleveland - I now live at  John Carroll University   - and began writing in July. As of today, I have submitted three chapters to my committee and I'll finish the fourth this week. I'm hoping to have a solid draft of the fifth chapter finished around Christmas and I should get the Intro and Conclusion written in January. With a bit of luck, I'll defend in the Spring and receive my diploma in May. I say this in order to share one reason for my relative absence from blogging. I treat writing as I would treat a job. Blogging will neither get me my degree nor will it ever get me tenure, so it's not as high on my priority list. Then again, I'm sort of glad to be out of the blogging loop. I've become dismayed not only by the political rhetoric within the United State but, more acute...

In September of 2016, a Catholic school in inner city Detroit opened a $15 million STEM building. In a city known more for its economic woes and racial unrest, it is remarkable that a Catholic school would raise such an enormous fund from private donors for a building dedicated to the study of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Has the Society of Jesus, which sponsors the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, finally recognised what so many of the new atheists would have us believe, that we should abandon the study of theology and dedicate ourselves exclusively to the pursuit of science and technology? More waggishly posed: Why build a chapel when you could build a chemistry lab ? During my years as a secondary school teacher, students were often gob-smacked when I emphasised , over and again, that religion and science, faith and reason, were not at odds with one another. ‘Yes, lads, you can be a thinking believer!’ Indeed, I insisted that...

Readings: Jeremiah 20:10-13 Psalm 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7 John 10:31-42 “Sin,” Fleming Rutledge observes, “is not so much a collection of individual misdeeds as it is an active, malevolent agency bent upon despoiling, imprisonment, and death – the utter undoing of God’s purposes.” Rutledge continues, “misdeeds are signs of that agency at work; they are not the thing itself. It is the ‘thing itself’ that is our cosmic Enemy.”             Albeit embarrassing, there is something immediately consoling about the enumeration of one’s sins. With little effort, all of us can recall the "usual suspects" heard in the confessional: pornography and masturbation, excessive eating and drinking, anger, gossip, ingratitude, not being faithful to prayer, taking the Lord’s name in vain, etc. You get the picture: we have a whole catalogue we can pick and choose from. Yet I am aware of a temptation to “explain away” sin – within myself and f...

St Patrick's Day 2017 at St Colman's in Cleveland It's now three months since my last post. It's been a quiet period of study (I'm reading like a madman as I research my dissertation topic) and a lot of travel for music and for two funerals. As an update: I'm moving to John Carroll University in a few weeks (May 24th) where I'll live as I write my dissertation. I'm excited to move home to Cleveland and to be with good friends and family. And, in case anyone is interested in my academic work, here's a link to my profile on Academia St Patrick's Day 2017 at St Colman's in Cleveland

Every great adventure, every groundbreaking discovery, begins with a question. “Will you marry me?” marks the beginning of the journey of married life. “What if I mix this chemical with that chemical?” or “Hmmm, that’s funny, I wonder why…” kick off scientific explanation. “I wonder if this dish would taste better with bacon?” Well, that question never need be asked: the answer, invariably, is yes.            Now, compare the excitement of an inquisitive person with someone who is totally closed off to new things. Such people see no need to ask questions because they are comfortable with the way things are. They have made up their mind, they rest assured in their convictions, and they stand convinced that they see things as they really are. They are fine with the status quo and grow frustrated when people around them ask too many questions or make suggestions that would require them to change their lives in any way. My mind goes, immedia...