The Musical Priest

I’ve spent the last several days up on Mackinac Island with a group of four U of D Jesuit seniors and several adults leading a Kairos retreat for a group of students who live here on the island. This has been a great experience as it has given me a chance to know the students and colleagues in a new way and to bring the gifts and graces of Kairos to another group of students. I’ve been reflecting over the last few weeks on what I’ve dubbed the “Control-F Generation.” The act of naming a generation serves merely to provide a cipher that offers one handle among many as a way of grasping something that is unique to or characteristic of a group. “Control-F” is more descriptive than, say, “Generation X” in that it indicates in its title something observable: the desire to find answers quickly, even at the detriment of feeding or developing one’s intellectual curiosity. The mindset seems to be, “There is too much information out there to get my mind around, so rather than sift through it I ...

Years ago, before I entered the Jesuits, I went to a local bookstore to purchase a newly released book in the Harry Potter series. While I was standing in line, a well-intentioned customer eyed the book under my arm (which I carried, if memory serves me correctly, with a paperback copy of the Catechism that I wanted to buy) and promptly informed me that the book I was holding contained "the devil." With feigned horror I allowed the book to drop to the floor and stared at her, exclaiming, "Good Lord! So that's where he's been all this time!" I then picked the book back up and made my way to the cashier. One of the reasons I liked the Harry Potter books so much is that, many years before any students took up residence at Hogwart's, my heart and mind had been captivated by a different magician: C. S. Lewis. As a little boy in the second grade (so we're talking 1987-88), I remember distinctly my mom giving me a copy of his The Lion, the Witch, and the ...