The Musical Priest

Whew! It's hard to believe that it's already Thursday. Fortunately for me and, certainly, the students at U of D Jesuit, today is the last day of classes this week. In keeping with tradition, tomorrow morning our entire school will gather to celebrate the Mass of the Holy Spirit where we pray that God's Spirit be with us this year. This has been, arguably, one of the more exciting weeks in my life. I have woken up every morning excited and I've gone to bed each night exhausted. From explaining to freshmen what it means to "Fight and Not to Heed the Wounds" (from the Prayer for Generosity ) to discussing with seniors just what it is that Simone Weil means by the word attention , I feel like I've been running full-speed throughout the week. I went to bed last night with an awful sore throat...a reminder, perhaps, that I had talked too much over the course of three days! Upon awakening this morning, however, I was glad to discover that the soreness had abate...

As many of you know, I have taken a strong interest in physical fitness over the past few years. It began by going to the local YMCA with fellow novices. Then, as I moved into studies at Fordham, I became a regular gym goer. Just three months ago, my training culminated in the running of the 2009 Cleveland marathon. One of my worries, given my teaching schedule, has been how I'd find the time to exercise. Part of the difficulty is that I've never had to work out by myself: I've always had other Jesuits to go to the gym with. So I was intrigued when I saw ads this summer for the Insanity workout program by fitness guru Shaun T. You can go to the website if you want to get the gist of the program. Let me say only this: I did the first full workout this morning: the Plyometric Cardio Circuit and now, two hours later, I'm really feeling it. I have never, in all my life, sweated like I did this morning. Considering that this is Day 2 of 60 and that this is only the first of...

In just a few minutes, I will leave Villa Marquette here in Omena, Michigan. My three weeks of villa concluded, I head southward to Detroit where I will attend a prayer vigil tonight and then go to Windsor to play a feis tomorrow. I'll leave the feis a bit early, cross the bridge (please God), and attend the First Vows ceremony for three of the novices. Following the reception, I'll drive to Lansing where I'll play another feis and then, on Sunday night, I'll return to my new home in Detroit. This next week will, I suspect, be pretty busy. I need to do some serious planning for my courses. You know, little things: reading the texts, thinking about assignments, perhaps making a syllabus or three. I'm most grateful to have had these weeks to rest and relax. I was fairly intentional about not blogging while here...I really wanted to have time to myself without feeling pressured to write about my experiences. I've long looked at this blog as a public journal, a way...

Today the Church, and especially Jesuits around the globe, celebrates the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. As I went for a run this morning - a 6.2-mile run from Villa Marquette to Barb's Bakery in Northport - I reflected for most of the 47:08 minutes on my life and the Society of Jesus. On October 19th this year, I will celebrate my 30th birthday (on this date, too, the Church in the United States celebrates the Feast of the North American Martyrs). Looking back on the three decades of my life, I'm struck with how each decade bears basically two particular graces that have shaped and influenced my life tremendously. As a child, I would locate the two primary graces in faith and music. I grew up in something of a Catholic ghetto; with the exception of my Lutheran father and his family, I think that nearly everyone I knew was Catholic. Indeed, the great childhood distinction between kids on our block fell between those who went to the parish school and those who were designate...

I don't know how today could get any better: I woke up, refreshed, at 6:00 am. I made coffee, ate a bowl of Fiber 1 cereal, and watched BBC news. I stretched out and then went for a 6.3-mile run which I did four minutes faster than my run on Friday and over a minute faster than Monday's run. It must be the new shoes that I bought! I celebrated my time with a large coffee and a protein bar. I came home, shaved and showered, and ambled over to the house with internet access so that I could check my email. In my inbox, I found seven new emails. One of them was from eminent Domincan philosopher, Father Fergus Kerr, informing me that my article entitled Recovering Rahner's Concept of Being in Spirit in the World has been accepted for publication in New Blackfriars Review . What is especially heartening is that I have to make no corrections to the manuscript: they're going to publish it as I sent it. The NBR is a venerable publication published by the Dominicans of the Engli...

I'm attaching two photographs taken from the 2009 Tri-Province Formation Gathering (Chicago, Wisconsin, Detroit). The above picture is of all of the men in formation (from novice through recently ordained) in the three provinces. I know a few recently ordained priests were unable to attend. Nevertheless, you do get a sense of what we look like! This picture is of the men in formation from the Detroit Province.

I'll be on vacation in Omena, Michigan until August 14th. Obviously, I do have internet access but I can't promise frequent updates. I hope all of you are keeping well. This is sort of the calm before the storm of teaching high school, so I'm really trying to enjoy the peace and quiet!