The Musical Priest

Last week, the elegant Roostertail - where U of D Jesuit hosts its prom - made the news when it released its 2012 Prom Dress Code. A first for this institution, the owner of the establishment decided that it was time for someone to help students distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate attire. Roostertail 2012 Prom Dress Code: 1. A young lady’s hemline should be no shorter than 6” above the knees. 2. Dresses may be backless, as long as they are not cut below the waist line. 3. No midriff-bearing cutouts. 4. Slits cannot go further than 6” above the knee. 5. No plunging neck lines, modest cleavage is OK. 6. Ladies, if you plan to remove your shoes, bring flats. 7. Gentlemen are not to remove, unbutton, or untuck their shirt. 8. Gentlemen must keep their shoes on. A parent or guardian is only allowed to come to the Roostertail in case of emergency. Parents and guardians must also abide by the Dress Code. Example: no jean...

Teaching high school boys, particularly sophomores, is seldom easy. Frequently restive and fidgety, one must move relatively quickly to hold their attention when covering what they might regard as less-than-interesting material. I have always tried my best to "spice up" the class, making connections between theology and philosophy/sociology/psychology/etc., but it can be a struggle. During my first semester of teaching, when discussing today's Gospel Reading  where we find the lovely, if not often kitschy, image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. As you can see from the attached picture, Jesus is often depicted as a cross between Little Bo Peep and Charlton Heston. He is white, carries his little staff, and the sheep are clean and obedient. What I wanted to impress upon the students was the notion that "Good Shepherd" in Jesus' day would have been an oxymoron. Shepherds were akin to brigands, were regarded with suspicion, and the nature of their job made th...

Some of the mothers encouraged me to post my talk to my blog. I know that it is long, so I'm going to post it in such a way that you have to click the " read more " to get to it. This was given on April 22nd, 2012, at the Detroit Golf Club for the Moms of Seniors graduating from U of D Jesuit. We had a great attendance at the event and I want to congratulate Dr. Deb Wolfe on a lovely day. I also wish to thank her for extending the invitation to speak on such a wonderful occasion as we celebrate what Father Kiser calls the "Long Goodbye" preparing to send our graduating seniors off to college.

I'm ashamed that, after a good spate of frequent updates, I've fallen silent for nearly a week. Last Monday, we returned from Spring Break and we kicked off the final week of the Student Senate Election. It was a crazy four days of preparing for the election and then, after the event on Friday, I had to run and chaperone a dance...with quite possibly the craziest mother I have ever met showing up at the end of the event. I managed to have dinner with some friends on Saturday, but only after preparing two different talks I had to deliver on Sunday. So yesterday I gave two talks and graded a bunch of papers. By 11:00 last night, when I shut off the light, it amazed me that I had just had a weekend - it flew by! So right now, I'm recovering from the craziness of the last ten days. I need to catch up on some sleep and get back on track with teaching. Please be patient - I'll be recharged in a few days!

A reader - a brilliant and incisive one at that - who articulates her struggles with the Church reached out to me with, what I consider, a really brilliant idea. She asks: "People live in 120 character tweets - what can the Church 'tweet' about our core beliefs?" This would be a means, she continues, "to make inroads to Catholics and people who might want to be Catholics." If you approached an average person on the street, what would she say about Catholicism today? "The Catholic Church is against birth control, prohibits abortion, is against gay marriage, won't ordain women, and covered up the sexual abuse of minors." This may be overly cynical but, I fear, it's probably not far from the truth. The Catholic Church certainly seems more identifiable by what it is against than what it is for . I don't know how many might be interested in this, but I'm willing to give it a shot. What if we were to complete the following phrases...

There is a piece in today's Wall Street Journal  written by Anne Hendershott and Christopher White entitled " Traditional Catholicism is Winning ." Almost eight years into religious life, I think their final paragraph captures well the reasons I decided not to pursue medical school, or law school, and entered into the service of the Church in 2004, a mere two years after the disastrous revelations of sexual abuse that made national headlines in 2002. The young women and men offering themselves as candidates to religious life and the priesthood: ...are attracted to the philosophy, the art, the literature and the theology that make Catholicism countercultural. They are drawn to the beauty of the liturgy and the church's commitment to the dignity of the individual. They want to be contributors to that commitment—alongside faithful and courageous bishops who ask them to make sacrifices. It is time for Catholics to celebrate their arrival.  I think this is generally spo...

Today's Gospel's scene , so beautifully depicted by Rembrandt, recalls two disciples' journey on the road to Emmaus. In the wake of Jesus' horrific execution, the disciples quickly disbanded. Cleopas and his companion are walking, dejected, when they are approached by a stranger who seems oblivious to the events that had taken place. Incredulous at first, they recount the days' events to the stranger who, certainly to their amazement, managed to explain what had actually taken place. Having heard his re-framing of the story, the disciples become aware of the dusk and invite the stranger stranger to join them for table fellowship. When the stranger breaks the bread, their eyes are opened and they finally recognize the one with whom they have been chatting: it is the Risen Christ. One way of looking at this passage is as the confrontation between two types of stories. The disciples' version of the story is told against a horizon of death and and defeat and confu...