The Musical Priest

I'm learning many things here in Wyoming: 1. I don't like peacocks. 2. I do like big cities. 3. I like funeral masses to be, oh, under 3.5 hours. Yes, 3 and one-half hours! This is not including the fact that the mass was an hour late to start, and then had 3 eulogies, 2 poems, Indian drumming, dancing, some Indian songs, and, yes, the Eucharist was thrown in there somewhere. It betrays my own cultural background to say that, with my family, were a funeral mass to begin an hour late and then run 3.5 hours, there'd be a nuclear war waged and blood would pour freely...and then, when my mother calmed down, we'd probably have an opportunity to vent a little bit. Truth be told, it was an interesting experience. The Indian funeral ritual is particularly elaborate, involving the funeral mass followed by a viewing of the body (today, 2.5 hours) [If you're keeping track, starting at the scheduled start time of 10:00 in the morning, by the time we viewed the body it was 2:30 ...

Well, I'm back in action. I'll be playing at the Detroit Feis this year. This is very exciting and gives me good reason to start learning a few new tunes while I'm out here on the range. I just added a new recipe: LAVA CAKE. This is so good! I'll totally be making this for the novitiate when we return in mid-May. I also am working on an original Bailey's dessert sauce to be used for my bread pudding. It's still the the developmental stages (alas, I have to drink the by-products of my work) but I think I'm on to a winner!

I just wanted to post a quick "Thank You" to my penpal D. whose identity will remain rather anonymous as per D's request. Know that I do value receiving notes from you and, were I to have greater access to pen and paper (we've much parchment and vellum and I"m trying to make a writing surface out of peacock hide, but I've yet to find success in this endeavor) I would certainly respond in a written manner. Your cards certainly brighten my day when they arrive. Know that my prayers, for whatever they are worth, are with you! Cheers, Ryan **Hey, Mike E. - I saw the competitor list for the FLeadh. I'll expect you to attend the senior whistle competition and let me know how you'd think I"d have faired against the musicians. A number of them are from Detroit, so you'll be the judge of whether I still "got game" even while I live near 8-mile.** ***I'm posting my first recipe tonight, too***

Okay, I'm totally lame so here it is: jesuitrecipes.blogspot.com In my bid to rival Martha and in an effort to get my own show on FoodTV, I'm starting a Jesuit cooking blog. This should be kind of fun and will reflect whatever it is I prepare for dinner on Sunday and Monday nights. As I conceive of it, I'll try to put up 2-3 recipes at a crack, reflecting the entire meal as I prepared it. The first post on a meal, therefore, will be on Sunday evening. I'll even try to include "audience response" from those who had to consume my creations! Maybe, if I'm really good, our new Holy Father will invite me to be his personal chef and I'll have access to the secret Vatican archives of recipes. I hear they have in their possession the recipe for healthy desserts (like triple chocolate fudge cake that has no calories). Since I was bored this afternoon, I surfed the net and read all sorts of blogs concerning the election of Ratzinger to pope. To be truthful, I ca...

The fact that I did not get elected has a number of ramifications for those around me: first, Eric Abercrombie and his son, Ethan "Rahner" Abercrombie will stay with Melissa for the time being. For those of you who did not know it, were I to have been elected Supreme Pontiff, I'd have made Eric my ambassador to the great state of West Virginia. second, the Queer Eye team will have to wait to re-decorate the Vatican. Martha, too, will have to wait to fashion a new papal tiara and gowns. third, my slogan of "where there's death, there's hope - vote Ryan for pope" will get used the next time around. fourth, I'm not able to issue a dispensation or offer anything official to my new surrogate mother from Germany - Brigitte - who sent me a lovely picture, a candle, and some terrifically DELICIOUS chocolates. Thanks! As for a more serious and reflective response to the election of our new pope, stay tuned. If I get serious and reflective, I'll offer one.

Is this the end-of-times? Is the end upon us? My mother sent me a package. It is a wonderful gift of fine Irish chocolates - Flake bars, Crunchies, and Maltese. Believe me, folks, this is good stuff and I can say with impunity that, were I ever to move to Ireland, I'd be morbidly obese from eating such fine confections. I think this was my mom's attempt to make up for YEARS of not sending me an Easter basket. Well, Mother, it won't work: the package was delivered in a brown box that was decidedly un-like a basket. Better luck next year, but keep on trying. I'm thinking that perhaps I will do a Jesuit Recipe website. I think it'd be kind of fun and, God knows, it would give me something to do. I'll look into it next week...I'm going to do a little R&R this weekend so I'll be quite unavailable. Tonight for dinner I made Chicken Parmasean (sweet recipe that I'll share later) along with Garlic Bread and a Salad. Dessert was a Dark Chocolate Mousse to...

Here's three of the four members of my community.  

I'm having mixed emotions today as I learned that my mother, along with Mrs Marquard and Mrs Loren, attended a luncheon together last week. Why the nerves? Well, I reckon it is good for them to socialize and probably support one another. On that level, I think it's very healthy. Who knows, they could become great friends and retire down to Boca Raton together (with my grandmother's addition, think Golden Girls). Perhaps they'll have a "day of beauty" at the spa and speak only of Jesuit things. It's totally possible. But how creepy would it be if they all started to go to the gym together like their sons do? Or if they started to dress alike? Or if they become really chummy and start insisting we call them each "mom" or something like that? It seems to have had one salutory effect already - my mother, breaking with tradition, sent NOT ONLY a letter BUT ALSO some type of package...and there are things IN the package! I'm just atremble with nerv...

Another Easter pic. The woman in red is Sister Teresa Frawley, OSF. She's the FIFTH bossiest person I've met here (and her rank keeps slipping. Bossiness is a big thing out here, it seems. It's eery - all of the people in the picture are in religious life. Even me! 

Me and Rex. 

Me at Red Rock Canyon. 

Do you think this will fit in the overhead of the plane? Hehehe, the bishop won't miss it. 

Oh, woe is me! Our satellite receiver died yesterday, so we're without television until Monday. Can it be possible to live without FoodTV or the Cartoon Network? Of course. They have the old-school SUPER NINTENDO HERE!!! I found it (with a number of games, including "Super Star Wars") in a cabinet in the rec room. I hooked it up and, let me tell you: I still got game. I blasted Jawas and Sarlac Pit monsters and droids all morning. Thank God a new receiver will be here on Monday. May the Force be with you! Ryan

Hi all, Just a quick shout-out to Mike and Brian English. Yet again, they have surpassed my OWN FAMILY by sending me a wonderful Pez dispenser and a great card. Brian even earned an A+ in religion - a feat of its own, I'd say. These guys are getting ready for the Fleadh, so if you'd be so kind as to remember them in your prayers over the next few weeks, I'd appreciate it. For those of you who don't know, the Fleadh is the Regional Irish Music Championships that qualify the first and second place winners in each region to represent their region at the All-Ireland championships held in August. **Mike and Brian, I've actually found a few more tunes for you guys and, as soon as I have the time, I'll phone you and let you know what they are. Some good reels and jigs, I'd say.**

That's to my cousin Matt for re-orienting the picture for me.  

My mother has offered to send me something in the mail. I'm sure it'll get here with the back-log of birthday cakes I'm still waiting on. Strangely, she asks about my address, when it is CLEARLY posted somewhere on this website. Tantalizing are the details of her recent acquisitions of fine chocolates in Ireland, though I've learned not to hold my breath waiting for anything...I think there is a pair of pants somewhere in my house that have been waiting 6 years or so for a new button from my mother. Yes, a recent spate of activity on the ol'web. I'm bored, what can I say? I wish I could turn the one picture of me and that stupid rabbit, but you get the idea.

On Bob's Birthday - Bob is sitting next to me. 

Well, I've seen everything. I just read on Cnn.com that parents are getting huffy about the color of pen used to correct their children's work. Red, they feel, is a negative color and would prefer a more pleasant hue to mark up their future-burger-slinger's paper. Give me a break! I swear upon all that is holy, I will make it my aim to start a company that manufactures only red colored pens, and not just any red. Oh no, we're talking BLOOD RED, Crimson, pure arteriol blood-red ink pouring forth onto the porous paper of poor pupils. Mrs Loren wrote me a nice email today. My own mother doesn't even send me nice emails, go figure. She'll burn my books and devour my Easter basket (that is, if she remembered to buy me one, which I highly doubt), but she won't write me. Ah well, par for the course. I'm sure Hagan "I want to be as good as Ryan one day" Duns helped her. Anyway, back to Mother Loren. She seems to be a FoodTV afficianado. I am, too. I ...

Hey Folks, Well, there's not too much to report. Life out on the range is much more slow-paced than I would have expected. To be sure, this certainly isn't Green Acres; I don't recall ever seeing ZaZa living next to six peacocks, a bobcat, three horses, and seven cats. Yep, I have a virtual "Wild Discovery" right next door. Note: Peacocks are beautiful, but terribly annoying. They make HORRIBLE noises and catterwall all bloody night, a tendency which is all the more vexing as they have claimed as their dormitory the tree right outside my bedroom window. I wonder if I couldn't find a recipe for roasted peacock... At the risk of sounding sentimental - a cardinal sin in the Duns clan - I will say that my weekly "communion calls" to shut-ins have been most touching. I suppose that "I" provide some comfort to these persons as I bring them communion, but it's touching to see the centrality of the Eucharist in their lives. I participate in the...