I've been thinking about trying to write this post for a long time. There's a lot of begging in Rome. There are scammers too, but ...

This is another ramble, I guess. But I also guess that I won't apologize. I'm reminded of one of my favorite things anybody has ever...

cum benedictione Dei , of course. When a letter of obedience suddenly made this new assignment in Rome real a few weeks ago, there were ma...

In the course of this past winter Ordinary Time, a confluence of factors led me to stop shaving altogether. Since the spring semester of 199...

For a 'music captures prayer' post, mutatis mutandis, " I saw a hippie girl on 8th Ave." by Jeffrey Lewis

It's a commonplace in religious life to say that why you came isn't exactly the same as why you stay. This is largely because rel...

One of the little spiritual boundaries I try to keep for myself is not looking at any social or news media before I've said my prayers a...

I had totally forgotten about this song. When I happened on it again this afternoon, it made my day. You don't have to agree with everyt...

One of my joys over this past year back in Boston has been getting to know the " Schola Amicorum " which sings for the Sunday Mass...

What's Halloween without a surfy cover of the eponymous song by everyone's favorite Rock and Roll guilty pleasure, the Misfits?

The other day I got into a conversation with someone on one of the standard conflicts of the parish ministry: music for funerals and wedding...

As we have approached another feast of St. Francis I've been reflecting a little bit on how it is I got to be a Franciscan. It's alw...

I'm sure that I've shared in the singing of Dan Schu tte's "City of God" more than any other single piece of church mu...

I liked the concluding oration for Morning Prayer today: "Increase in us, Lord, the faith you have given us, and bring to a harvest wor...

These days I've been in an email conversation with an old friend who is one of the most sensible and brightest people I know. He's a...

In becoming an uncle, I realize that I have entered into a new moment in my religious life and priesthood. For several weeks now I have tell...

Leave it to the self-ironic pop punk of the Vandals to take what would otherwise be a very crass pious thought and make it amusing, safe, an...

This wonderfully complicated day cannot pass without some tribute to the greatest of Rock and Roll's guilty pleasures, the Misfits, and ...

I'm contemplating my next conversion: becoming a hockey fan. Not that I'm especially attracted to the game, but I've noticed ove...

For the great Bruno of Cologne, I couldn't resist posting this song from one of all-time favorite records: