My kids know I’m a big Bruce Springsteen fan, so I was pleased when my daughter Laura gave me his latest album, “Wrecking Ball.” It’s terrific. Several songs fortify the Boss’s reputation as the greatest Catholic poet of our time. My favorite is “We Are Alive.” We are alive Oh, and though we lie alone [...]
{ 4 comments }
My daughter Laura turned me on to the British band Mumford and Sons. They’re something special. “After the Storm” speaks of longing for God, and the hope that love will triumph: And there will come a time, you’ll see, with no more tears. And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears. Get [...]
{ 1 comment }
Some time ago I featured the Natalie Merchant song “Wonder” in our occasional “Best Ignatian Songs” feature. Here is another. It’s a setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child.” The song is in the middle of a concert Merchant gave at a TED conference. Go to the 16 minute, [...]
{ 1 comment }
This is the second time “Gabriel’s Oboe” has appeared in our occasional “Best Ignatian Songs” feature. (The first time is here.) The occasion is the opening of a musical based on the movie “The Mission,” a great film inspired by the Jesuit missions in South America in the eighteenth century. The musical opened this week [...]
{ 1 comment }
Years ago, I gave up on Advent. It was hard to maintain the Advent frame of mind (quiet longing for the coming of Christ) in the midst of the Christmas tumult, which seems to get started around Columbus Day. I remember listening to a priest one Sunday urging us to take Advent seriously by waiting [...]
{ 3 comments }
As I get ready for Thanksgiving Day I’m thinking of Speedy, “a thrill seeker in the world of project gangbanging,” as the Jesuit Greg Boyle describes him in his terrific book Tattoos on the Heart. Speedy hailed from a broken family, left the gangs, worked his way out of the projects, and made a life. [...]
{ 0 comments }
We’ve been very serious on dotMagis this week. Let’s lighten up on Friday. Kick back, relax, and listen to the greatest song by the greatest singer of all. (Click here if you can’t see the video.)
{ 0 comments }
A friend of mine, whose son was born with Down Syndrome, turned me on to Natalie Merchant’s song “Wonder.” I think it’s a song especially about disabled children, but it applies to all children. Maybe that’s why it came to mind today, when my wife and I are in New York visiting two of my [...]
{ 0 comments }
John Predmore, SJ, says that Jim Croce’s classic ballad “I Got a Name” “best reflects the events in my life that have led me to trust more fully in God.” He says that the lyrics extol Ignatian freedom. And I’m gonna go there free Like the fool I am and I’ll always be I’ve got [...]
{ 0 comments }
The Best Ignatian Song feature of this blog has been on the shelf for some months. I’ve dusted it off to feature the “String Quartet No. 1: Good Friday Meditation” by Andrew Leonard, a recent Boston College graduate who is spending the summer with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Leonard, a pre-med and music major, says [...]
{ 0 comments }
Sign up for dotMagis updates in an RSS reader
Sign up for dotMagis updates by e-mail