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 kids. 

O, I believe
Fate smiled and destiny
Laughed as she came to my cradle
Know this child will be able
Laughed as she came to my mother
Know this child will not suffer
Laughed as my body she lifted
Know this child will be gifted
With love, with patience and with faith
She’ll make her way

Full lyrics here.  They’re worth reading.

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 a dream, I’ve got a dream
They can change their minds but they can’t change me
I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream.

Full lyrics here.  Here is Jim Croce singing the song in 1973.  I love the 70s hair, the bell-bottom jeans, the acoustic guitars, the nostalgia.

Stephen Colbert interviews Lisa Miller, author of a new book on heaven. Watch the video here.

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 the piece was inspired by his experiences in the BC Urban Immersion volunteer program.

Listen to the piece here.  It’s performed by the Hawthorne String Quartet, resident at Boston College.

(Here is another BC music group, playing a very different kind of music.)

When I listened to Leonard’s quartet, I thought it sounded familiar.  Sure enough, it’s influenced by the third movement of Beethoven’s Quartet in A minor, Opus 132, one of the most moving pieces of music I know.  Beethoven wrote it after recovering from a near-fatal illness.  He titled the third movement “A Convalescent’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity.”  Listen to part of it in this video.

I love the movie “The Apostle.” It shows people of faith as real people without airs and pretense, and it shows how God can use a very flawed man to do good things. In that it gives me hope.

In this scene, Sonny Dewey, a pentecostal minster played by Robert Duvall, rages at God in his anger and distress. He has lost his wife and his church. It shows how intimate prayer can be. Sonny can talk to Jesus like this because they know each other well. (If you can’t see the video, click here.)

A stirring look at community service work by students at Loyola High School in Los Angeles. (Click here if you can’t see the video.)

]]> http://ignatianspirituality.com/5857/loyola-high-on-nbc-news/feed/ 0 http://ignatianspirituality.com/5827/can-it-be-hip-to-be-spiritual-and-religious/ http://ignatianspirituality.com/5827/can-it-be-hip-to-be-spiritual-and-religious/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 08:43:12 +0000 Jim Manney http://ignatianspirituality.com/?p=5827

Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, thinks so. (Click here if you can’t see the video.)

I recently watched “The Mission” again. It’s based on the tragic story of the Jesuit mission settlements in Paraguay in the 17th and 18th centuries. Here is an unforgettable scene depicting repentance and forgiveness.

Some background to the scene. The repentant sinner is Rodrigo Mendoza, a Spanish adventurer played by Robert De Niro. He has enslaved Indians and killed his brother in a duel. Now he wants forgiveness. As a sign of his repentance, he has dragged his heavy armor in a bag up a mountain. Awaiting him at the top are the Indians who he has enslaved. If you can’t see the video, click here.

It’s been a bit of a down year for Jesuit basketball in the NCAA tournament.  Powerhouse Georgetown made an embarrassing exit in the first round.  Marquette and Gonzaga were also bounced early, leaving Xavier as the last Jesuit school left in the tournament.  The sixth-seeded Musketeers face number two-seeded Kansas State tonight in Salt Lake City as the Sweet 16 games get underway.  Xavier is the underdog; Kansas State beat them in early December.  But Musketeer hopes are high.  This year’s tournament has had many upsets already.

Here’s a video of Musketeer highlights.  (Click here if you can’t see it.)

Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated 30 years ago today, gunned down while saying Mass.  Romero denounced human rights violations during the Salvadoran civil war, and strongly supported the poor.  He is a martyr in the struggle for justice.  Days before his death he said to a friend “You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish.”

Go to U. S. Catholic’s Romero page for links to information about him.  He’s been memorialized in a movie, and you can find many videos about him.  I’m stirred by this archival footage.  If you can’t see the video, click here.