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Glorious Music
The Catholic University of America Magazine, Fall 2014
Each fall we open our academic year with the Mass of the Holy Spirit. I love to see our students, faculty, and staff gathered together to begin a new year with prayer. And each year I marvel at the beautiful music our choir provides for the Mass. This year the choir’s rendition of Thomas Atwood’s Come Holy Spirit, with sophomore Allison Verhofstadt’s soprano solo, was glorious.
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A Family Wedding at Home
The Catholic University of America Magazine, Summer 2014
We used to live in Kentucky, in an old house built in 1823. When the family got too big for it we bought a larger place on Tates Creek Road. It took some getting used to. The lady next door, Mrs. Beaumar, used to shoot squirrels out her window with a .22, and we would have to call the children inside when that happened. The upstairs, where most of the bedrooms were, felt a little empty and smelled a little like an attic.
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Crossing Academic Borders
The Catholic University of America Magazine, Spring 2014
I am trying something new. For more than 30 years I taught courses on law. This semester I am teaching a course on the virtues to a group of (mostly freshman) honors students. We already offer many courses on the virtues in theology and philosophy, and students often get an introduction to the virtues through their First-Year Experience courses. But I wanted to take a different approach. My course uses texts from a broad range of subjects — American and British literature, philosophy, theology, film, art, television, and sociology — to explore the virtues.
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