Better Than Ezra, Rick Springfield and John Chrysostom.

Fellow secundi Adam, Drew, John, Mike, Tony and I went to see New Orleans' own Better Than Ezra last night at Chrysler Arts, Beats & Eats ("Oakland County's Summer Festival") in downtown Pontiac. BTE played an hour-long set that included a fair amount of new material. Old radio standards like "Desperately Wanting" and "Extra Ordinary" were mixed in as well (I suspect "Good" was there too, but I arrived late and didn't hear it), as were obligatory calls to support hurricane relief and poignant tributes to BTE's hometown. Not bad for a free show.

Never in my life did I think I would see Rick Springfield in concert. In fact, never in my life did I think about Rick Springfield, period. I'm too young to remember Rick's glory days, and up to last night my ignorance of his career was so complete that I couldn't even identify him as the guy who sang "Jessie's Girl." Though most of my companions were in the same boat, we were curious enough that we stuck around after BTE finished playing to watch Rick Springfield take the stage. The 56-year-old performer looks amazingly youthful - like a "pod person," as my parents would say, referencing the movie Cocoon. I can't say I was particularly taken with Rick's music, but I can say that watching a mostly middle-aged, predominantly female crowd go crazy over a singer I'd basically never heard of before was an interesting experience. I'm sure there are a few Rick Springfield fans among the people that I hope to serve as a Jesuit, so I'd like to think last night's experience was of some apostolic benefit. Maybe that's what GC34 meant by "entry into cultures" - I'm not too sure it was, but there's always an outside possibility.

On an entirely different note, I attended Divine Liturgy this morning at St. Nicholas Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church in Detroit. The pastor was away on pilgrimage, so the liturgy was celebrated by Father Carl Bonk, S.J., pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church downtown. Carl is one of a number of Jesuit priests in the United States who are bi-ritual - that is, authorized to celebrate the sacraments in one or more of the Eastern Rites as well as the Roman Rite. There's an organization of North American Jesuits who are bi-ritual or otherwise interested in Eastern Christianity called Jesuits for the Christian East, though judging from the state of the group's website I'm not sure they've done much lately. Jesuits have long been involved in the life of the Eastern Church, not only through pastoral work but also in the Society's educational apostolates and perhaps most notably through the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. As for St. Nicholas Parish, I appreciated the hospitality of the community there and look forward to returning. All in all, another exciting weekend at Loyola House. AMDG.