I'm Still In Love With You

The Institute of Priestly Formation (IPF) is a summer program for seminarians to delve into the spirituality and charism of the diocesan priesthood. It is hosted each year at Creighton University in Omaha, NE. I was one of about 200 men in formation who were sent there for the summer, and it was one of the most spiritually enriching experiences of my life. The first week led into an eight-day silent retreat, during which we prayed in community, met with a spiritual director, and had unmitigated free time to pray, read, and contemplate in blessed silence. The book that was recommended to me to read was In Sinu Iesu, a touching memoir from the journals of an anonymous Benedictine monk who wrote down his conversations with God. Alas, I did not hear the voice of God so clearly during my temporary silence, but it was a joy to read nonetheless.

Naturally, between visits to the chapel, I gravitated to the piano practice rooms that someone had left unlocked… I’m not saying I should have, but there is an absolute beast of a Steinway concert piano that I took for a spin a few times. While I was enjoying the perfect action of the keys–by the way, this is not a paid advertisement, but I am open to sponsorships–I found myself composing a new song. Certain phrases of In Sinu Iesu kept bleeding onto the page, so to speak. “Stay here,” "Console me,” and “Remain in me,” for example, were very much on my heart as I was spending time in adoration, as though Christ was speaking to me in the Eucharist. By the end of the silent retreat I had written what I called an adoration ballad for Baritone and piano. What surprised me the most was how contemporary it felt. I have developed somewhat of an allergy to contemporary Christian music, and this is about as close to that genre as I have ever ventured.

As the program rolled on, word got to me that there would be a talent show at the end of the summer, and I love attention! So I found a gifted pianist and a Baritone with a gorgeous voice and offered them the opportunity to perform an original composition by Will Strassberger. And by “offered them the opportunity,” I mean I begged them to help me bring it to life. As luck would have it, they were happy to help. At the lunch table after the dress rehearsal, some seminarians floated the idea of making the talent show into a competition. A priest who had heard my song shot down the notion, saying, “It’s not much of a competition with Will’s song.” And that, dear reader, is called validation.

Now the talent show itself was a riot. There was a rap battle between St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. John of the Cross, during which the latter dropped the greatest line in rap history, “I spent 9 months in prison, whatchu know about bars?!” My pianist sang a parody of “American Pie” using the text of Fr. Timothy Gallagher’s Discernment of Spirits. Sources have yet to confirm, but apparently the year before saw a group of men donning black trash bags and doing a medley from The Sister Act. So you get the vibe. Anyways, it was time for my song, and my musicians took the stage while I sat anxiously in the audience. And they absolutely blew me away. I feel like a proud coach whose team wins the championship every time a performance of my music goes exceptionally well. There is something both humbling and transcendent about handing your sheet music to truly talented performers and witnessing them turn it into art. Here is a link to Dylan Prentice (Baritone) and Michael Garvin (piano) elevating my song to a higher form than I could write as a composer.