I’m writing this as I land in Chicago, where I’ll be meeting up with Eric, Chris, and Nick Snyder for a weekend in South Bend and at Notre Dame for their game against Wake Forest. It’s been a few years since I visited Notre Dame, and over the past decade or so I’ve been there maybe a bit more than a half dozen times, from visiting retired Holy Cross priests for research on a manuscript about Fr. Richard Novak, C.S.C., to weekends for fun and fellowship like this one.

It’s a special place, and more than any other Catholic university in this country, the Congregation of Holy Cross has built a remarkable and resilient place of learning. It looks like a beautiful, unseasonably warm day. I’ll add some scenes from the day later.

“Concert On The Steps: Band of the Fighting Irish,” felt qluintessensionally autumnal. And I recorded the “Trumpets Under the Dome” performance that took place shortly before the outdoor video: