Now, evidently, students eventually graduate and shift from being students to being alumni. In other instances they move from undergraduate to graduate work and are likely to shift academic institutions in the process. That is the first point. So one cannot expect, of course, that the blogs of particular individuals at these institutions might run forever -- and if they did, by a certain stage they'd become something else.
However, while I say, "to all things there is a season," what I am not suggesting is that there is perhaps a lack of such individuals in our academic institutions. Through public events and private correspondence I know for a fact that this is precisely not for lack of individuals or activity.
So that being the case, where are the successors to the sorts of blogs I have already referred? Blogs that, amongst other things, detail some of the writers' liturgically oriented aspirations, projects and positions and report on similar sorts of events in their academic institutions and locales?
It is possible they exist and are simply unknown to me, and if so, I'd like to hear about them. But if not, and it is simply a case of encouragement being needed, then I would like to offer that encouragement here and now. In fact, permit me to "name names" for the sake of very particular encouragement. It would be great to see such liturgically interested blogs (which isn't to say they need be exclusively liturgical in other words) come out of some or all of the following institutions:
Christendom College
Cornell University
Harvard University
Oxford University
Princeton University
Seton Hall
Thomas Aquinas College
Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts
University College Dublin
University of Cambridge
University of Dallas
University of Notre Dame
University of St. Andrew's
University of Toronto
Wyoming Catholic College
Yale University
This list is by no means comprehensive of course.
But how to handle the problem of the transitory nature of life in an academic institution? My own thought is that this is where the group blog might be particularly useful. Having a few writers and making a concerted effort to recruit new writers over those years would go a long way to help preserve this particular voice in particular institutions -- one which, I might add, is not only of great inspiration to a broader audience but is also useful for coordinating the new liturgical movement. Where it makes sense, some alumni could even stay on until the torch has been passed to the newer generations.
Still, even individual blogging projects ought to be encouraged.
So then, we're coming up to a new academic year in the next few weeks and with that, might I encourage those of our readers at these or other academic institutions to pick up on this enterprise, writing on and reporting on (and indeed thereby also contributing to) the efforts of a new liturgical movement in your area and/or institution.
I am convinced that this voice is not only desired, it is also needed.
