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Valentine’s Day – Pablo Neruda’s “Sweetness, Always”I can think of no better poet to capture the simplicity of love quite like Pablo Neruda. On this Valentine’s Day I offer you one of my favorite love poems which on the surface is not a love poem I suppose, but a call to simplicity, lightness of heart and a willingness to put away the “harsh machinery” of overt sentimentality and simply give from the heart: Sweetness, Always – Pablo … There’s more to read here. “It begins with a inarticulate groan…”: a prayer for my students this termEvery term begins with a flurry of activity: making lists, checking over student rosters, printing syllabi, making sure textbooks are available, updating library books on hold, loading up files onto blackboard, etc. When I step into the class each new term, I am reminded that for some students, a theology course can be nerve jangling – wrestling with deep questions of self, God, tradition, family heritage, and other challenging topics … There’s more to read here.
Posted in teaching, theology, Uncategorized
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Christmas albums to enjoy this holidaySooo… let’s talk Christmas CDs! Here is a short list of Christmas discs spinning through my iPod this season – I would love to hear from you as to your sonic holiday cheer: Over The Rhine – “The Darkest Night of the Year” and “Snow Angels”(the former for ‘dark night of the Christmas soul’, the latter for Christmas cheer with your favorite special someone)
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It Came Upon a Minor Key: the theology of “Midnight Clear” that moves Advent from a major to minor keySome of my favorite Christmas carols are those penned in the nineteenth century. Perhaps due to my work as a Victorianist during my PhD studies, my love of steam punk, the genius of novelist George Eliot, all things Charles Dickens and a form of Anglophilia that peers over Hadrian’s Wall from bonnie Scotland with an eye to England with wonder coupled with furrowed brow, the Victorian period continues to stir a rich … There’s more to read here. 5 things to remember as you going shopping in the mall: your two minutes of sanityI was walking through a shopping mall today (my least favorite activity) and in the midst of all the noise, sparkle, clatter and shoving of the holiday madness I thought ”there needs to be some guide for all this to help me make some sense and sanity of all this consumerism.” I am not offering a “stop being a consumer!” guilt trip and you can find many blogs to help you there. … There’s more to read here.
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Top 10 Albums of 2012Hard to believe that it is *that* time of year again, but here we are closing out 2012 and with it comes the attempt to tier the music that has overwhelmed (and at times underwhelmed) our hearts and souls these past 12 months. It has been a year with some surprises to be sure – from the horse dancing glee of Psy with “Gangnam Style” to the recent (so-called) reunion of Nirvana … There’s more to read here.
Posted in arts, faith, Uncategorized
Tagged existential musings, Faith, music, theology, Top 10 list 2012, Your Neighbor's Hymnal
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The heartbreaking work of love – Psalm 51 and why reading Scripture matters to hard heartsA friend just sent me this wonderful rabbinical reflection:
Posted in belief, Bible, existential musings, Uncategorized
Tagged Abba Poemen, Bible, Desert Fathers, existential musings, Heartbreak, pastoral vocation, Psalm 51, theology
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“Keeping Quiet” – Pablo Neruda and remembering the place of stillness in a new school yearPerhaps it is that calm before the storm or that sensation of water recessing back into the ocean in anticipation of a bigger wave building but yet to come, but the days before a new academic term always fills me with both expectation and a bit of dread. This is heightened this fall due to the fact that I was on sabbatical last term in Oxford and wondering how to keep a Sabbath mindset alive as … There’s more to read here.
Posted in Pablo Neruda, Sabbath, sabbatical, teaching, Uncategorized, university education
Tagged Pablo Neruda, Sabbath, teaching
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What I hope for my students: a professor’s prayer from the Carmina GadelicaA spiritual practice that I have adopted after my time on sabbatical with the Dominican community of Blackfriars Hall in Oxford has been to pray for my students prior to class starting. One of the friars I met at Blackfriars spoke of the importance of praying for those we have yet to meet so that we could soften our hearts to whatever God has in store for this sacred relationship … There’s more to read here.
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© 2011 Jeff Keuss |