Introducing The Restless Hearts

Welcome, Dave, Rob, and Jenny! (listed in order of writing rotation)
- and welcome, new Cover Photo swag for the Facebook Page

It brings me great pleasure to introduce to you the three new writers joining this blog: Jenny Klejeski,
Rob Goodale, and Dave Gregory. These three will take turns sharing original new posts each Monday. I invite you to Like us on Facebook, follow our Twitter pages (featured on the blog sidebar and linked here: Dan | Rob | Jenny), or sign up for email alerts on the sidebar that will link you to new posts.

The scope of the blog will continue to be broad and varying, as each of us seek to articulate the thoughts stirring at the fore of our hearts. The unifying thread between us is our shared faith and our common emphasis on strong theological roots, sustained ministerial practice, and pastoral sensibility, and I believe that will create a diverse, hearty, and engaging buffet of theological and spiritual nosh for you all to enjoy.

I interviewed each of our new folks with the same questions to give them a proper introduction, so without further adieu, let me share with you a brief introduction for each of them (my words in italics) followed by these three new writers in their own words, starting with Jenny:

Jenny Klejeski

I connected with Jenny through a mutual friend. He linked me to some of her previous work that she had published online. I found in her word choice and tone a definite kindred spirit. She wrote with the intelligence and eloquence of a thoughtful student, and delivered her content with the gentleness and lightness of a pastorally sound minister. I took it as an even greater sign that her work referred centrally to St. Maximilian Kolbe, my favorite saint and an amazing model of humility and loving ministry. In just getting to know Jenny a little bit, I already enjoy her enthusiasm and earnestness and know it will shine through as she continues writing here. Jenny will debut on Monday, December 26.

Tell the people a little about yourself.

I hail from the great state of 10,000 lakes, where I grew up with my parents, three older sisters, and one younger brother. With only five children, we were one of the smaller Catholic families at our parish, and all five of us were homeschooled. Being homeschooled allowed us to do some pretty cool stuff like declaring a school holiday when the Two Towers: Extended Edition came out on DVD. (In fairness, we never got snow days or federal holidays off.) In addition, I was able to attend community college full time for two years during high school, which was a great transition to 4-year college. In hopes of following in two of my older sisters’ footsteps, I applied to Notre Dame but was not accepted. I went to my second choice, St. Mary’s College, across the street from Notre Dame with a tentative plan to transfer to ND. In the fall of my sophomore year, I studied abroad with SMC in Rome, where I lived a stone’s throw from the Pantheon and stuffed myself to the gills every day with the best cornetti and pasta I've ever eaten.

The next semester I transferred to Notre Dame as an English major. Sometime during my junior year, I added a theology major (more on that below) and the summer after graduation I began Echo, a graduate program in theology through Notre Dame. Through Echo, I was placed in an intentional faith community and worked as a high school theology teacher in Utah. The first time I stepped into a high school classroom was as a teacher, and my two years teaching theology were perhaps the most formative years of my adult life so far. After completing Echo this past summer, I moved back to Minnesota to teach middle school English at a small Catholic school in the Twin Cities area.

Why did you choose to study theology?

Faith seeking understanding--what's not to love? I’m a cradle Catholic and have always enjoyed learning about and discussing my faith. I credit this to really excellent parish and family catechesis and a particularly influential Bible study that I attended in middle/high school. I hadn't planned to study theology in college (I think I was afraid of a “useless” major), but the Holy Spirit (working through some friends and a few professors) persuaded me in that direction. 

I believe that the decision to study theology was one of the most important decisions of my college career. When I was doing academic theology, I found a sense of fulfillment, as if what I was doing actually mattered. There was a satisfaction to it beyond getting a grade. It was forming me as a person and changing how I viewed the world. It became less of an academic exercise (though it was still that), and more of a way to be in relationship with God. I'm attracted to theology for many reasons, but not least of all because it is a boundless study. One can go continually deeper and with every discovery is some sign of God's love and desire for relationship with us.

How do you live out your ministry?

This is a question I am still seeking to answer myself! As a theology teacher, my ministry was much clearer because my entire curriculum presented opportunities for inviting young people to consider questions of God. As an English teacher, my ministry is not so cut and dried, but I still seek to live out my vocation by being a witness of Christ to my students, fellow teachers, and anyone else I encounter. My hope is to put students in touch with truth, beauty, and goodness, to help form them into people who are open to a relationship with Christ, and to create opportunities for virtue.

What kinds of things will you write about in your posts?

With my various experiences in education (student, teacher, homeschool, public school, Catholic school, etc.), I enjoy exploring different facets of education and what I believe Catholic education should be. I’m also fascinated by how our human experience can be illuminated by art, literature, and music. I’m sure the liturgy and saints will also feature prominently.

Is there anything else you'd like the readers to know about you?

I am chronically contrarian. 

Despite being a certified bartender, my drink of choice is Jameson neat. 

If I could have dinner with any 3 people, I would choose Flannery O’Connor, Caryll Houselander, and Simone Weil. 

I am a self-taught ukulele player, and I collect vintage typewriters. 

Rob Goodale

I first met Rob after I had already graduated from Notre Dame; I was a returning mentor to Notre Dame Vision, and Rob was a first-time mentor, fresh off of sophomore year. Rob was that magnetic, cool kid, the guy who you immediately knew you wanted to be friends with. Somehow, as the older, experienced student, Rob somehow gravitated toward my friends and me (see below). We had the privilege to discover a budding, blossoming man who understood the social magnetism he possessed and who wanted to utilize it to connect people ministerially and bring them closer to God and each other. Rob was like that little sibling who might have been a snot and pain-in-the-butt while growing up but hit the moment when it all came together just as I met him. Rob is a gift to those he ministers to because he uses his gifts to learn, teach, and serve. Rob will debut on Monday, December 19.

Tell the people a little about yourself.

I grew up in a Catholic family in the paradigmatic Heartland, a small town about ten miles outside of Des Moines, Iowa. From an early age, I was taught to operate under the assumption that there was always someone nearby who knew my parents and would tell them exactly how good or bad their young Robbie and his hood-rat friends were being, so we made sure to be as discreet as possible when we messed around at Wal-Mart. At the ripe age of eight, my family visited the University of Notre Dame on a whim as we drove from Iowa to Ohio. Shortly thereafter, I, in my patented endearing and precocious way, began telling everyone who asked (and loads of folks who didn’t) that I would be a student there someday. From that point on, my whole life became oriented to getting into Notre Dame.

When, ten years later, I moved on to the hallowed ground of Marylin M. Keough Hall, I suddenly discovered that I had achieved the only serious goal I’d ever set for myself, and I celebrated by immersing myself fully in the life of a stereotypical jackass college kid. When it came time to choose a major at the end of my freshman year, I... didn’t. That’s a true story. I had no major until the spring of my sophomore year, when I chose philosophy mostly out of boredom. I eventually stumbled into working for Notre Dame Vision (more on that in a bit), and found that I enjoyed talking with people about God. I started studying theology, got really involved in ND’s Campus Ministry, got hired to take a victory lap as a Campus Ministry Post-Grad Intern, and then began two years in Echo, a graduate program in theology through Notre Dame.

The program includes two years of employment at either a parish or a Catholic high school, and this is how I wound up living in Salt Lake City, Utah, and teaching high school theology for two years. This past summer I graduated with an MA in theology and became a Double Domer (puke in my mouth a little bit), and I’m now living, of all places, in southern Ireland, working as a visiting chaplain at University College Cork.

Why did you decide to study theology?

During that first summer of working at Notre Dame Vision, there were these two guys a year or two older than me who had both been mentors with the program before, and were both studying theology. I spent hours picking their brains about deep questions of faith—questions of vocation and discipleship, of suffering and grace. Amazingly, they seemed to have some insight about each topic that came up, and spoke in hushed reverence of ND theology professors like David Fagerberg and John Cavadini.

As the summer wore on, it became clear—I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to major in theology, but I knew I wanted to keep having conversations like those. Fall semester of my junior year (my first studying philosophy) didn’t go so well—philosophy professors kept asking me questions about goodness and truth, and they kept telling me God couldn’t be part of my answer. So I jumped on the theology bandwagon, and 72 credits later, I still like it.

(P.S. One of those dudes at Vision was Dan. #smallworld)

How do you live out your ministry?

It’s very different as a chaplain than it was as a teacher. It’s far less academic, obviously. I also went from working with 160 students every day to working with about six, and I no longer have the threat of grades to force the six I have now to pay attention. At the end of the day, though, they aren’t all that different from any other form of ministry when it’s done well. Being Christ to people, in a professional capacity or otherwise, means:

1. Being okay with failure, like actual failure in front of real life human beings, with no escape hatch.
2. Being unafraid to share your whole, raw self with a group of people who are desperate for that kind of human interaction, but are woefully incapable of reciprocating it.
3. Being willing to limp home at the end of each day bruised, hurting, and dirty (usually metaphorical, unless the Irish students make you play a God-forsaken game called hurling with them, in which case, it’s literal).
4. Praising God for having the opportunity to do all this with a smile on your face and grace pulsing through your veins.

This looks a bit different for each of us, but whether you’re a parent, a teacher, a social worker, or just some random person who sometimes takes enough time to notice the other persons around you, this is how we live out our ministry. This is what we do.

What kinds of things will you write about in your posts?

Rooted as I am in the convergence point of education and the Church, I’ll be writing about that some. I’m still fascinated, as I was in that first Vision summer, with questions of vocation, discipleship, suffering, and grace, so I’ll probably write about that stuff, too. I wish more Catholics were willing to be joyful and use their imagination, so that’ll probably pop up some. And I also wish more people knew how to treat other people like people, so… yeah, I’ll probably write about that, too. And of course, the World Champion Chicago Cubs. #FlyTheW #GoCubsGo

Is there anything else you’d like the readers to know about you?

Hmm, let’s see… I have a totally normal and healthy attachment to the writings of C.S. Lewis, and much of my own thought tends to be sifted through his, for better or for worse (it’s all for better - how dare you). 

I love to force other people to eat my cooking and listen to my music, both of which I find to be stellar. 

I’m living in Ireland right now, in case you missed that—it’s a strange place, but a pretty cool one. The whiskey tastes good, and the beer tastes better. 

I stay in the loop on what’s going on back in the States mostly through Twitter, which I know is a dangerous game, but I’m a sucker for brevity (and GIFs). Aaaaand have I mentioned the World Champion Chicago Cubs? Because I’m a big fan of the World Champion Chicago Cubs. #FlyTheW

Dave Gregory

Dave and I met at a literal oasis in the desert, a high school in a California desert valley that in the words of its current principal is a place that "specializes in discernment of all shapes and sizes" for students and faculty/staff alike. We had each sort of indirectly networked our way to jobs in theology and campus ministry, and we each brought a flavor of strong-willed boorishness that somehow jived well then and continues to work now. Dave is adept at turning a phrase, aloud or in writing, that is sure to provoke and entertain, especially when it comes to making people laugh; however, I have never witnessed a peer, someone my age and with my level of education and formation, who speaks with greater conviction and engagement about our faith than Dave. He can captivate a crowd of seasoned, jaded educators just as readily as a roomful of apathetic, lazy 15-year-olds. Dave will debut on Monday, December 12.

Tell the people a little about yourself.

Hello, "the people." I gotta explain that I'm a bit messed up, and generally spend my waking hours in a hazed confusion. My mom is a Jewish New Yorker, and my dad is a cradle Catholic from Dearborn, Michigan. He's a "cooperator" with Opus Dei, but also brought me to the original Catholic Worker houses on a frequent basis as I grew up. Consequently, definable Catholic boxes elude my grasp. I attended Jesuit schools throughout high school and college (Regis High School in Manhattan and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.), spent two years in a Jesuit novitiate, and wound up teaching and campus ministering for four years at Xavier College Preparatory in the desert of Southern California, the first Jesuit-less Jesuit high school. 

While at Xavier, I completed a master's degree in Biblical Studies (I realized toward the end of my program that I would be a master of B.S.) with a focus on the wisdom and prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible; I wrote my thesis under the direction of Marvin Sweeney and Jon Berquist, entitled "The Monotheistic Revolution of Deutero-Isaiah: A Theological Exploration of Its Causes and Implications". That 68-page monstrosity has since dissolved into the aether of forgotten master's theses. 

I refuse to move on toward doctoral work because I hate systemic politick, nor do I desire to spend my life researching and writing about things that only two or three other people in the world care about. Portland, OR is my current home, where I teach theology at De La Salle Catholic North High School, a Lasallian Christian Brothers institution and the second-oldest Cristo Rey Network school. In short, we are dedicated to serving urban students whose socio-economic demographics do not dispose them toward receiving quality educations in preparation for college matriculation.

Why did you choose to study theology?

As an undergraduate at Georgetown, I began my studies as a biochemistry major. However, I took a couple of required theology and philosophy courses my freshman year alongside the hard sciences, and studying Plato under Professor Frank Ambrosio changed my life. I arrived at the realization that I should blow money on an education that would help me explore life's deepest mysteries and questions, one that would help me to read, write, think, and speak well, all along the lines of the Jesuitical eloquentia perfecta. I wound up majoring in philosophy and theology, with particular attention paid to systematic theology, biblical theology, ancient philosophy, and philosophy of religion. Practicalities be damned. 

Come graduate school, I realized that I didn't know that much about Judaism or the Hebrew Bible and wound up at the Claremont School of Theology, which historically has very strong biblical studies. It's a kooky, amazing place, considered to be the most "liberal" (sweet baby Jesus, I hate these dichotomies) of the Methodist seminaries; I studied alongside Jews, atheists, non-Catholic Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and Wiccans. I loved every minute at Claremont, and got to study under really prominent scholars, especially in my field. 

While delving into Scripture, I realized that Christianity has by and large really effed up its understanding of Judaism, and popular Catholicism has mostly forgotten its Jewish origins, all to its own detriment. I studied the Hebrew Bible because I came to see that I could not understand Jesus of Nazareth unless I first understood the scriptures he read and taught alongside the social-religious culture to which he belonged. Apart from my biblically-focused coursework, I adored the general requirements in systematics, ethics, and interreligious studies, and I particularly became fond of ecofeminist, post-Christian, and death-of-God theologies.

How do you live out your ministry?

Broadly speaking, I became an educator because my own high school teachers and friends collectively loved me into existence, and I yearn to give my life to that same project. At heart, I consider myself an evangelist, and I submit this without hubris or pretension. I'm simply dedicated to communicating the beauty, truth, and goodness of Catholicism to young adults, helping them to encounter Jesus. My classroom is part retreat faith-sharing group, part stand-up comedy show, and part lecture hall; I hope to introduce to and engage my students with supremely important questions, in order that they might come to a deeper understanding of why they believe what they believe. 

Given that the school I serve is predominantly minority (we're the most diverse school in Portland and the fourth most diverse private school in the country), and given that I am a large, white male, tensions abound. Moreover, the solid majority of our students is not Catholic. My undergraduate and graduate educations took place in relatively bizarre religious institutions, and I feel that I'm well-suited for this sort of community, because I have experienced exploring philosophy and theology with folks who do not share my same beliefs. I'm never out to convert or proselytize, but I do pride myself (perhaps a bit too much) on the fact that as a result of our time together, Christians have become atheists and atheists have become Christians. 

Basically, the truly excellent courses I've taken have rattled and disturbed me, and have transformed my own theological worldview. If my classes don't make my students uncomfortable, then I've failed at my job.

What kinds of things will you write about in your posts?

Given aforementioned reasons, I'll be focusing on the Hebrew Bible. I'm barely beginning to understand it myself, and I hope that I can shed some light on its richness and contemporary relevance. The Bible is a total freakshow in the best of all possible senses, and I hope that my writing will provide intellectual depth while remaining within the grasp of the theologically uninitiated. I suppose I'll also be writing about its relationship to Jesus (especially with regard to the influence of prophetic literature on his life and ministry) and the relationship of Catholicism to ancient Judaism. Perhaps I'll throw in some bits about spirituality, ecofeminism, and post-Christian theology as well.

Is there anything else you'd like the readers to know about you?

Ummmm, I've got a couple of fun facts. 

As a teenager, I performed and competed in sleight-of-hand magic competitions. I won some awards, and my high school graduation present was attending the "world Olympics" of magic in Stockholm (F.I.S.M.), though not as a competitor, simply as a giant geek. In order to reach the pinnacle of geekdom, I even attended a sleep-away magic camp for a few summers, the same camp which David Blaine and Criss Angel went to as kiddos; when Criss's show "Mindfreak" debuted on Broadway, I got a poster from his merch table, and he signed it, "To David -- May all your magical dreams come true." This note was signed right over a picture wherein he was naked and bound in chains (it was a collage of images, this was not the only one, I should note), with his hands covering his genitalia… supposedly to show off his prowess at escapism, though I suspect it contained a plurality of undertones. I covered it up with a picture of Natalie Portman once my high school friends came over for the first time, as I realized the profound social ramifications of having such debauchery strewn upon my wall. 

On a slightly cooler note, when the Jesuits kicked me out a few months before I was supposed to profess perpetual vows (this isn't a scandalous story, but more on that in the future) and my novice master handed me $750 to send me on my way, I saved and spent it on bartending school when I lived in California. I have an interest in the history of the American cocktail and the history of alcohol consumption in general, and consequently make the meanest margarita and old-fashioned you'll ever have. 

My pipedream is to open a liturgically- and hagiographically-inspired bar named "The Damnable Papist". A defunct high altar will run along behind the bar as it lifts sweet nectar toward the heavens; glittering icons will hang all over the dimly-lit walls; and the lyrics from one of my all-time favorite songs ("Citrus") from my all-time favorite band (The Hold Steady) will adorn the ceiling in a spiral formation, culminating in some sort of theophanic revelation. These words pretty much sum up the philosophy and spirituality upon which I ground my being:

Hey citrus, hey liquor,

I love it when you touch each other.

Hey whiskey, hey ginger,

I come to you with rigid fingers.

I see Judas in the hard eyes

Of the boys who worked on the corners.

I feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers.

Hey bar room, hey tavern,

I find hope in all the souls you gather.

Hey citrus, hey liquor,

I love it when we come together.

I feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers...

I feel Judas in the long odds of the rackets on the corners...

I feel Jesus in the tenderness of honest, nervous lovers...

I feel Judas in the pistols and the pagers that come with all the powders...

Lost in fog and love and faith was fear,

And I've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere.

Lost in fog and love and faith was fear,

I've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere.