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2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies

Iraneal — Tue, 12 May 2026 05:09:38 GMT

2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies

Iraneal — Mon, 11 May 2026 21:28:32 GMT

Created page with "====Opening — 2 minutes==== Iceland has no indigenous kings, but it has powerful bishops. Introduce Guðmundr and the problem: how does a combative priest become a bishop-sa..."

New page

====Opening — 2 minutes====
Iceland has no indigenous kings, but it has powerful bishops. Introduce Guðmundr and the problem: how does a combative priest become a bishop-saint?

====Problem and method — 2 minutes====
Hagiography often compresses transformation into predestination or ceremony. Your approach tracks transformation narratively and cumulatively.

====Movement 1: Not born a saint — 4 minutes====
Prophecy, bishop-play, illegitimacy, stubbornness. The narrative gives signs of future sanctity, but also makes him difficult and incomplete.

====Movement 2: Becoming holy — 6 minutes====
Shipwreck, convalescence, gradual change, death of Þorgeir, devotional intensification, miracles, popular naming as Guðmundr the Good.

====Movement 3: Living sanctity as conflict — 5 minutes====
Charity, followers, ecclesiastical independence, Kolbeinn, excommunication, Víðines, removals from Hólar. His holiness is recognized by some and resisted by others.

====Conclusion — 1 minute====
Guðmundr becomes a bishop-saint through accumulated transformation and contested recognition. His sanctity is local, living, narrative, and never entirely settled.

Main Page

Iraneal — Mon, 11 May 2026 21:27:43 GMT

‎Papers and Presentations

First Presbyterian Church

Iraneal — Sun, 10 May 2026 03:41:43 GMT

Sermon for May 10th, 2026

Iraneal — Sun, 10 May 2026 03:41:04 GMT

Sermon for May 10th, 2026

Iraneal — Sun, 10 May 2026 01:07:29 GMT

Created page with "==Titus 3:3-7== 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hatin..."

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==Titus 3:3-7==
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

==2 Corinthians 5:17-20==
17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

==1 Corinthians 9:19-23==
19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might gain all the more. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to gain Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might gain those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not outside God’s law but am within Christ’s law) so that I might gain those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I might become a partner in it.

==Music & Message of Taylor Swift, Part 3 - The Redemption==

First Presbyterian Church

Iraneal — Sun, 10 May 2026 01:02:59 GMT

Sermon for May 3rd, 2026

Iraneal — Sun, 03 May 2026 06:14:32 GMT

First Presbyterian Church

Iraneal — Sun, 03 May 2026 06:12:18 GMT

Sermon for May 3rd, 2026

Iraneal — Sun, 03 May 2026 06:10:31 GMT

Sermon for May 3rd, 2026

Iraneal — Sun, 03 May 2026 04:17:37 GMT

Created page with "==Ezekiel 16:8-22 (OT p. 781)== 8I passed by you again and looked on you; you were at the age for love. I spread the edge of my cloak over you, and covered your nakedness: I p..."

New page

==Ezekiel 16:8-22 (OT p. 781)==
8I passed by you again and looked on you; you were at the age for love. I spread the edge of my cloak over you, and covered your nakedness: I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine. 9Then I bathed you with water and washed off the blood from you, and anointed you with oil. 10I clothed you with embroidered cloth and with sandals of fine leather; I bound you in fine linen and covered you with rich fabric. 11I adorned you with ornaments: I put bracelets on your arms, a chain on your neck, 12a ring on your nose, ear-rings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. 13You were adorned with gold and silver, while your clothing was of fine linen, rich fabric, and embroidered cloth. You had choice flour and honey and oil for food. You grew exceedingly beautiful, fit to be a queen. 14Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of my splendor that I had bestowed on you, says the Lord God.

15But you trusted in your beauty, and played the whore because of your fame, and lavished your whorings on any passer-by. 16You took some of your garments, and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore; nothing like this has ever been or ever shall be. 17You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and my silver that I had given you, and made for yourself male images, and with them played the whore; 18 and you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. 19Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with choice flour and oil and honey—you set it before them as a pleasing odor; and so it was, says the Lord God. 20You took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. As if your whorings were not enough! 21You slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering to them. 22And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, flailing about in your blood.

==Romans 7:15-25 (NT p. 157)==
15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

==Music & Message==

First Presbyterian Church

Iraneal — Sun, 03 May 2026 04:10:40 GMT

Sermon for April 26th, 2026

Iraneal — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 04:44:32 GMT

Sermon for April 26th, 2026

Iraneal — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:29:44 GMT

Created page with "==Song of Solomon 2:1-17 (OT p. 622) 1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. 2 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens. 3 As an apple tree among the tree..."

New page

==Song of Solomon 2:1-17 (OT p. 622)
1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
2 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.
3 As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention towards me was love.
5 Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love.
6 O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me!
7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!

8 The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.
10 My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
11 for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
14 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
15 Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards— for our vineyards are in blossom.’
16 My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies.
17 Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on the cleft mountains.

==Luke 15:8-10 (NT p. 78)==

First Presbyterian Church

Iraneal — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:23:25 GMT

Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North 2.0

Iraneal — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:21:28 GMT

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Main Page

Iraneal — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:19:05 GMT

‎Papers and Presentations

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 *[[Newberry 2024 Graduate Conference Abstract]]
 *[[Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North 2.0]]
 == Workshops & Articles ==

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 ==2026==
-* [[Sermon for May 10th, 2026]] 575th Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 3 - The Redemption
+* [[Sermon for May 10th, 2026]] 575th Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 3 - The Redemption (993)
 * [[Sermon for May 3rd, 2026]] 574th Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 2 - The Fall (807)
 * [[Sermon for April 26th, 2026]] 573rd Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 1 - The Love (1012)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ==2026==
 * [[Sermon for May 3rd, 2026]] 574th Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 2 - The Fall (807)
 * [[Sermon for April 26th, 2026]] 573rd Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 1 - The Love (1012)

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 [Anti-Hero]
-True confession begins when we stop blaming everyone else (including God) for the mess we find ourselves in, and when we acknowledge that we can't get out of that mess on our own.  We need God's help.  And we need each other.  In 1st John chapter 8, the scriptures teach that "“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
+True confession begins when we stop blaming everyone else (including God) for the mess we find ourselves in, and when we acknowledge that we can't get out of that mess on our own.  We need God's help.  And we need each other.  In 1st John chapter 8, the scriptures teach that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
 So we've talked about Love, and we've talked about Sin.  Next week, we'll wrap things up with some more songs, and we'll talk about Redemption.  But before that, we do get just a little sneak peak at what redemption looks like, because today, in this time and place, redemption looks like... a table.  The Lord's table, where we gather together as God's people to remember and to share and to join with other believers in every time and place.  This is a table for people who should have said no.  This is a table for people who did something bad.  This is a table for those who are the problem.   This is a table for me, and for you--because the one who said, "Do this in remembrance of me" is the same one who redeems us, who loves us, and who makes our broken lives whole again.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ==2026==
-* [[Sermon for May 3rd, 2026]] 574th Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 2 - The Fall
+* [[Sermon for May 3rd, 2026]] 574th Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 2 - The Fall (807)
-* [[Sermon for April 26th, 2026]] 573rd Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 1 - The Love
+* [[Sermon for April 26th, 2026]] 573rd Sermon: Music & Message of Taylor Swift Part 1 - The Love (1012)
-* [[Sermon for April 12th, 2026]] 572nd Sermon: What Should We Do? (Revision of 2016 sermon)
+* [[Sermon for April 12th, 2026]] 572nd Sermon: What Should We Do? (1958) (Revision of 2016 sermon)
 * [[Sermon for March 29th, 2026]] 571st Sermon: Judas Iscariot, Beloved Disciple (1409) (Revision of 2015 sermon)
 * [[Sermon for March 22nd, 2026]] 570th Sermon: A Good Neighbor (1981) (Revision of 2017 Sermon)

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-====Opening — 2 minutes====
+==Abstract==
-Iceland has no indigenous kings, but it has powerful bishops. Introduce Guðmundr and the problem: how does a combative priest become a bishop-saint?
+The literature of medieval Scandinavia reflects a world in transition; oral culture gives way to written; regional autonomy to national monarchy; and traditional religion to Christianity, to name a few. These are macro-level transformations, but underlying and supporting them are myriad stories of the lone individual in transformation.  One of these is Guðmundr Arason, a popular (yet controversial) 12th and 13th century Icelandic bishop locally recognized as a saint.  This paper uses Guðmundr’s narrative in Sturlunga saga as a case study for evaluating the process by which an individual is transformed into something new—in this case, a “saintly bishop.”  Medieval hagiographical texts often suggest that saints and bishops were divinely predestined as such, their inevitable rise heralded in dreams and visions at their birth.  Alternately, some medieval writers seem to view the transformation of their subjects as confined within the ceremonial acts of ordination, consecration, or canonization.  Both of these views minimalize the transformative process.  My research uses a close reading of the text to argue that Guðmundr’s transformation is nuanced, long-term, and ongoing—beginning in his formative years and continuing well beyond his ordination and consecration. Far from a foregone conclusion, his status as both bishop and saint were challenged in his lifetime, and continue to be contested today.  This paper offers a more fluid and expansive set of criteria by which Guðmundr’s transformative journey to sainthood may be recognized and evaluated.  It is part of a larger dissertation, which uses the same criteria to evaluate 12th century narratives of individuals in the process of becoming bishops or kings.  Through this approach, I hope to lay a foundation for broader research into other types of personal transformation, and shed light on the ways in which accumulated individual transformations contribute to the larger, macro-level transformations of the medieval Scandinavian world.
-====Problem and method — 2 minutes====
+==Becoming a Bishop-Saint: Personal Transformation in the Narrative of Iceland's Guðmundr Arason==
-Hagiography often compresses transformation into predestination or ceremony. Your approach tracks transformation narratively and cumulatively.
+There's a lot of change happening in the long twelfth century:  Charles Haskins famously viewed the period as a "renaissance before the Renaissance," with large-scale shifts in education, law, bureaucracy, commerce, science and the arts.  But I'm interested in change on a much smaller scale--an individual scale, actually.  I'm interested in personal transformation--how does someone "become" something they were not before? How does a child become an adult? How does an apprentice become a master? How does a pagan become a Christian?  How does a soldier become a crusader?  How does a rural peasant become...well, mostly an urban peasant?
-====Movement 1: Not born a saint — 4 minutes====
+Unfortunately, most of these personal transformations, while they were certainly happening, were not extensively written about.  But with lives of bishops and saints, on the other hand, we have a substantial body of literature that is also developing in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.  My research looks at how that sort of personal transformation was perceived to have happened, and how it was written about.  What I find is that there tends to be a gap between those two things:  The author's perception of how a person became a bishop or a saint, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the process the author actually describes in the narrative itself.
-Prophecy, bishop-play, illegitimacy, stubbornness. The narrative gives signs of future sanctity, but also makes him difficult and incomplete.
-====Movement 2: Becoming holy — 6 minutes====
+The perception, which is overly simplistic, and reflected in the literary conventions of hagiography, generally boils down to one of two things:  First, in a sort of authorial hindsight, is the perception that the individual was "predestined" from birth to become a bishop or a saint.  He or she was always holy, evidenced in childhood, and therefore a static character--no transformation needed.  The second common perception, favored by medieval chroniclers and even present-day historians, is that an individual "became" a bishop upon consecration to the office, or "became" a saint upon canonization.  The transformation is therefore instantaneous, limited to a single point in time and wrapped up neatly with an official ceremony.  In both cases, the transformation is externally conferred--either by God or by a church-sanctioned entity.  Both perceptions give short shrift to the agency of the individual, to wider cultural and societal influences, and to the development of the character in the narrative arc itself.  Both perceptions also tend to presume that once attained--whether at birth, consecration or canonization--the process of transformation is substantially complete.  One cannot "un-become" a bishop or a saint. On the rare occasion where this seems to happen, the transformation is deemed illegitimate--it never really happened to begin with.
-Shipwreck, convalescence, gradual change, death of Þorgeir, devotional intensification, miracles, popular naming as Guðmundr the Good.
-====Movement 3: Living sanctity as conflict — 5 minutes====
+But upon a closer reading, the narratives themselves often paint a very different picture: Personal transformation is indeed a process that unfolds over time.  It is precarious, influenced by a myriad of factors (not least of which is the individual undergoing the change), and it is never quite concluded.  Today, I'd like to use the narrative of Guðmundr Goði (Guðmundr the Good) as presented in the Old Norse Sturlunga saga to illustrate how those perceptions and processes unfold.
-Charity, followers, ecclesiastical independence, Kolbeinn, excommunication, Víðines, removals from Hólar. His holiness is recognized by some and resisted by others.
-====Conclusion — 1 minute====
+Guðmundr Arason was born in 1161 in Iceland, three nights after Michaelmas.  According to the author of the saga, his birth is accompanied by a prophecy that "if it lived, the child would prove to be outstanding among other men" (II.95).  All of my quotations today are from Julia McGrew's 1974 English translation of Sturlunga saga, in consultation with the 2021 Íslenzk fornrit edition in Old Norse. So here we have the first obligatory birth-prophecy, typical of hagiographic convention.  Another episode related by the saga is almost certainly borrowed from the life of Saint Ambrose:  Whenever young Guðmundr would play with his childhood friends, "he was given a mitre, crozier, vestments, church and altar to play the bishop, while his friends "played the soldier with axe, shield and weapons" (II.101).
-Guðmundr becomes a bishop-saint through accumulated transformation and contested recognition. His sanctity is local, living, narrative, and never entirely settled.

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 ==2 Corinthians 5:17-20==
 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
 ==1 Corinthians 9:19-23==
@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ==Music & Message of Taylor Swift, Part 3 - The Redemption==

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:10, 3 May 2026
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	21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.		21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

−	==Music & Message==	+	==Music & Message of Taylor Swift: Part 2 - The Fall==
		+	Last week we heard several love songs by Taylor Swift, and we looked at the biblical book Song of Solomon as an example of how love between two people can sometimes reflect and point us to the divine love between God and his people. Today, we're going in the opposite direction--we're going to talk about sin, depravity, and how we all have fallen from grace at one time or another. And we're starting with the perfect Taylor Swift song, appropriately named, You Should Have Said No.
		+
		+	[Should've Said No]
		+
		+	Taylor Swift is famous for scathing break-up songs, and that one, from her debut album, was among her first. But just like we saw last week with the Song of Solomon, people have been writing break-up songs for thousands and thousand of years. Including God himself, who through the words of the prophet Ezekiel in today's scripture reading, compares his relationship with his people to a love story gone horribly wrong--a love story about God's faithfulness, and the unfaithfulness of his people. This is actually a great metaphor to understand sin. Sin isn't just breaking rules or doing "bad things." It's betraying those whom we love, and especially God. Everything good that we have in this world comes from God... but when we start to worship the gifts instead of the giver--when we put our trust in other things or other people (including ourselves) above our trust in God, then we are being unfaithful to God, and we're setting ourselves up for a fall (and a heartbreak).
		+
		+	But there is hope for the hopeless sinner. The first step is recognizing that you should have said no. The second step is admitting that you did not. And in the church, we call that "confession." Which leads us to our second Taylor Swift song, "I Did Something Bad."
		+
		+	[I Did Something Bad]
		+
		+	Taylor Swift is often described as a "confessional" singer/songwriter. Mostly that just means that she writes a lot about her own experiences, her own emotions and inner thoughts. But often when doing this, she is painfully, brutally honest. The song we just heard is not a confession--it's more of a recognition of an inner struggle. "They say I did something bad, but why does it feel so good?" The Apostle Paul comes to a similar observation in his letter to the Romans: I do not understand my own actions," he says. "For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . . I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my body another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my body."
		+
		+	Taylor Swift acknowledges that she "did something bad," but also says that she'd do it "over and over and over again" if she could. So this isn't exactly a confession--not yet--but it is a pretty honest reflection. And honestly, for most of us, that wouldn't be a bad place to start.
		+
		+	The next song, however, IS definitely a confession. And in a world where most Hollywood celebrities, politicians and tech-billionaires spend countless words defending how amazing and brilliant and talented they are, I'm actually super-impressed that one person put out a song saying the exact opposite: It's me. Hi! I'm the problem, it's me." This song is called Anti-Hero.
		+
		+	[Anti-Hero]
		+
		+	True confession begins when we stop blaming everyone else (including God) for the mess we find ourselves in, and when we acknowledge that we can't get out of that mess on our own. We need God's help. And we need each other. In 1st John chapter 8, the scriptures teach that "“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
		+
		+	So we've talked about Love, and we've talked about Sin. Next week, we'll wrap things up with some more songs, and we'll talk about Redemption. But before that, we do get just a little sneak peak at what redemption looks like, because today, in this time and place, redemption looks like... a table. The Lord's table, where we gather together as God's people to remember and to share and to join with other believers in every time and place. This is a table for people who should have said no. This is a table for people who did something bad. This is a table for those who are the problem. This is a table for me, and for you--because the one who said, "Do this in remembrance of me" is the same one who redeems us, who loves us, and who makes our broken lives whole again.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-==Song of Solomon 2:1-17 (OT p. 622)
+==Song of Solomon 2:1-17 (OT p. 622)==
-I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
+I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. 2 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens. 3 As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention towards me was love. 5 Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love. 6 O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me! 7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!
 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.
 As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention towards me was love.
 Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love.
 O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me!
 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!
-The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.
+The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. 9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. 10 My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; 11 for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. 13 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 14 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. 15 Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards— for our vineyards are in blossom.’ 16 My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies. 17 Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on the cleft mountains.
 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.
 My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
 for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land.
 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
 Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards— for our vineyards are in blossom.’
 My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies.
 Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on the cleft mountains.
 ==Luke 15:8-10 (NT p. 78)==