The Language of the Soul, Jeff Crosby (foreword by Suzanne Stabile, afterword by James Bryan Smith). Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2023.

Summary: A survey of the deepest longings of the human soul, within ourselves, for our world, and for the eternal.

Saudade. A word from the Portuguese that, strictly so, is untranslatable. Words like longing, yearning, nostalgia, the burning hearts of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It is the desire for something more that takes us into the realm of the spiritually transcendent. Jeff Crosby believes these longings are the beckoning of God, speaking to the language of our hearts.

Crosby has been reflecting on these longings for much of his life and gestating this book for the past fifteen years amid a busy career in publishing. In this work, he weaves his own experiences, the thoughts of other pilgrims, and the strands of music that have been another of his great loves to identify ten longings of the heart:

• The longing for home
• The longing for an undivided self
• The longing for forgiveness received and extended
• The longing for friendship
• The longing for spiritual transformation
• The longing for peace
• The longing for community
• The longing to be freed from unhealthy fear and anxiety
• The longing for meaningful work
• The longing for heaven, our hearts true home

It’s striking to me that these longings are framed by our longing for home. I think of how I treasure the hours I spend in the various comfortable and pleasing spaces in and around my own home and yet revel in images of beautiful homes (usually with a library, leather chairs, and a fireplace looking out on a beautiful vista). We call our home Rivendell, after the refuge of Elrond in the Lord of the Rings, the last homely house. It strikes me we all long for that house, which Crosby identifies with the longing for heaven that we glimpse in those “thin places” where heaven is barely veiled–a passage of music, a scene in nature, a description in literature, a poem.

In between, Crosby explores the longings that permeate our existence. He invites us to recognize our discontent with fragmented, divided lives and to pursue the solitude, silence, and wise direction that is the path to a seamless existence. He shares his own experience of a panic attack and the practices of examen to recognize the presence of God amid the anxiety-producing concerns of our lives. He likens the burden of our own transgressions and grievances toward others as a rock-filled pack that confession and forgiveness of ourselves and others helps us unload. He speaks of a marketing meeting with one of the leaders of the Empty Hands Fellowship for a book project that was set aside because of a family in need in an unhealthy, mold-filled shack, exemplifying the richness of community we often only long for. He speaks of anam cara friends who never “should” on us, and take that away from us when we try to do it to ourselves. And this just from half of the ten longings.

As I mentioned, song as well as scripture and literature has been important to Crosby and one of the treats is that he offers a playlist for saudade and for each of the longings at the end of each chapter. I haven’t created all of these playlists but was able to create a playlist on Spotify for his Saudade playlist and suspect one can find most or all of his recommendations on a music streaming service.

Along the way, we learn from many of the spiritual writers Crosby has worked with over the years of his publishing career, yet Crosby weaves these into his own “playlist” as well, exploring our longings and the practices that draw us to the one in whom our longings find their fulfillment. As I read, I felt I was listening to one, still on the way, and yet living a purposeful, increasingly seamless vocation moving joyfully toward his, and our hearts true home.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.