About

Who am I?

Jeffrey Cooper, CSC was born in the small town of Botkins, Ohio, the 4th of seven children.  After attending public schools and meandering through his early college days trying to find his vocation, he finally decided to enter the college seminary for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.  But during this time he discovered a call to the religious life and transferred to the college seminary for the Congregation of Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame.  After completing his B.A. in English at ND in 1989, he entered the Holy Cross Novitiate in Cascade, Colorado.  He took first vows as a Holy Cross religious in August of 1990 and returned to Notre Dame to complete theological studies (M. Div. ’93).  After a first assignment as transitional deacon and associate pastor at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Burbank, California.  Fr. Jeff returned to studies completing a M.A. in Composition and Rhetoric at Miami University (Ohio) in 1998.  He then taught writing for two years at the University of Portland before being assigned assistant novice director at the Holy Cross Novitiate from 2000-06.  In 2006 he then began Ph.D. studies in Christian Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California (Ph.D. 2011).  His doctoral dissertation was on the mystical thought of Meister Eckhart.  Fr. Jeff then taught theology for 6 years at the University of Portland before becoming Director of Postulants at Moreau Seminary (Notre Dame) from 2017-21 and currently serves as Director of Novices at the Holy Cross Novitiate in Cascade, Colorado (2021-present).

What is “Chiaroscuro Spirituality?”

Chiaroscuro: The treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting. An effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something.

John 1:5 — “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.”

Meister Eckhart: “the light shines in the darkness, because detestation and hatred of evil always come from and are born of love of the good. So St. Augustine says that in the same measure that someone delights in his own justice, he is displeased with that alien injustice that belongs to others, according to the verse in Matthew, ‘When the wheat sprang up…then the weeds appeared too’ (Mt. 13:26). Thus, the darkness glorifies God, and the light shines in it, not so much as opposites placed next to each other, but rather as opposites placed within each other.” The Commentary on John

The artistic concept of the “chiaroscuro” is central to how I express my own lived spiritual experience and comes from my fundamental love for John 1:5. I contend this verse is central to the understanding of John’s gospel as it is the hermeneutical key to understanding the mystical thought of the 13th/14th century German Dominican Philosopher-Theologian-Mystic, Meister Eckhart. The spiritual journey is never “black or white,” “light or dark,” but always “black and white,” “light and dark.” As Bernard of Clairvaux might attest, the heart and energy of the spiritual life is the alternation itself. Bernard would go so far as to say that he would be suspicious of anyone who is not regularly experiencing this alternatio.

Why this Site?

Over nearly three decades of preaching and giving retreats I have discovered that at the heart of my own homiletics and retreat presentations is this fundamental alternation of light and darkness… the chiaroscuro of language which reveals as it conceals as flesh exposes as much as it hides. So the basic point of this website is to share the Word. Over the years people have often asked me to share my homilies with them and so often the retreat materials I create sit dormant in a file cabinet. This, then, is simply one centralized way to share the Word (homilies and retreats) with others. I don’t pretend to be nothing other then someone trying to engage God in the light and the darkness and, in whatever small ways I can, walk with others as they seek to do the same.

Future Hopes?

I would also, eventually, like to use this site to share “reflection series” which might be seasonal (in the liturgical sense). Right now I am open to seeing where all this might lead! Welcome Reader! I hope you find something here for you!