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  • The march on Capitol Hill functions as a garish parody of Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. My thoughts, and a song of prayer.

    This is Love – Thoughts on the Capitol Hill Riots on this Maundy Thursday

    Steve Bell reflects on his 1996 song, “This is Love” in light of the February 6 march on Capitol Hill. The blog includes a recent performance video of the song:

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  • Joy Surprises! — new blog and video for Palm Sunday

    We’ve up up a new video for my song “Bethany in the Morning” which I hope can be a part of your Holy Week reflections.The song itself, co-written with my daughter-in-law, Diana Pops, was inspired by the events of Palm Sunday and its preceding day, Lazarus Saturday (as it is known in the Christian East.)

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  • High Art Formed in the Crucible of Life: Review by Carolyn Arends

    “‘Wouldn’t You Love to Know’ is a shimmering, pulsating example of the sort of work that can come into being when creative vision, astonishing craft, and emotional power formed in the crucible of life and loss come together…”

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  • A Songwriter’s Suite: A Review of Steve Bell’s “Wouldn’t You Love To Know?”

    “…in praise of an album that belongs in the rare company of Dan Fogelberg’s “The Innocent Age” and Bruce Cockburn’s “Dancing In The Dragon’s Jaws.”

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  • Dark Night of the Soul | Video Podcast with Steve Bell and Dr Bruce Hindmarsh

    Join Steve Bell and Dr Bruce Hindmarsh for a video-podcast discussion of St. John of the Cross and Steve’s song “Dark Night of the Soul.”

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  • Here are the audio, lyrics and my commentary of We Fall Back Amazed, a song from Mike Janzen's newly released double CD, The Psalms Project.

    Song Commentary: We Fall Back Amazed, new from Mike Janzen

    If one were to commission a musical setting for Psalm 97, one would expect the composer to employ subsonic synthesizers, blazing trumpets, crashing cymbals, portentous medieval choirs and no end of audio wizardry to complete the task. What one would not expect however, is what Mike Janzen did with the text….

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  • The Story of a Portrait

    The pose I selected for this portrait reflects a somber mood—perhaps uncharacteristic of how we visualize Steve….

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  • Good Shepherd Sunday: A Good Word from an Old Sheep

    Without a question, Psalm 23 is one of the most well-known and highly sentimentalized of all the psalms. For all its pastoral prettiness, however, the psalm has a quality of resilient, almost rugged faith…

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  • For the Journey : A song and a prayer

    These words of Jesus are not a pain-masking opioid, they are Eastering words spoken by one well acquainted with grief. And so I take up those words and offer this prayer:

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  • Easter is the promise of radical renewal by creation's maker. Here are two beautiful Easter poems and a song for Easter morning.

    Easter Poems and Songs: Searching for the Light of Easter

    “We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts. And when we find it, we are meant to give it away generously.”

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