Month: June 2023

I’ve just uploaded the Podcast Homily for Morning Prayer in our ongoing Psalter Series for Fourth Sunday after Trinity. The appointed Psalm readings are Psalm 22:23-32 and Psalm 67, both attributed to David. Since Psalm 22 was read in full on Palm Sunday (Sixth Sunday in Lent), in the podcast I comment on only verses 23, 27 and 29. The image used in The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition for Psalm 67 is a detail from the start of Psalm 67 (Deus miserateur) from the Bohun Psalter (Ms. Egerton 3277, Folio 44v, British Library, London, England). It shows David defeating the Philistines at Baal Pharim from 2 Samuel 5:20.

I’m hopeful of being able to start updating our various books, including the Psalter volume, and other productions once I complete the draft version of Angels: the Book, which is nearing completion.

As always, thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

My Podcast Homily for Third Sunday after Trinity in the Psalter Series is now available, with the focus being Psalm 27, a Psalm attributed to David. The illustration is a detail from the Luttrell Psalter, produced in northern England in the 15th C., from Ms. Additional 42130, Folio 51, British Library, London, England.

In the upper left, Christ points to His own face inside a capital D[ominus illuminatio]. At bottom is a scene from 2nd Samuel 16:8 concerning the subject of filthy garments. The lively colors and suggestions of movement by the characters are typical of English Psalters in the 15th C. I thank the British Library for providing access to its digital collection.

Work continues on Angels: the Book, which could be available before the end of the year. In its present state, there will be about 224 pages with about 145 to 150 illustrations. I am currently working on the chapter focused on Angels in Popular Culture, with references to books, movies and made-for-television programs in which angels figure prominently. Our publisher, KDP Publishing, has announced price changes, especially for large format books such as the AIC Bookstore Publications, so the volume will be priced slightly higher than our earlier books. The prices for nearly all these will have to be adjusted upward to reflect these higher costs. All royalties from these books are donated to the AIC. These books are being published to made historic Christian art available at reasonable priee as a counterbalance to the blatant anti-Christian practices in the world.

Thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen.

The new Podcast Homily for Second Sunday after Trinity was recorded yesterday and is now live on the Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer and Welcome pages. For this episode the three BCP selections were ignored and Psalm 148 selected because those three readings will be used later in Trinity Season (11th, 2oth & 24th Sundays after Trinity). The substitution is being made to avoid duplicate readings during the important new series of homilies.

Psalm 148 is one of the six doxologies that close out the Psalter. Each of them includes one or more variations of the phrase Praise to the Lord. The Vulgate Latin title of Psalm 148 is Laudate Dominum. Psalm 148 is one of four Psalms with those opening words (Ps. 117, 147, 148, 150). For this episode I chose an image from bottom half of a page in the Stuttgart Psalter. In the AIC Bookstore Publication, The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition, the illustration on page 414 is a wonderfully-detailed illumination depicting Christ with two angels looking down upon several of those named in the Psalm offering praise to the Lord. There is nothing else like it in the world’s archives, with colors mostly not seen again until the 19th C. The Stuttgart copy, bought by a member of the German nobility around 1889, is the only surviving edition (if anyone knows of another, please let me know) of this amazing work.

Thank you so much for your interest in this site. We continue to look for ways to provide Christians with easy access to traditional teachings. On this site, readers can click to the teaching media of their choice: in print, in audio form and in video form. No software is required. Just click and the selected video or audo file will open and play. The books, of course, have to be ordered through my Amazon Author Central page.

Work continues on our next Bookstore Publication, Angels: the Book, which will be published later this year with about 224 pages and somewhere around 150 images, most of them rarely seen by the general public. The sources includes frescoes, icons, illuminations, mosaics, paintings, engravings, etchings and a map. There is still a lot of work to be done in the editing and in the composition of the final two chapters, the last of which includes 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st C. examples of angels in popular media. Other chapters are focused on angels in Christian worship and Christian music.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

In the new AIC series of Podcast Homilies for Morning Prayer in our Psalter Series, the Podcast Homily for First Sunday after Trinity is focused on Psalm 73. The Psalm is credited to the Sons of Asaph and is the first Psalm in Book Three in the traditional organization of the Psalter. The main theme is the Psalmist’s lament that the ungodly appear to prosper at the expense of the godly. The “godly” vs “ungodly” conflict echoes Psalm 1, the “Two Ways” Psalm. The Psalmist sees the error in his thinking in verse 17. In the AIC Bookstore Publication, The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition, the illustration for Psalm 73 is from the Stuttgart Psalter shows a righteous man playing his harp.

In other news, work continues on Angels: the Book. I am proof-reading all the picture credits and updating the list of Sources of Illusrations and the list of illustrations before attempting to complete the final chapter on Angels in popular culture.

As always, thank you for our interest and support in purchasing AIC Bookstore Publications. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

My Podcast Homily for Morning Prayer on Trinity Sunday in our new Psalter Series is now online. The Psalm reading is Psalm 150, the final Psalm in Book Five and the last of six doxologies which close the Book of Psalms. The illustration is an edited version of the illumination for Psalm 150 formatted in 100 dpi for ease of downloading. The title is All Creations Praises Three. The artists include many musical instruments of the 9th C. The range of colors is unlike anything ever seen before and unlikely to be repeated in the 21st C. There are blues, reds and yellows not seen again until the late 19th C. . Readers will want to know that, as far as I know, there is only one surviving copy of the book.

In other news, work continues on Angels: the Book. As of 6/1/2023, the book has 141 illustrations from the early 3rd C. to the 20th C. I am currently working of the final two chapters. Many libraries in Europe, the United States and England have provided high-resolution images, most of which are not often seen. The final version likely will end up with about 150 images.

As always, thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!