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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!

This week’s Podcast Homily for Morning Prayer in our new Psalter series is focused on Psalm 118, a Psalm of David. Psalm 118, one of the most-qu0ted Psalms is a highly-Christological Psalm with many phrases understood as references to Jesus Christ. The illumination used. in the companion book, The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition, is Psalm 118, below trimmed and formatted at 150 dpi for easier transmission on the Internet. The illustration is from the Stuttgart Psalter (Cod. Bibl. Fol.23-Folio 131r, Wurttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, Germany).

Work continues on Angels: the Book, with all images selected through the chapter on Revelation.

As always, thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things1 Amen!

The new Podcast Homily for Fourth Sunday after Easter in the new Psalter Series is now online, linked from the Welcome and Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer pages. The focus is on Psalm 116, a Psalm of David. For this episode the illustration is detail Folio 130r from the Stuttgart Psalter, produced at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Paris, circa 820. The artist offers a literal intepretation of Psalm 116:2 (Because he hath inclined his ear unto me…).

Work continues on the newest book project: Angels: the Book. At this time, with most of the text completed up to the “Angels in Revelation” chapter, there are 226 pages with over 120 illustrations. I’m working on the final selection of images for Revelation, choosing among five sources from the 8th to the 14th C.

I remain thankful for our followers of AIC videos, podcasts and books and remind viewers that we offer ways to WATCH-READ-LISTEN to teaching materials for lay audiences in whatever format they prefer.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

I failed to post an entry for the Second Sunday after Easter, but the episode is linked from the Welcome page and from the Morning Prayer homilies page.

The Podcast Homily for Third Sunday after Easter is also now available. The focus is on Psalm 36, verses 5 to the end and Psalm 138.

My Podcast Homily for First Sunday after Easter in our new Podcast Homilies for Morning Prayer-Psalter Series is now available. The Psalm reading is Psalm 103, a Psalm of David. The illustration for this Psalm is a page from the Stuttgart Psalter, produced circa 820 at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Paris, from Cod. Bibl. Fol.23, Folio 115v, Wurttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, Germany. The illustration is used on the first full page of Psalm 103 and is a visual interpretation of verse 5: “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, * making thee young and lusty as an eagle.” (1928 B.C.P. text). The image is reproduced on page 294 in the AIC Bookstore Publication: The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition. The book is available using the Virtual Bookstore link to my Amazon Author Central page at the bottom of the Welcome page. When there click at top right to see all books with the “Most Recent” tag at the top of the list.

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

My Podcast Homily in our Morning Prayer-Psalter Series is now linked from both the Welcome and Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer pages. The focus is on Psalm 22, widely-regarded as the most Christological of all the Psalms. The illustration is an illumination of Psalm 22, verses 1-6, from the St. Albans Psalter.

The St. Albans Psalter was produced at the Abbey of St. Albans near London in the 12th C. Copies of the Psalter are rare, with this one at Hildesheim Cathedral, Hildesheim (lower Saxony), Germany. In the image a hand reaches down from heaven in the upper right center. Animals gaze at a man who pleads for help, claiming that he has been abandoned by God. The image is Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons). The image is used on page 56 in the AIC Bookstore Publication, The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition. Like all our books, it is available through my Amazon Author Central page using the Virtual Bookstore link at the bottom of the Welcome page.

Meanwhile, work continues on

Greetings! Earlier this morning I uploaded the Podcast Homily for Fifth Sunday in Lent in our new Psalter Series. The Psalm reading for Fifth Sunday in Lent (Passion Sunday) is Psalm 51 (Vulgate Psalm 50), David’s earnest confession of his sins. The illustration for this episode is a page from the Psalter of Henry VIII, produced circa 1540 but possibly a decade earlier. It is Ms. Royal 2 A xVI, Folio 61v, British Library, London, England. The text is in a Carolingian-style of lettering with upper and lower case letters made popular by Alcuin of York, spiriual advisor to the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus). The enlarged capital M marks the start of Psalm 51.

In other news, the AIC Bookstore’s newest publication, Easter: The Resurrection of Our Lord in Scripture, Art & Christian Tradition has been released and is available through my Amazon Author Central page (use the link at the bottom of the Welcome page. Work continues on the next volume: Angels: the Book. I am trying to complete work on Part 1, the Preface (a Primer on Angels), and Part 2, Angels in the Old Testament. Just this week I received two illuminations from books produced at the Reichenau Monastery, Reichenau, Germany, around 1000 A.D. during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and another from a volume produced at Cologne/Aachen in the same time frame. I also posted a spectacular image of mosaic created during the reign of Charlemagne in the 1st Qtr., 10th C.

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

The Podcast Homily for Fourth Sunday in Lent, based on Psalm 147, is now available for listening and/or downloading. Not only is this posting a day late but the companion Weekly Update, which went out early, includes in incorrect reference to the Psalm reading. Apologies for the error.

The image is a literal interpretation of BCP Verses 5 and 6. The ungodly man is on the ground, with a heavenly hand pointing in his direction, while the humble, righteous man plays a cithara, singing praise to the Lord. The image is from the Stuttgart Psalter (Cod. Bibl. Fol.23, Folio 161r, Wurttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, Germany, and was used in its full size in the companion book, The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition.

There is other news this week. Our Easter book is now available using the Virtual Bookstore link at the bottom of Welcome page. The volume has 168 pages with 117 illustrations. All book royalities are contributed to the AIC. The retail price is $35.00.

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