A Correction & Plans for A.D. 2025

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Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed the error in the entry for the final Sunday in Christmastide. I did not see it myself until I sat down in church on Sunday. I suspending writing on Dec. 26th. Call it a “senior moment” that when writing was resumed for the last Sunday in the season it was the Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for First Sunday after Christmas Day that were posted instead of the later Second Sunday after Christmas Day. Apologies.

Following review of all the blog posts for 2024 A.D., for the new year 2025 A.D. I’ve decided to continue with the old style of commentary on the Collect, Epistle and Gospel (C/E/G) readings for the seasons of Epiphany, Gesima, Lent & Easter and for Whitsunday. That will take readers/site visitors to the point in which C/E/G commentaries were begun in 2024 A.D. with the start of Trinitytide.

During these cold winter days of late December and early January, I have updated the AIC image database, now totaling over 2800 entries. All the uses in this Blog have now been noted in the Excel file. Later this month I expect to start work on the two remaining videos in the War on Christianity series. These two episodes will be focused on practical solutions for Christians living in an anti-Christian world.

Thanks as always for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

Sixth Sunday in Lent (Palm Sunday)

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For this Palm Sunday entry, I continue the focus on the contributions to Christianity of the Blessed Alcuin of Y0rk, the brilliant English deacon chosen as spiritual advisor by the Frankish king Charles, who become the first H0ly Roman Emperor since the sack of Rome in the 5th C. on Christmas Day, 800 A.D. Although images of Alcuin are very rare, there is ample proof of the impact he had upon the spread of Christianity across Western Europe. I found a reminder in my notes for the Excel database of images in the AIC archive concerning the Moutier-Grandval Bible, made under Alcuin’s supervision when he was Abbot of the Abbey of St. Martin of Tours, Tours, France (then part of Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom). Scholars credit Alcuin with establishing the Scriptorium at Tours where this work was produced. It is named after places where copies of the volume were kept in later years.

Christ-in-Majesty, illumination in tempera and gold on parchment, Moutier-Grandval Bible, 15″ x 19.5,” with Christ in a mandorla holding a Gospel book and making the sign of a blessing, surrounded by images of the four Gospel authors in the four corners and their traditional symbols (identified clockwise from the top): John as Eagle; Luke as Ox; Matthew as Man/Angel; and Mark as Lion. Ms. Additional 10546, folio 352v, British Library, London, England. The British Library’s version, acquired in the 1st half of the 19th C., was produced about 25 years after Alcuin’s death in 804 A.D.

Next week’s posting will be focused the Deesis mosaic of Christ Pantokrator in the South Gallery at the Hagia Sophia, Constantinople/Istanbul, with some more recent commentary and research by experts on how this very special mosaic was made.

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