Saturday, February 18th, is the Feast Day of St. Simeon of Jerusalem. Episode Twelve in The Lives of the Saints – Second Series honors his devoted work in leading the church in the 1st Century. The illustration is a Russian Orthodox icon showing him in bishop’s garb against gold background. The location and date was not specified by the public domain source. This is a short episode, owing to the lack of material about St. Simeon.
I’ve finished the script and slides for several additional episodes in the series, including St. Thomas Aquinas (Mar 8); St. Gregory the Great (Mar 12), St. John Climacus (Mar 30), and St. Athanasius of Alexandria (May 2) and am trying to wrap up the text and slides for St. Basil of Caesarea (June 14). I’ve bought additional royalty-free photographs for several of these episodes. The ones for the St. Athanasius episode are remarkable, with the wonderful blues and whites used by the Byzantine and Greek artists in the 9th C. and later.
On the AIC Bookstore front there is excellent news this week. My proofreader has finished with The Writing Prophets of the Old Testament. Those readers who have used page designing software will be familiar with the problem of text continuation into later pages. Well, in the section on Daniel the continuation went haywire, with several pages out of correct order, making reading a challenge. Also, there was insufficient clarity on my part about exactly where the non-canonical verses fit into the chronology in the canonical version of Daniel. All these problems were fixed and the chapter on Daniel returned for further checking. I am hopeful the second proofing will be completed by early next week, making publication possible before the end of February.
I remain hopeful that the proofing of 2nd Edition of The Prayer Book Psalter: History, Text & Commentary will be finished this month as well. The proofreader is a different person than the one who is working on the Prophets book. There are many more source citations to be checked, since the book is so much longer. For the second edition I changed type faces and sizes and added cross references to other AIC Bookstore publications which have been produced since the original book was finished in 2014. The book also has a new cover using the white lettering on black background which I introduced last year for other books.
In this era when the beliefs of Christianity are under assault by other religions, politicians, social theorists, Marxists, and Nihilists, and many other “ists” I continue to work to produce books for lay people seeking to understand the teachings of traditional Christianity. I thank you for your support and interest and urge you to continue to share the blog posts with others. If you’d like to receive my Weekly Update, which goes out on Fridays (usually), please send an email request to me at frron.stjohnanglican@earthlink.net.
The newest AIC video series, currently in production, “Gesima” Season, explains the name of the Church season that isn’t used as much as it once was. Even many Anglican jurisdictions have followed the lead of the Roman Catholic Church in eliminating the season. Those who worship using the venerable 1928 Book of Common Prayer still the pre-Lenten Sundays by their ancient names: Septuagesima Sunday, Sexagesima Sunday, and Quinquagesima Sunday. These three Sundays are intended to provide a transition between the celebratory tone of Epiphany, which honors the several “manifestations” of Jesus Christ to the world, and the penitential season of Lent, which, in the Western Church begins on Ash Wednesday. This year it falls on March 1st. I hope your local parish continues to honor the old traditions.
The series, in two episodes, will explain the history of the season and the meaning of the name, and the earliest and latest dates on which each Sunday can fall. Look for it to be completed before the end of February.
Meanwhile, I’ve been busy trying to get ahead with episodes in The Lives of the Saints – Second Series. The next episode honors St. Simeon of Jerusalem on February 18th. St Simeon is remembered for his dedicated, unwavering leadership of the See of Jerusalem for about a half century until his crucifixion around 107 A.D. during the reign of the Emperor Trajan.
The next episodes don’t appear until March, during which there are three celebrations: St. Thomas Aquinas (Mar. 8); St. Gregory the Great (Mar. 12); and ST. John Climacus (Mar. 30). I will illustrate the series with a collection of oil paintings, drawings on parchment, icons, statuary, altarpieces, and stained glass windows from both the Western Church and Eastern Church traditions.
A final note is just a reminder that the War on Christianity continues on nearly every continent. People continue to die, be burned out or otherwise driven out of their homes or churches, and, deprived of fair treatment by the courts both in Europe and the United States. Please remember these modern martyrs in your prayers.
As always, thanks for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!
I have uploaded two new videos this week. The first, Episode Ten, is Part Two of the celebration of the remarkable life of St. John Chrysostom, 4th-5th C. Bishop of Antioch, then Constantinople. Episode Ten includes a reading of the Seven Nocturne Prayers which caused so much distress among the Constantinople clergy called to return for evening worship instead of sumptuous dinners! In addition to the Nocturnes are four quotations from his writings.
Episode Eleven celebrates the life of St. Cornelius the Centurion, whose Feast Day is Feb. 4th. Little is known about him beyond the account in Acts 10. The illustration is Cornelius in the House of St. Peter, an engraving by Gustav Dore’ from the popular 19th C. illustrated work, Dore’s English Bible, published around 1866 A.D. The work is public domain courtesy of the high quality scan provided by http://www.creationism.org.
Thanks for your interest and support. The next Episode, celebrating St. Simeon of Jerusalem will appear on or before February 18th.