This Sunday is the Third Sunday after Easter, when the Gospel reading is John 16:16-22, St. John’s account of Jesus’ message concerning His going away to rejoin His Father. In the account, Jesus refers to two concepts of time which confused the Disciples: “in a little while” and “hour” (the latter in the context of the woman in childbirth). I explore these two examples in the Podcast Homily for Third Sunday after Easter and in Episode Forty-four in our Christian Education Video series, New Testament: Gospels (in the context of unique themes and content in the Gospel of John). These are linked ..read more

This week’s Fr. Ron’s Blog posting again takes viewers to the Hagia Sophia, properly the 2nd Hagia Sophia, and the unusuaual Theotokos mosaic located over the principal public entrance. Sometime after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the mosaic was painted over and plastered over. The defacing was removed and the mosaic partially restored. The central image is the Blessed Virgin Mary presented as Theotokos, or Mother of God (0r God-Bearer), a title granted to her at the Ecumencial Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. The title grants her the title “Mother of the Incarnate God” (MP OY placed the le ..read more

In our secular world, with its complete refusal to accept the concept of spirituality, one must look backward to an era in which the spiritual was elevated into forms of art not seen before–nor since! Today’s subject is another look at the Hagia Sophia. The basilica was begun under the sponsorship of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th C. It was the first attempt to erect a round dome on a rectangular or square base rather than a round base. The name Hagia Sophia means Temple of Wisdom, or Divine Wisdom. The first building collapsed owing to the architects’ failure to account for the ou ..read more

My brain must have slipped out of gear last week when I mentioned that the next Blog posting would be focused on the Hagia Sophia. With apologies to our site visitors, the promised posting has been postponed to late in the week following Easter Sunday. Meanwhile I offer site visitors two exceptional images from the period from Noon on Good Friday until Easter morning. The lower image was used a Illustration No. 27 in the AIC Bookstore Publication, Easter: The Resurrection of Our Lord in Scripture, Art & Christian Tradition. Additional information about the book is found on the AIC Bookstor ..read more

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 ..read more

In this week’s Blog posting I offer an additional image of the Blessed Alcuin of York. I had noted last week that I had found only one image of Alcuin; but, in continuing work on the AIC database of images, I found another one. In this image, painted in 1830 by French artist Jean-Victor Schnetz, known for his representations of historic scenes, Alcuin, kneeling before the imperial throne, appears to be presenting a document or item to the Emperor. The original is at the Louvre, Paris, France. Charlemagne, and Alcuin, deserve greater recognition in the 21st C. for the contributions they made to ..read more

Apologies to site visitors for not getting promised posting on Alcuin of York last week. An opportunity arose at midweek for a week-long stay in Frisco, NC. I admit that, having left home rather suddenly, I forgot to put my iMac charger in my carryall along with the Mac itself and other materials. The effect was that I couldn’t produce the Weekly Update on Friday or the Fr. Ron’s Blog entry. Although it rained a lot, the time was well-spent and very restful, free of the computer and cell phone interruptions. In today’s highly-secularized world the knowledge of Church history is lamentable but ..read more

The process on updating the database of images in the AIC Library had to be interrupted this past week in order to update the Welcome page for the start of the season of Lent. The seasonal graphic and links to the three episodes in the video series are now active. I also wanted to remind readers/viewers of St. John Chrysostom’s advice to his parishioners at Constantinople in the late 4th C. that, in considering what sacrifice one might make for the season of Lent. He suggested that rather than abstaining from certain foods one might also consider restraining the tongue during the six weeks of ..read more

Today in Virginia has been strange. Wet. Chilly. Cloudy. And offering home of the Spring soon to some. I am thankful not to have needed to go outside for any reason, having brought in a seat of Duraflame fire logs yesterday! Today’s Gospel reading is Luke’s account of the healing of the Blind Man of Jericho, as a last example of “manifestations” to the Gentiles in the “Gesima” season. This morning, I was working on further work on the computer database of images and came across a marvellous 11th C. addition to the Hagia Sophia. The image, in its original form, shows the Blessed Virgin Mary an ..read more

The three Sundays ending with “gesima” start with Sunday, Jan. 28th. These Sundays are still honored in the Anglican tradition, while they have been relegated to lesser status in other denominations. Lnks to both episodes in our “Gesima” series have been placed on the Welcome page. Meanwhile, work continues on updating the AIC’s database of images of Christian art across the centuries. The objective to is make certain that every image used in any of our twenty-two books and in the various AIC Video series since 2010 have been entered into the Excel database. As of this writing there are 2165 i ..read more