Getting it Started

         A big thank you to Michael for getting this going. I am looking forward to keeping up with the news from everyone. I'll start this off and say that I enjoyed seeing many of you at the pool party on Sunday before I had to leave, I missed those of you who were late arrivals. I enjoyed being a sous chef for Theology on Tap and was in charge of cooking 3 pounds of chicken and 6 pounds of ground beef for the taco bar. Thankfully, as far as I know, no one got sick so I would call it a successful job. I was unable to find a wholesome girl who was single and above 5'7" for those of you who were interested, I'll continue to look. The speaker for Theology on Tap was a man named Dr. Jim Triggs who is with St. John's University in Minnesota. He spoke about a project that St. John's University has recently completed called the St. John's Bible. This Bible is completely handwritten and is two feet by two feet, it took 6 scribes over 15 years to complete the project and the Bible itself is over 1,000 pages. Perhaps the coolest part of the Bible is the "illuminations" or what most people would call illustrations. They refer to them as illuminations however because they have gold and silver throughout and therefore are literally illuminated and brought to life by the light. The different illuminations are strikingly beautiful, and very interesting to look at. We were not able to see the original Bible, but we were able to see what is called the Heritage edition which is an exact replica only it is printed using high resolution photos of the original. The Heritage editions are still rather large and cost $145,000 for the seven editions, overall they made 250 or so of these editions. Below are two of the illuminations that I found interesting, the first is the ten commandments illumination and the second is the creation story. You can learn more and check out the Bible by following the link: St. John's Bible
          In other news, the last day of summer school was today so I have officially started summer. Us teachers go back to school on August 19th and the kids follow a week later, so thankfully I won't have too much time off to get bored (I am my father's son). Next week us Plainfield Hanley's minus Merl will be traveling to the Twin Cities which will be a nice vacation for all. Hope everyone is doing well!

Ten Commandments, Thomas Ingmire, Copyright 2003, The Saint John’s Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA

Genesis Frontispiece: Creation, Donald Jackson, Copyright 2003, The Saint John's Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA