Continuing the studies of the Life of Christ

Background

This site was established in 2019 to provide a platform for presenting and illustrating the life of Jesus Christ Our Lord. This was in response to an idea which seemed to speak from the last line of the seal I had adopted in the same year (see below and at the end of each post):

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

 D.G. (per Mariam), I have so far produced the following:

• The first Life followed the format of The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the remarkable artist James J Tissot (1897). The posts began on the 14th of October 2019 and concluded on the feast of the Ascension, the 21st of May 2020.
• The second Life followed the work of l'Abbé Constant Fouard:  La Vie de N-S Jésus-Christ (1880). The first post was published on the feast of Corpus Christi (11th of June 2020) and the series concluded on the 4th of October 2020.
• The third Life followed the Gospel of St Mark, making extensive use of a work by Madame Cecilia published in 1904 entitled The Gospel according to St Mark. This Life opened on the Feast of St Mark (25th April 2022) and concluded on the 26th of June 2022.
• There then followed the Acts of the Apostles, also making use of Madame Cecilia's work published in 1907. The series began on the 29th June 2022 and concluded on the 11th of September in the same year.
• The fourth Life followed the Gospel of St Matthew, beginning on the Feast of St Peter and St Paul (29th of June 2023) and ending on the 24th of October 2023. It too benefitted from Madame Cecilia's work published in 1906.
• The fifth Life followed the Gospel of St Luke, making use of the Great Commentary by Cornelius A Lapide and the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas. This life began on the 29th of October 2023 and ended on the 12th of March 2024.

St John the Theologian “in Silence”. 
Village of Vladimir, 18th Century.

The next life in this series will follow the Gospel of St John, beginning tomorrow (Deo volente) on the great feast of the Annunciation. St John opens his Gospel with the line: In the beginning was the Word. Later on in his opening chapter he adds:  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. [John i. 14]. It seems altogether fitting, therefore, that we have been given the opportunity to begin this study on the feast of the Annunciation, when the Word was made flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

👈The icon shows the Apostle John in his later years, as the elder “Theologian”. In his hands he holds the Gospel, with the words: “In the beginning…” (John i.1). To his left, an angel is shown whispering the Gospel into John’s ear, yet the Apostle does not look to him, but casts his eyes down in contemplation. The Saint’s right hand is raised up, making the sign of the cross over his mouth, guarding it lest he were to say something from his own imagination: the great Evangelist is reduced to silence.

The inspiration for the image could be the words of John himself when he writes: But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written. (John xxi. 25). [See A Reader's Guide to orthodox Icons]

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.