Essays

At an elevation of 14115 feet, Pikes Peak is the southernmost of Colorado's famous "Fourteeners." The monolith of rare pink granite juts up out of the Front Range of the Rockies seven miles west of Colorado Springs. A natural "weather maker," its unmatched profile protects the city from prevailing winds, and the crags often seem to reach up to snag the rain or snow-soaked clouds and hold them at bay. Mesmerized by the way the sun played on and over the mountain¿particularly at dawn and dusk¿I quickly fell into a love affair with "America's Mountain." This book is my tribute to Colorado, to Pikes Peak, and to the skies above the Front Range.

Eric Gill (1882-1940) is well known as a sculptor, wood and stone carver, letter, engraver, typeface designer, and graphic artist. But he was also a radical religious and social philosopher-a Christian revolutionary-for whom "life was more than art," because it was the highest art, the art of being human. Thus his interests were never theoretical and his view of life was holistic, involving the whole person in a unity of art, work and spiritual values. A convert to Catholicism in 1913, Gill brought to the movement of social and aesthetic renewal founded by Ruskin and William Morris a sensibility sharpened both by Non-conformism and by the enthusiastic acceptance of Thomism. After World War I, Gill helped create the Ditching Guild, and independent society of Roman Catholics bound together by common faith and common ideas about work and human society. In 1924, Gill moved with his family and a few friends, now under the rule of third-order Dominicans, to Capel-y-ffin, in South Wales. Here the task of integrating human work and religious life in a craft community continued, and here, too, Gill began to write, at first short pieces, then longer essays. In 1928, he moved back to Buckinghamshire, where he lived until his death. A Holy Tradition of Working is an anthology drawn from the full prophetic range of Gill's concerns. The topics covered include: First Things; What is Man?; What is Art?; The Four Causes; Of Work and Responsibility; Of Beauty; Of Imagination; Property, Ownership and Holy Poverty; and A Vision of Normal Society. Brian Keeble writes "There can be no mistaking the directional impulse in Gill's thought; it is heavenward, Not so much a heaven 'up there' as one with a more local habitation; the kingdom of heaven within which is the kingdom proper to man, that is, man the maker, one who is uniquely fitted, being created in His image, to 'collaborate with God'..."

The overarching aim of When We Pray is to explore the connections between prayer, meditation, and aesthetic experience in ways that are both insightful and practical. Each of the eight essays takes the reader on an exploration of topics such as: the role of imagination in prayer and manifestation, the aesthetic aspects of enlightenment, the role of signs and symbols in the spiritual life, and more. As you explore these topics you are also invited to feast your eyes upon professional illustrations created by the author himself. When We Pray is a total package experience that features insightful, thought-provoking essays that are accompanied by beautiful, well-crafted imagery.

«... Quand on descend aujourd'hui dans les caveaux du Panthéon, dès que s'est ouverte la lourde porte, on trouve tout de suite devant soi l'endroit où le cercueil de Victor Hugo repose, tel qu'il fut apporté là, le jour de son inoubliable convoi. C'est-à-dire qu'on ne s'est point occupé, depuis, de lui bâtir un tombeau. Il est toujours dans une situation provisoire ; il s'attarde sur des tréteaux...»

Viet Ve Nuoc My 2019 is a compilation of selected short stories in Vietnamese from various writers who participate in the 2019 Writing on America contest, organized annually by Viet Bao Daily News.

Fourteen sculptures of the distinguished Central Asian artist Erkin Mergenov constitute the subject matter of this book. The creative force of the sculptor produced the artifacts, which then inspired historians, theologians, philosophers and literary scholars to produce 'verbal' responses and meditations on original themes. The texts, which exemplify different cross-disciplinary approaches to art and sculpture, cover the 30-year span of the artist's career - from Self-Portrait (1971) to Premonition (2001).