This is a three book collection called My Little Scripture Library. It was published by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood. I think it was sold around the 1950's. The latest publishing date in the book Christ in the gospel is 1949.
There are three titles: The New Testament which contains the Confraternity version, Christ in the Gospel which is a harmony of the gospels, and My Daily Psalm Book, which contains the Bea Psalter arranged according to the pre-Vatican II breviary.
Both the psalter and the harmony have numerous illustrations by the Armenian artist Ariel Agemian.
Each book is bound in what appears to be a synthetic leather. They each come with two ribbon markers. The pages have the red and gold gilt edges. Each book is about 5 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. And they came packed in a small protective box.
I got these off of eBay for about thirty dollars. They seemed to have been unused. The ribbons were still folded up in each volume and look as though they have never been read.
I have enjoyed reading them and especially like following the Psalter throughout the day for prayer, and ready the gospel harmony.
You're lucky to find a relatively complete set of these little books. The only ones I see lately in some bookstores are the NT, My Daily Bread, and Meditations with St. Paul.
ReplyDeleteI really hope TAN Books could come up with them once again. I also hope they could come up with ebook editions for Apple and Adroid gadgets!
These were still boxed and unused? Wow! What a great find! Gospel 'harmonies' have been around since Tatian, of course, but are a seriously bad idea. I have always found it incredibly odd that an early, Eastern Christian should even think in such a way as to attempt to 'resolve' apparent tensions and difficulties in the various narratives.
ReplyDeleteI have seen a two book version with just the NT and My Daily Psalm Book on ebay, so if one is concerned about the harmony...
ReplyDeleteOf course, just ordering the NT from Sceptre and the Psalms from the CPB might be lesz expensive if you can live without matching covers and a box.
@Llanbedr- I don't think this harmony is meant to resolve difficulties. Fr. Frey the editor says that the book is meant to offer the story of Jesus in a form for daily reading and meditation and also offers a visual meditation as the drawings, meant to illustrate the text, appear alongside the corresponding passages of scripture.The book is set up so that you can read 2 pages a day and read the whole book in six months.
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