As part of the Clark Library’s Dedication Ceremony today, Physical Plant Director Andre Hutchinson will read a passage from the book of Sirach:
13 Listen to me, my faithful children, and blossom
like a rose growing by a stream of water.
14 Send out fragrance like incense, and put forth blossoms like a lily.
Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works.
15 Ascribe majesty to his name and give thanks to him with praise,
with songs on your lips, and with harps; this is what you shall say in thanksgiving.
Fortuitously Andre’s selection is graced within the Saint John’s Bible by a text treatment (right) by calligrapher Diane M. Von Arx, a native of the state of Minnesota where the Saint John’s Abbey is located. Paying homage to her surroundings she refers in this treatment to the Abbey and the Bible. If you look closely at the left side of the image you can see a faint pattern of honeycomb which refers to the hexagonal stained glass windows at the Abbey (see image below). On the right-hand side you might discern voiceprint
representations from the SJB book of Psalms which will be the subject of a future blog post.
