Abbey of Gethsemani

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At Vespers this evening, the first Vespers of Advent, the Abbot blessed the second in a series of new choir books for the prayer of the community. These Antiphonaries have been hand-made, one at a time, here at Gethsemani. The books handed out this evening will serve as our prayer books for Advent and Christmas for decades to come.

The community recognizes the contributions of several monks. Br Luke typeset the entire book, then proofed and corrected it. Br's Norbert and Roger printed thousands of pages. Br Gaetan sewed together the signatures which turn the pages into books. And Fr Elias bound the books and hand-marbled the wonderful end-papers which are unique to each copy.

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Antiphons are short musical pieces which are sung before and after each psalm or canticle. Sometimes their text refers to the psalm, sometimes it refers to the season or the day on which they are sung. They are often simple melodies, but they may be very complex, if they are associated with a major solemnity like Christmas or Easter. The antiphon also indicates the tone, or melody, by which the psalm or canticle itself is sung. They also indicate the psalm to be sung, of course. These antiphons, ordered by day, week, month, and seasons, are gathered into antiphonaries.

Binding each book by hand requires many steps. Here Fr.Elias is setting boards to the covers.

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Each set of end-papers is marbled by a special process which requires much skill and practice. To this day, some methods of marbling are closely guarded secrets. Fr Elias has worked hard to master this art and develop his own style.

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