New Psalms for Old Sorrows

This beautifully illustrated book explores the three basic questions we all ask at some point: who are we; how do we fit into the universe; and who's in charge here. The writers of the Psalms asked the same questions three thousand years ago, and we're still trying to figure it out. This book doesn't claim to answer these existential questions, but sometimes, in order to get closer to an answer, it helps to ask the questions in a different way.

This beautifully illustrated book explores the three basic questions we all ask at some point: who are we; how do we fit into the universe; and who's in charge here. The writers of the Psalms asked the same questions three thousand years ago, and we're still trying to figure it out. This book doesn't claim to answer these existential questions, but sometimes, in order to get closer to an answer, it helps to ask the questions in a different way. The meditations in this book were written to be read aloud as part of an Anglican Sunday service, although many are not strictly Christian in outlook. They are sequenced by the seasons and religious festivals of the year, and explore a wide variety of topics: love, hate, violence, greed, injustice, spirituality, life, suffering, and death. They are not written in what the author calls church-speak, but in everyday language, and are addressed directly to God, because, after all, that's who we're talking to. The illustrations are inspired by the illuminations of medieval manuscripts, and provide and extra dimension to the meaning of the text.

Forced into retirement after a long business career by the recurrence of a childhood illness, the author agreed to write a weekly meditation for his church's Sunday services. In the process, he found that although his disability had made his physical world much smaller, the new-found luxury of time made the rest of his world much larger, and that great concepts were now evident in the smallest of everyday occurrences. This book is a reflection of that process. Michael Gojanovich was born in New Jersey a long time ago, and moved to Canada as a young man because he was offered a job there and, well, it wasn't New Jersey. He and his wife Vicki have five children and, at the moment, seven grandchildren.

Debbie Thompson Wilson has had a long career as a painter, illustrator, calligrapher, and graphic artist.  The illustrations in this book are reproductions of her original paintings, executed in medieval fashion on vellum with oils and gold leaf. Widely traveled, she lives in Ontario with her husband and several badly behaved cats.