Editor’s Note: We’re working out why, but we weren’t able to edit the author listed for this article. Dale Morris wrote today’s article, not Abby Smith as listed.

In May this year we spent a few days in Antwerp, Belgium (travelling entirely by train! Very satisfying). One reason for the trip was to visit the home and workshop (now a printing museum) of Christophe Plantin, 1520-1589. My husband trained as a graphic designer and over his career has become very experienced with the whole process of printing books. As a proofreader, I too have learned the specific details of how books are published. 

This museum – a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 – has an exceptional collection of typographical materials, and holds the world’s two oldest surviving printing presses. And there’s an extra reason for a New Church person to appreciate it – the reason the Word was given to this planet, of all those in the universe, was because eventually PRINTING developed here. Isn’t that amazing?

“The Word could be written in our world, because the art of writing existed here from the most ancient times, at first on tablets, then on parchment, later on paper, and finally it could be disseminated in print. The Lord’s providence caused this for the sake of the Word.” Worlds in Space 115 

“The art of printing is indeed a sort of Messiah amongst inventions.” Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

“The invention of printing is the greatest event in history. It is the mother of all revolution, a renewal of human means of expression from its very basis. Printed thoughts are everlasting, provided with wings, intangible and indestructible. They soar like a crowd of birds, spread in all four directions and are everywhere at the same time.” Victor Hugo

“The whole world admits unhesitatingly, and there can be no doubt about this, that Gutenberg’s invention [the printing press] is the incomparably greatest event in the history of the world.” Mark Twain

As we wandered through the rooms we learned more and more about what this printing house accomplished. There were replicated books we could leaf through – maps, Bibles, philosophical discourses, illustrated natural history books, dictionaries; pages showing three or more languages all saying the same thing; actual pages of very old books and documents (including a double spread of marked-up proofs: the proofreading symbols used in 1560 are virtually the same as those I have used! Despite not having a clue what the words were, I could understand what was being corrected, and how); real typecases filled with rows of real metal type, in different alphabets, in a room full of real printing presses. 

There were videos showing how metal type was made – a surprisingly detailed and intricate process – and working models you could have a go with. The tools of the printing trade are myriad, and the number of different skills needed by people working there was astonishing. Getting a leaflet, let alone a book, from idea to publication was complicated back in the 16th century: those who undertook to do that work were skilled and dedicated craftsmen and women. 

By the time we finished (3 hours later!) we’d become more deeply aware that this process – printing – was a vital part of the spread of knowledge throughout the world, from the Reformation through to the Age of Enlightenment. It produced a virtual explosion of information, made accessible to far more people than verbal stories or hand-copied manuscripts could reach. Sebastian Brant, a 16th century poet, said, “What the rich man of yesterday and the king possessed are now found even in the most modest of homes, namely a book. Thanks first be to the gods, but also immedately thereafter to the printers who master the oustanding art so cheaply through their ceaseless efforts.”

Thanks be to the gods indeed – or rather to the Lord and His providence. This inspiring visit made me feel, deep down and humbling, that the proofreading skills I used to check the digitized versions of Potts’ Concordance and Dole’s Bible Study Notes have enabled me to play my own tiny part – not much more than a single apostrophe – in spreading knowledge of the Word and the Lord, via the internet, throughout the world.

I grew up praying often.  My family regularly prayed together – saying and singing blessings before meals, saying the Lord’s Prayer together, using the offices in the liturgy for the call-and-response-style formal prayers during family worship, or even singing a little prayerful tune while stopped at a red light that my Mom made up because we were late for one thing or another.

“Lord, we need a green light; please let the light turn green, thank you!”

And even today I find myself quietly talking to the Lord, asking for patience, or energy, or perhaps more accurately – just company as I bumble through a sticky interaction.  I find it very centering to talk to Someone throughout my day.

Recently one of my kids was upset about thing after thing going wrong and tearfully said something to the effect of hoping that the Lord would bless him by giving him what he wanted.  He was having a moment of feeling clear that he was working hard at doing the right thing and surely if the Lord loved him this should be demonstrated by getting what he wanted.

I didn’t have the answer I wanted in that moment, but I said something about it being always good to pray and to talk to the Lord about things, but that even if we don’t get what we want that isn’t a sign that the Lord doesn’t love us.

In the weeks since that conversation I’ve been thinking about prayer.  Even as a kid I didn’t love the song praying for the light to turn green. It felt technically wrong to me – the traffic patterns had to flow and follow their rules, and it wasn’t any kind of fair for the Lord to change that for us! What would that mean for the other drivers who were probably also late?

We have sorted out our publishing and distribution problems (we think!), and we will resume publishing new articles next week. We are currently publishing an article every other week.

We’re sorry that our email distribution problems meant we published a few articles that really didn’t get seen.  This week we are going to try and send out those articles and next week we’ll publish a new article.

Because of the change in systems we need everyone to re-subscribe if you want to receive emails when a new post goes up.  It should be very simple and easy though – just go and enter your email on the Subscribe tab. The interface and email will look a little bit different, but our hope is that it will essentially function the same way it did before – you will get an email with the article itself in the email, but all comments and conversation will happen directly on the website.

We’re glad you’re here and look forward to some wonderful articles and useful conversations in the coming. year.