June 29th, 2026

'Life Abundant' - contemporary manuscript Illumination on vellum, 21 x 30 cm

I live just over half-an-hour's drive from the Italian border so when I committed this precious piece on vellum to DHL's 'Express' delivery service to a religious house in Rome, I did not imagine it would get routed out of Austria to a sorting office in Slovenia, from there back to Milan, from Milan 900 km north to Leipzig, back south another 1400 km to Rome finally, and then through a series of sorting depots in and around the capital before being delivered three days late to a wrong address - in the correct street at least: one perhaps can't be too demanding, even with tracking and full insurance. Has Mother Church fallen so out of touch these days that no one knows where she is any more?