The Fra Angelico Institute for the Sacred Arts is truly honored to receive three blogging awards. Teresa Rice at Catholiclibertarian has nominated this blog for three awards: The Illuminating Blogger Award, The One Lovely Blog Award, and The Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

Teresa Rice’s blog at Catholiclibertarian is dedicated to discussing contemporary issues through the lens of being a faith-filled Catholic as well as a person who has a mixture of conservative and libertarian political views. Teresa’s columns are always well written, insightful, challenging and dogmatically faithful to the Catholic Church. We are proud, honored, and humbled by her confidence and support for our mission – which is to evangelize the truth, beauty, and goodness of God through the prayerful study and creation of sacred art.

We also received notification this morning that reinkat has awarded this blog an award, too. We are truly touched to the heart by these awards from our readers. We admit, however, that the entire impetus for the Fra Angelico Institute for the Sacred Arts, and this blog, is the work of the Holy Spirit. He deserves all praise, honor, and glory. Everything that we do here develops out of prayer, is performed in prayer, and hopefully, is sustained through prayer. Again, thanks very much. As part of the Award system I am happy to nominate fourteen other bloggers that I regularly read and find illuminating in various ways. Their names are found below.

The conditions for accepting The Illuminating Blogger Award are:

1) Add a picture of the award to your blog post.

2) Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link to their blog.

3) Nominate 5 to 10 other Bloggers and inform those selected that they have been nominated.

4) Say seven interesting things about yourself to give some insight into what you are like, interested in, etc.

I am happy to award the writers of the following blogs The Illuminating Blogger Award because all of them make you think and provide illumination in various ways. Some of them promote the arts – in all of their various forms; others promote humor (in these days anyone that promotes clean intellectual humor deserves a prize!). A few are promoting the Catholic faith (which from my point of view is very good!), and some are just a lot of wacky fun.

The following blogs are not ranked in any order of one being better than another.

The blogs Catholiclibertarian, reinkat, and Biltrix would have been on the list but they have already received the award.

Here are the blogs that receive the most prestigious Illuminating Blogger Award from me.

1) Via Lucis Photography: http://vialucispress.wordpress.com/

2) Stephen Hipperson: stephenhip.wordpress.com

3) Matthew James Collins: matthewjcollins.wordpress.com

4) The Way of Beauty:  http://thewayofbeauty.org/

5)A Reader’s Guide to Orthodox Icons: http://iconreader.wordpress.com/

6) Hearts on Fire: http://heartsonfire33.wordpress.com/

7) Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine: http://drboli.wordpress.com/

8) carlausery: http://carlausery.com/

9) Chicquero: http://chicquero.com/

10) hesychastic: hesychastic.wordpress.com

11) Elliot in Gotham: http://elliottingotham.wordpress.com/

12) clotildajamcracker: http://clotildajamcracker.wordpress.com/

13) The Big Pulpit: http://bigpulpit.com/

14) knowsphere: http://knowthesphere.wordpress.com/

Here are the seven Award required “interesting things” I will divulge about myself:

1) I sing Christmas songs throughout the year.

2) I enjoy reading about British personalities, fictional and non-fictional. An example being Winston Churchill and what made him tick as a man and personality. Another character that I enjoy is Sherlock Holmes. Very few people are aware (ahem, or care!) that I wrote a definitive monograph in the early 1980’s on the True Location of 221B Baker Street. It was published in the Baker Street Journal to loud huzzahs.

3) I became fascinated with the French Impressionists in college, yet, today, have a deep affection for Cezanne as a man and as an artist.

4) I enjoy solitude, or, the company of very small groups of people.

5) I have had a deep affection for Scottish Terriers since I was in elementary school. Our third Scottie has a huge heart and an extraordinary sense of loyalty for close family members. He has a toughness that is quite admirable; he has been battling cancer for 15 months. Our vets are astounded by his longevity owing to the fact that veterinary science and experience said he had four to six months to live.

6) I would have absolutely no problem eating apple pie as a dessert for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Let’s not forget snacks. You may ask: Who has a dessert for breakfast? Answer: interesting people.

7) I have a fascination for the woodcuts and drawings of Brother Martin Erspamer, O.S.B.; yet, I have a deep interest and desire to emulate the artistry of Italian painters from the 12th through the mid 15th centuries. There is a spiritual purity in their work; however, I am far from even approaching some sense of true understanding of them and would appreciate anyone who knows of specific research and tomes that could assist me in the understanding of their techniques.

Copyright © 2012 Deacon Paul O. Iacono All Rights Reserved