JOE BULEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY : NEWSLETTER

NATIVITY AND THEOPHANY: 2008-9

MANY THANKS TO OUR LIBRARY STAFF

Over the past year, we have had the blessing of a hard-working and highly able support staff in the library. We would like to acknowledge their contributions.

Ms. Mira Radulovic was with us for several months in 2007-8. She did much data-entry of items into our computer, and helped with such important tasks as transliteration of authors and titles from Serbian and Russian, so that they could be entered later on. Of most importance, she was a welcoming presence who always had an answer to a question, or knew who to contact for an answer. Currently she is in Serbia. We keep her in our prayers as she makes decisions about her future. She is greatly missed.

Mr. Dragan Arsic has also provided valuable assistance. Among Dragan’s important tasks is helping us with donation items we already have in our collection. He keeps a collection of these in the bookstore. Please see Dragan or Fr. Seraphim if you have an interest in volumes related to Serbian history, literature, and culture. They may have just what you are looking for.

Most recently, Fr. Serafim Baltic has joined our staff. Fr. Serafim is responsible for many of the daily operations of the library. He enters materials into the database, helps with transliteration, and does the essential work of maintaining our growing collection. We all look forward to his helpful and energetic presence as we create a unique library resource.

RARE BOOK COLLECTION

One of the most unusual features of our library is our Rare Book Collection. We have several hundred volumes, both in Serbian and English, many of which are available in only two or three others libraries in the United States. In several cases, we are the only library to have a copy. A large majority of these books relate to Serbian history, culture and literature, including items relating to Vuk Karadzic and ballads. These valuable materials are available for use at Joe Buley. In some cases they can be borrowed through the Interlibrary Loan process from another public or academic library. We have just completed a descriptive catalogue of these items which is available in printed form. It is also stored on the library computer. We encourage you to ask our staff about these items, and the catalogue listing them.

JOE BULEY LIBRARY PUBLISHES LETTERS OF BISHOP NIKOLAI VELIMIROVIC

This fall ( 2008 ) the Joe Buley Library has published the first of three volumes of

“The Missionary Letters of Saint Nikolaj Velimirovic.” Each volume will have one hundred letters, with Serbian text and an English translation. The first volume also contains two short chapters of Introduction by our librarian, Dr. Nicholas Groves. The work of translation and editing has been completed by Fr. Milorad Loncar, with help from Fr. Serafim Baltic, and others.

With “The Missionary Letters” a most important primary source of Bishop Nikolai is now available, adding to many other of his titles that have been translated. We hope that such publications will increase interest and research related to one of Serbia’s great personalities of the twentieth century, and a major figure in Orthodox theology.

RECENT TITLES OF INTEREST IN OUR COLLECTION

One of the features of our Newsletter in this and future issues will be to provide a selective list of new titles ( with matching call numbers ) that relate to particular areas of strength in our book collection. Please note that all of these items are available for circulation. Please stop by and visit us.

Spadijer, M. Montenegro (call no: f DR 1817 .S733 1980)

Protic, M. et al. Illustrated History of the Serbs- Ilustrovana Istorija Srba (call no.: DR 1985 1991 vols. 2-7) 

Veselinovic, Janko M. Hajduk Stanko (a beautifully illustrated text of this classic) (call no: f PG 1418 .V4 1989)

Kivelson, V. Cartographies of Tsardom. The Land and Its Meanings in Seventeenth- Century Russia. (call no: GA 933.6 .A1 K58 2006)

Roberts, E. Realm of the Black Mountain. A History of Montenegro. (call no: DR 1835 .R5 2007)

Major, R. A. , translator. The History of Serbian Culture. (call no: DR 1952 .M1 1999)

Bogavac, Zoran. Necujna Zvona. Hriscansko Naslede Kosmeta- Silent Bells: Christian Heritage of Kosmet (call no: DR 2079 .B64 2006)

Jovich, Savo B., Prot. The Holy Confessor Varnava Bishop of Hvostno (1914-1964) (call no: BX 719 .N37 2006)

Kapor, M. A Guide to the Serbian Mentality. (call no: PG 1419.21 .A6 G85 2007)

Joksimovich, V. Kosovo Crisis. A Study in Foreign Policy Mismanagement. (call no: JZ 1395 .K674 1999)

Angelov, D. Imperial Ideology and Political Thought in Byzantium, 1204-1330. (a foundational work on an important but often neglected subject; call no: JC 93 .A5 2007)

SOME WORDS FROM BISHOP NIKOLAI :

“O Only Son of God, receive me into Your wisdom. You are the head of all the sons of men. You are their heavenly comprehension, illumination and jubilation.

You are the One who thinks the same goodness in all men: the same thought and the same light. A man recognizes another man through You. A man prophesies to another man through You. Through Your voice men hear each other. In Your language they understand. Truly You are the Ultimate Man ( cf. Is.64:4 and I Cor. 2:9 ), for existentially all men are in You and You are in each.

You build the mind of man, and Your shadow demolishes it.

You have formed all forms, and You have stamped all of them with the seal of Your wisdom. You have fashioned all vessels from clay and have filled them all with the song and joy of the Holy Triunity, but Your shadow has dripped a drop of sorrow into each vessel, with which the sorrowful inscribe griefs on You.

. . . .

And this whole miracle is just a pale picture of You, just a copied and distorted likeness of You in pieces of a half-darkened mirror ( cf. 1 Cor.3: 12 )

My heart yearns for Your complete image, O Son of God. For it is bitterness to be a fragment of Your image, drifting insecurely on an ocean of darkness.

(excerpted from Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich. Prayers by the Lake, XXII, in A Treasury of Serbian Orthodox Spirituality, Vol. V, pp. 39-41)