nce upon a time, Miserere.org had something called VisualStyles — alternate CSS stylesheets for your web browser that would allow you to view the site in one of various designs and colors. Approximately 5 different styles were created: Of course, there was the traditional Pietà black-and-white theme that’s been with Miserere.org since its conception (and upon which the present design is based), but there were also some strikingly different themes, including a Brown Scapular theme (beige and brown), an Agony in the Garden theme (green), a Madonna col Bambino theme (lavendar and violet), and a Sacred Heart theme (red).

Over time, as Miserere.org grew iteratively and organically, eventually, the site’s code needed to be tidied up. This required a complete rehauling of the site’s graphics and design.

Since redoing all the themes at the same time would have required too much work, I started by just redoing my personal favorite, the black-and-grey theme. To add a new twist to it, I made it appear as if the content area were a pane of translucent grey glass, overlying a background. The art behind the glass (the “Last Judgment” by Michelangelo) is blurred beneath the glass. The beauty behind this theme is that the background artwork can be changed easily, so refreshing the theme is quick and painless. One idea I had was to make the artwork coincide with the liturgical seasons or with specific feast days.

While I really like the blurred glass theme, I also missed the “crispness” of the original theme, as well as the diversity of the other visual styles. And thus, I decided to remake some of them. To start, I have recreated the traditional black-and-grey theme. It is now activated by default, but you may activate the transparent glass theme by clicking on the appropriate icon in the menu bar at the top. Your setting is remembered by your browser (using cookies), so the next time you view the site, it will use your preferred stylesheet.

As time allows, I’ll create some other themes, and these will be listed in the menu bar.