7 posts tagged “icons”
Today, Orthodox Sunday, is the 3rd anniversary of our being received into the Orthodox Church by Holy Chrismation and/or Baptism.
From Wikipedia, "The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy is celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent. It is the celebration of the victory of the iconodules over the iconoclasts by the decision of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Therefore, the service is to commemorate the restoration of icons for use in services and private devotional life of Christians.
Services often include the clergy or the faithful triumphantly processing around the church, holding icons of their patron or parish saints. In areas where multiple jurisdictions exist (such as the United States), Pan-Orthodox Vespers are also usually celebrated in the evening."
I'll repost the first icon I ever bonded with in memory of our son, Isaac.
I hope that some Christmas they come up with an Orthodox Nativity postage stamp.
When I first saw an Orthodox icon of Mary I was a bit put off by the way Jesus is portrayed. He isn't very babyish even though He's small. I later found out that this is to emphasize that He was still God, Creator of the universe even when He was an infant. I have appreciated the mutual tenderness between He and His Mother, though. Now when I see a Roman Catholic representation, Jesus seems too normal, as if He were any baby. He looks like He's holding a rattle in this one, though I bet the wand has other significance. And he looks kind of bored and distracted in Mary's lap. So it's interesting to me how my reactions have changed since becoming Orthodox.
Another thing that's different is how I respond to "religious art" across the board. I used to be so prejudiced against it. In my Protestant background I had been taught that halo's are inappropriate because we are not supposed to worship other people. I was also taught that pictorial representations of Jesus were wrong because supposedly people worshipped them as idols and besides they were inaccurate. This carried over to my view of how Bible characters were portrayed as well, with or without halo's. After learning about how Orthodox view icons, I no longer object to depictions, but I do see significance in how Christ and His Saints are portrayed.
Theology of icons
Christianity believed that the immaterial God took flesh in the form of Jesus Christ, making it possible to depict in human form the Son of God. It is on this basis that the old prescriptions against images were changed for the early Christians. Also, the concept of archetype was redefined by the early church fathers in order to better understand that when a person shows veneration toward an image, the intention is rather to honor the person depicted, not the substance of the icon. As St. Basil the Great says, "The honor shown the image passes over to the archetype." He also illustrates the concept by saying, "If I point to a statue of Caesar and ask you 'Who is that?', your answer would properly be, 'It is Caesar.' When you say such you do not mean that the stone itself is Caesar, but rather, the name and honor you ascribe to the statue passes over to the original, the archetype, Caesar himself." So it is with an Icon.
In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, only flat images or bas relief images are used. The Greeks,
having a long, pagan tradition of statuary, found the sensual quality
of three dimensional representations did more to glorify the human
aspect of the flesh rather than the divine nature of the spirit and so
prohibitions were created against statuary. The Romans, on the other hand, did not adopt these prohibitions and so we still have statuary among the Roman Catholics
to this day. Because the Greeks rejected statuary, the Byzantine style
of iconography was developed in which figures were stylized in a manner
that emphasized their holiness rather than their humanity. Symbolism
allowed the icon to present highly complex material in a very simple
way, making it possible to educate even the illiterate in theology. The
interiors of Orthodox Churches are often completely covered in icons." (see this Wikipedia page for more info)
Today is my Namesday, so I'd like to post this icon.
The website of the Orthodox Church in America, the jurisidiction that I am under is: http://www.oca.org/
It gives the daily Bible readings as well as the Saints we commemorate on that day. Today's is:
2 Corinthians 7:1-10
| 1 | Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one. | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. | ||||||||||||||
| 6 | Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, | ||||||||||||||
| 7 | and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. | ||||||||||||||
| 9 | Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. | ||||||||||||||
| 10 | For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. Mark 1:29-35
What I get from these is the focus on repentance unto holiness, on having an open heart, and the intercession of the saints in affecting another's comfort and healing - all of which has it's source in God. He is the vine, we and others are the branches. |
