I've been falling in love, if that's alright to say, with ICONS lately. I just watched a show on EWTN about them. It was fascinating and intriguing. Matt Saskow, our care taker at the Holy Family Shrine, writes Icons. I've heard it said that they're not so much 'painted' as prayed and or written. Layer upon layer...prayer upon prayer. What I gleaned from the program in a small nutshell was this: "We're all "icons" of God" "We are all to be walking icons, portraying Christ to others...becoming his 'masterpieces' that others can gaze upon and see Christ, or His Mother in us. We become a walking prayer, painted, written by God to the world. For He breathed into us the Spirit and those of us who have been born by water and spirit are to become more like Him, living prayers, living lights, animated prayers and stories of our God to all the world, lost in sin, and even those in the Church, who've lost their way, or turned to "other gods" in danger of losing their faith.
I have noticed at St Leo Church, when I will go to Mass there during the week, that their Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Jesus Icon actually "grip" me and Mary's eyes do indeed 'watch me' no matter where I sit in the sanctuary! I love her so much and she's so comforting!
"Jesus please help me to become like your Mother. Mary, please pray for me to become like your Son. Amen."
IF you can catch this program, please, do so! It is quite interesting. It gave me a new appreciation for the Sacred Craft.
susie
1 comment:
"An icon “does not present itself as coextensive with the truth it teaches, but does present itself as the way that we who are its heirs must follow if we are to go beyond it… to a universal truth that is available only in a particular embodiment” (p. 56). An idol, on the other hand, is “the embodiment of that which it represents, but it directs us to itself, rather than beyond itself.”
This was written by Jarislov Pelikan, an internationally renouned theolgian and scholar of the history of Christianity. He was Lutheran for most of his life and at 80 years of age, joined the Orthodox church! ( so close!)
I love icons too!
I met an iconographer at the March for Life in DC. He is a fransican friar from Minnesota and there is a three year waiting list for his work. He'd rather talk about pro-life ministry than his art!
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