Archive for the ‘Icons’ Category

Spiritual Formation 101: A Preview

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

On Sunday, September 5, at St. John Lutheran Church in Griffin, Georgia, we begin a thirteen-week series of seminars designed to deepen our prayer lives.  In the first seminar my responsibility is to introduce the series and provide an overview of what we’ll be studying, discussing, and practicing.   For those of you who are interested, here is a preview of the preview:

On September 12:  Sacred Reading
On September 19:  Fixed-hour Praying, Daily Prayer Books
On September 26:  Centering Prayer: Silence and the Contemplative Tradition
On October 3:  Using the Church’s Lectionary and Calendar
On October 10:  Praying the Psalter,  the Quiet Singing of Psalms
On October 17:  Fasting and Prayer as Jesus Recommends Them Together 
On October 24:  Praying with Heart, Soul, Mind, Strength, and Body
On October 31:  Praying without Ceasing: The Orthodox Jesus Prayer 
On November 7:  Praying with Icons (A Gift from the Orthodox)
On November 14:  Prayerful Journaling and Keeping a Chapbook 
On November 21:  Prayerful Money Management, Making Prayerful Decisions
On November 28:  Praying in a Community and Global Intercesssions

If you are interested in broadening and deepening your present prayer life, come and join us on these Sunday mornings.  The seminars will be held between our 8:15 and 11:00 a.m. services, from 9:45 to 10:45.   Bring your Bible and a desire to deepen and broaden your life with God in prayer.

Posted in Books, Centering Prayer, Community, Daily Prayer, Fasting, Icons, Jesus Prayer, Lectionary, Orthodox Christianity, Silence, Singing and Songs, Spiritual Formation 101 | No Comments »

August 6: The Transfiguration of Our Lord

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Icon of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. 15th cent. Novgorod

Today many churches–Lutheran, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox, among others–celebrate The Transfiguration of our Lord.   In my Lutheran daily prayer book, Frederick J. Schumacher, the editor, provides this reading of the famous 15th-century Novgorod Icon of the Transfiguration, a reading that helps us understand what the Transfiguration means to us this day:

In the book of Exodus (33:20-22) the Lord says to Moses, “You cannot see my face; for man shall notsee me and live.  Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by”;  Irenaeus (130-200) commenting on this [passage] explained:

Two things are thus indicated: that it is impossible for man to see God, but secondly that through the wisdom of God, man shall see him in the lst times standing upon the rock; that is, in His coming as a man.  For this reason the Lord conversed with Moses face ot face on the top of the mountain (of Transfiguration) in the company of Elijah, as the gospels relate, thus fulfilling the ancient promises (Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 20).

When St. Catherine’s Monastery was built at the foot of Mt. Sinai in the sixth century, one of the first images of the transfiguration was created, and this icon in the Orthodox tradition has remained basically the same ever since.

The icon portrays the gospel accounts of the fulfillment of what Moses and Elijah on Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai) did not see (Matthrew 17:1-8; Mark 9.2-8; Luke 9.28-36).  Here Christ stands on the top of the mountain (accordng to tradition, Mt. Tabor) in the middle of a perfect circle (mandorla,), symbolic of the transcendent God.  In the center of the third inner circle sometimes there is a star, but here the rays of light represent the "luminous cloud" once seen on Horeb, sumbolic of the Holy Spirit and the source of divine light (Exodus 24.15-18; 34.5, etc.).  The light of God’;s glory transfigures Christ, the Word made flesh, as the light of God shines through him.  In the words of Gregory Palamas (1269-1359),

The Father by his voice bore witness to His beloved Son; the Holy Spirit, shining with Him in the bright cloud, indicated that the Son possesses with the Father the light, which is One like all that belong to Their richness (Homily 34)

In this light stands Moses to the right witha book or the tablets of stone in one hand representing the law, and Elijah to the left representing the prophets.  They both point to Christ, acknowledging that they have in Him seen the face of God, and that through His coming death and resurrection will begin the New Covenant foreshadowed in and prepared for by the law and the prophets.  In Mark’s account of the event, when the Father said, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him," the disciples, depicted at the lower part of the mountain, no longer saw Moses and Elijah (9.7-8).

Looking at the three disciples, we see three rays of divine light, symbolic of the Trinity, cming from the circle and overwhelming them.  To the right Peter appeaers to have just spoken to Jesus saying, “Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three bothshere, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah” (Matthre 17.4).  When one of the three rays of light falls upon himand, supporting himself with his left hand, he raises his right hand to protect himself.  It is Peter who would later preserves his recollection of the event itself,  “We were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1.16-18).  John in the center falls, turning his back to the light.  It would be he would pass the vision on in the words, “God is light in himis no darkness at all” (I John 1.5).  And James flees from the light in either a backward or forward fall.

Christ at the top of the rocks that form the mountain appears to be in composite continuity witht the rocks of the mountain, recalling Paul’s words: “the Rock was Christ” (I Coir. 10.4).  Christ is the mediator betrween God and all who look at this icon.  Christ is the mountain, the absolute meeting place between God and His people.

The ancient iconographers began their writing (painting) of icons with The Icon of the Transfiguration.  It became a direct initiation into the divine light, revealed on Mt. Tabor, that they would need to express through all subsequent icons.  Whether in an icon of a feast day or of a saint, the divine light of God was to be shining through the image so all who would look on the icon would behold the light and the beauty of the Triune God.  To the fullest extent, The Icon of the Transfiguration is bathed in a sunoight of high noon where there are o shadows, as in the Kingdom of God itself.  The Icon of the Transfiguration is thus a foretaste of the future where God’s Kingdom is fulfilled and “there will be no need for sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the lamb” (Revelation 231.22-25; 22.5).

In the Orthodox tradition the significance of the oight of Mt. Tabor is expressed at Matins [Morning Prayer]:  “Today on Tabor in the manifestation of your Light, O Word, you are the unaltered Light from the Light of the unbegotten Father, and we have seen the Father as LIght and the Spirit as Light, guiding with light the whole creation.”

(For All the Saints: A Prayer Book for and by the Church, IV, 1074-1078)

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2 February 2010: The Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple

Monday, February 1st, 2010

entrnce-of-our-lord-christ-into-the-temple-1-st-andrei-rublyov

 

My wife is away for the week, spending some time with her daughter Becky and classmate friends.  And since my flight to Haiti, once scheduled to leave this morning, was cancelled, I now have the opportunity to be more by myself than usual.  This brief “hermiting” means that my days are now more fully open to prayer, lectio divina, walking, and feeding Mitzy, the neighbor’s brown lab who wears a generous splash of white around her neck.   This afternoon I went over the library in Jackson and brought home Robert Alter’s The Book of Psalms, a distinctly Jewish reading of the Psalter that I plan to enjoy immensely.

On this Eve of The Feast of the Presentation of our Lord, I feel privileged to see the parents of Jesus bring their son into the Temple in Jerusalem for the first time. 

Evening Prayer, which I said about 5:00, was especially enjoyable, believing as I do that prayer time with God is to be thoroughly enjoyed whenever the opportunity arrives.  The appointed psalm was 84, and I quietly sung it twice so as to enter its beautiful going into God’s temple, the temple into which Blessed Mary and Joseph brought their infant son, forty days old.  One of my prayer books includes a number of icons appropriate for each season, and I was particularly struck with the theological loveliness of The Icon of the Presentation of Our Lord(albeit reproduced in black and white).  The editor of this prayer book, Frederick J. Schumacher, himself an iconophil, provided a helpful commentary on the icon, and I would like to share it with you, this time, however, with a reproduction of the icon in  color, The Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple as written by St Andrei Rublyov.  In the sharing that follows, I lightly edit Schumacher’s commentary inasmuch as some details of Rublyov’s icon differ slightly from the reproduction in my prayer book:

The first known image of the Presentation of our Lord dates from the fifth century and represents St. Luke’s account (2.22-38) of the occasion when Mary and Joseph went to the temple in Jerusalem for the purification of Mary forth days after the birth of Jesus (Leviticus 12.6-8) and the consecration of him to God as her first-born son (Exodus 13.2).

Here we see the very author of the law himself who gave it to Moses on Mt. Sinai coming with the mother of God to fulfill the law pertaining to her and to himself.

As Luke records, we see that the meeting takes place in the temple, at an altar which is covered by a canopy.  In most icons there is a book or scroll on the table, symbolic of the Old Covenant, or else a cross foreshadowing the words spoken by Simeon to Mary that “a sword will pierce through your own soul also (Luke 2.35).

Mary is on the left side of the altar and extending her hands which are covered, symbolic of adoration and respect, as is the case in many icons in which something is being presented, here the very Son of God.  To the right of the altar Simeon, who was looking for the “consolation of Israel” and was “told by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2.25-26) is leaning forward as he has received the offering of the child and now hold him in his hands which are also covered (as are Joseph’s).  Jesus seems to be seated in the arms of Simeon as on a throne, and one can wonder—as some icons more vividly show—whether Simeon holds the child or the child holds Simeon.  This is expressed in the Orthodox tradition in the singing of Ode 9 of Matins where Jesus says, “I am not held by the old man; it is I Who hold him, for he asks Me forgiveness.”

One can imagine Simeon saying the words known as the Nunc Dimittis in reponse to his hope that  he would not die before he saw the Lord’s Messiah:

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
     your word has been fulfilled.
My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have
     prepared in the sight of every people:
    a light to real you to the nations and the glory of
    your people Israel

Here as Moses had once received the tablets of the law, Simeon now received the very one who with God the Father gave the law and is now present among his people in the flesh.

Joseph is following Mary, carrying the offering of “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons,” the offering of poor parents as prescribed in Leviticus 12.8.  Behind Simeon is the prophetess Anna, “who was of great age.”  She looks up in an expression of prayer which Luke tells us she engaged in day and night, not leaving the temple.  She also looks as though she is giving prophetic utterance that she “spoke of him for all who were for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2.36-38).

In its totality, the icon presents us with the message Luke proclaimed: that here two representatives of the Old Covenant meet the Savior who comes in fulfillment of the promise to Israel and to be a light to the whole world.  In the fifth century in Jerusalem this feast associated with Jesus as the light given to lighten the Gentiles was celebrated with the people holding candles.  From this tradition has come the other name for the day of Presentation in the western church, Candlemas.

Here is the collect or prayer for this day:
  
Almighty and everliving God, we humbly pray that, as your Only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
  
For more reflection on the Presentation, visit the following:
  
Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Presentation of Our Lord: Candlemas
The Presentation (Meeting) of Our Lord in the Temple

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Posted in Blessed Virgin Mary, Feast Days, Icons | 1 Comment »

From my daybook, 12-16 January 2010

Saturday, January 16th, 2010
Days of unspeakable tragedy, sorrow, heartache. The first news of the earthquake in Haiti came, not from TV, but via email sent by Debbie Berquist from the Village of Hope in Port au Prince:

Jan 12, 2010 – 6:03pm WE ARE ALL FINE….shook up in more ways than one as you can well imagine. A few MINOR bruises. It is 5:40 PM as we type this and we are still having a few after shocks…the room shakes as I type. All the Haitian staff at Hope House are fine as well. My Haiti phones are out. Some of the team members (from PA) have been able to contact their families.

Since that message, many more, some almost hourly. Marie Major is all right as are all her children at Grace Orphanage; the kids at The Little Children of Jesus Orphanage are okay. A fragment of a phone call from Johnson tells us that Johnson and Andronic are alive; there is no word yet about Stevenson. We fearful that he may not be alive. My talk to the parish on Sunday bears fruit with money being collected, many prayers offered, and SJLC fully aware of the disaster. Received word today that Thrivent is matching funds given for relief: $1 for every $2 donated. In touch with Luckey, Pat, and Sherri; all of us are convinced that our scheduled February 1 trip to Port au Prince is on indefinite hold.

On Wednesday I met with Larry Schultz on the Global Missions Committee at the Manhattan Restaurant; Larry comes from good stock, open and honest. That evening the Eucharist was clean and simple, always Christ. Becky and Wayne came over for supper on Thursday. Met Hugh in the Barnesville post office and afterward he helped me get the plywood over to his place. We got the boat covered with a huge tarp.

Importantly, am learning to do the Jesus Prayer with regularity, each morning about 6. The darkness is important. 100 slow knots and prostations. Two chokti arrived as did the votive candle for the icon shelf. Learning how to include the saints in my prayers, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary. Clearly more Orthodox. Jim Forest’s book a big help, especially the collection of prayers.

Good movie: Under the Sun with subscripts. Tomorrow’s Gospel, the wedding at Cana. Dan Clendenin says it well:

At Cana in Galilee Jesus filled and fulfilled the ancient promises of Judaism. He filled the empty pots used for ritual purity with wine used for secular celebration. He didn’t merely announce a coming reign of God, or direct attention away from himself to some other. With the first of his “many miraculous signs” he demonstrated that somehow and in some unsurpassed manner he revealed the glory and character of God like no other. This friend of sinners, accused of being a glutton and drunkard, revealed a God of extravagant goodness and mercy.

Posted in Blessed Virgin Mary, Daniel B. Clendenin, Epiphany, For the record, Icons, Jesus Prayer, Personal Reflections | No Comments »