Religious Icons
Genuine icons are prepared and painted according to the method and tradition of ancient iconographers. All the materials are natural and have their spiritual meaning.
A panel of seasoned wood is selected, sanded and sized. A thin sheet of linen over the wood (in larger icons) reminds us of the linen round Christ's body taken down from the cross. The panel is covered with 15 to 20 coats of natural gesso (chalk or alabaster mixed with natural glue made from fish, rabbit-skin or vegetable matter). The final coats are sanded down to an ivory smoothness to receive the drawing and gold leaf background. (Burnished gold, where it occurs is laid on a further ground made of 5 to 8 layers of red clay before being burnished). Gold signifies light or holiness.
The colours, egg-tempera, are pure pigments, ground on a glass slab, and mixed with yolk of egg, egg being the symbol of the resurrection. Each colour has its symbolism: red for divinity or exalted dignity, or, where relevant martyrdom; orange for faith, white for wisdom or purity and in conjunction with black for truth; blues are symbolic of infinity/eternity; and browns and greens for earth and humanity.
Icons and Praying
At your place of prayer and after any prayer of preparation you wish to make, knowing yourself to be in the Presence of God, look at the Icons you have chosen, or rather, let the Icons look, at you. Let the Icon of the Blessed Trinity, of God Incarnate, of His Mother, or of His Saints, or a Gospel 'happening' like the Nativity, speak to you as the large-eyed persons hold your attention. If you want to intellectualise your prayer for a while, try to formulate what seems to you the important theological point of the Icon. As you always have, tell God that you love Him, that you are sorry for offending His Love, how you enjoy the communion of His saints, pray for your loved ones, for the world, and that His will may be done. Submit to whatever God may think is good for you, and thank Him for His gifts and joys. Then seal the new, or renewed, relationship that you have found by kissing Christ and/or His saints present in the Icons.
Many of us were taught to close our eyes when we pray. Praying with icons is an ancient prayer practice that involves keeping our eyes wide open, taking into our heart what the image visually communicates. We focus not on what is seen in the icon, but rather on what is seen through it - the love of God expressed through God's creatures.
This is prayer without words, with a focus on being in God's presence rather than performing in God's presence. It is a right-brain experience of touching and feeling what is holy - a divine mystery. Icons are not simply art; they are a way into contemplative prayer, and are therefore one way to let God speak to us. They are doorways into stillness, into closeness with God. If we sit with them long enough, we too can enter into the stillness, into the communion. And if we listen to them closely enough, with our hearts, we just may discern the voice of God.
An icon is not merely a "holy picture". Its meaning goes deeper than the surface reality to the spiritual reality of matter transformed. An iconographer prepares for the work with much prayer and often fasting and with the conviction that the icon is God's work with the iconographer only his instrument. As much a medium of revelation as the spoken or printed word, an icon is often referred to as a "visual bible". It is an important door opening out to God and to spiritual realities, and opening also in to the stillness of our own hearts, where God wants to speak to us. It is a meeting place of grace and human need.
Genuine icons are prepared and painted according to the method and tradition of ancient iconographers. All the materials are natural and have their spiritual meaning.
A panel of seasoned wood is selected, sanded and sized. A thin sheet of linen over the wood (in larger icons) reminds us of the linen round Christ's body taken down from the cross. The panel is covered with 15 to 20 coats of natural gesso (chalk or alabaster mixed with natural glue made from fish, rabbit-skin or vegetable matter). The final coats are sanded down to an ivory smoothness to receive the drawing and gold leaf background. (Burnished gold, where it occurs is laid on a further ground made of 5 to 8 layers of red clay before being burnished). Gold signifies light or holiness.
The colours, egg-tempera, are pure pigments, ground on a glass slab, and mixed with yolk of egg, egg being the symbol of the resurrection. Each colour has its symbolism: red for divinity or exalted dignity, or, where relevant martyrdom; orange for faith, white for wisdom or purity and in conjunction with black for truth; blues are symbolic of infinity/eternity; and browns and greens for earth and humanity.
Icons and Praying
At your place of prayer and after any prayer of preparation you wish to make, knowing yourself to be in the Presence of God, look at the Icons you have chosen, or rather, let the Icons look, at you. Let the Icon of the Blessed Trinity, of God Incarnate, of His Mother, or of His Saints, or a Gospel 'happening' like the Nativity, speak to you as the large-eyed persons hold your attention. If you want to intellectualise your prayer for a while, try to formulate what seems to you the important theological point of the Icon. As you always have, tell God that you love Him, that you are sorry for offending His Love, how you enjoy the communion of His saints, pray for your loved ones, for the world, and that His will may be done. Submit to whatever God may think is good for you, and thank Him for His gifts and joys. Then seal the new, or renewed, relationship that you have found by kissing Christ and/or His saints present in the Icons.
Many of us were taught to close our eyes when we pray. Praying with icons is an ancient prayer practice that involves keeping our eyes wide open, taking into our heart what the image visually communicates. We focus not on what is seen in the icon, but rather on what is seen through it - the love of God expressed through God's creatures.
This is prayer without words, with a focus on being in God's presence rather than performing in God's presence. It is a right-brain experience of touching and feeling what is holy - a divine mystery. Icons are not simply art; they are a way into contemplative prayer, and are therefore one way to let God speak to us. They are doorways into stillness, into closeness with God. If we sit with them long enough, we too can enter into the stillness, into the communion. And if we listen to them closely enough, with our hearts, we just may discern the voice of God.
