Issue #18 November 1, 2023 |
| The Gate of Heaven: Part I |
|
|
In this Issue: - Birth Announcement
- The Gate of Heaven: Part I
|
|
|
Greetings folks!
Before continuing our exploration of the 12 festal icons, I wanted to share that my wife recently gave birth to our third son!
We are very excited and tired parents right now. Everyone is healthy and doing really well. Symeon's name means, "God has heard", and that has been the theme of this pregnancy and birth: God has heard our prayers.
We primarily had in mind St Symeon the God-Receiver from the Gospel of Luke, whose song (Nunc Dimittis) has become a central prayer in Church liturgical practice. I'm also personally very fond of St Symeon the New Theologian. His work could be summarized as the unrelenting belief that God can be received and experienced by anyone who desires him, and that that is true sight. St Symeon the God-Receiver held the infant Christ in his arms and cried, "My eyes have seen salvation!"
As we begin to learn about the festal icon of the Annunciation, it will become clear that the goal of union with God and experiencing him within us is the central theme. In fact, union with God is the central theme of Christianity. Everything in the life of the Church is aimed at our becoming like God through Christ, and this is especially poignant in this icon.
|
| |
|
The Gate of Heaven: Part I |
|
|
Rather than taking at a look of the 12 feasts and their icons sequentially, I've decided to take them in an order that I think would have helped me to better understand them before entering the Church. The next feast and icon we will take a look at is that of the Annunciation. The typical contemporary composition of this icon is quite simple, but do not let the presence of simplicity lead you to believe the reality of the icon is easy to comprehend. It is an extremely rich icon, and I personally believe this arises naturally from the simplicity of the composition. Everything that needs to be said is communicated without anything frivolous being added. It is, in this sense, a perfect icon.
The feast is celebrated on March 25, nine months prior to the nativity of Christ. At the evening prayer service (Vespers), these Old Testament texts are read in preparation for the feast: Genesis 18:10-17; Ezekiel 43:27-44:4; and Proverbs 9:1-11.
These texts are concerned with: -
The Glory of the Lord & The Wisdom of God
- Christ is the Glory of the Lord standing at the top of Jacob's Ladder in Genesis. Christ is the Glory of the Lord entering the East Gate and filling the Temple in Ezekiel's vision. Christ is the Wisdom of God who prepares the Eucharist in the womb of the Virgin.
- The Gate of Heaven: Jacob's Ladder & The East Gate of the Temple
-
Christ is incarnate by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. Mary is the Gate of Heaven through whom Christ proceeds into the world. Christ descends the Ladder into Mary's womb, the East Gate of the Temple, and prepares the sacrifice using her body and blood to create his own body and blood. Christ then exits the East Gate and makes the Cave into Paradise at his Nativity.
- Theanthropic Union: The Incarnation, The Eucharist & The Eighth Day
-
Christ "mixes" the bread and wine of the offering using the body and blood of the Theotokos. God and Man are united in this work of the incarnation. This body and blood of Christ which is both of God and of Man is given as the food of immortality to those who attend to Wisdom, saying with the Theotokos, "Let it be unto me according to Thy word!" The reception of Christ's body and blood, having been initiated to the mystery through baptism, makes us participants in the eighth day of Creation. That is, heirs of the world without end and the ages and ages.
I'm currently writing articles concerning the interpretation of these texts, along with content more directly concerned with the icon itself. I'll let you know when they're published.
In the meantime, I've provided a copy of St Symeon's discourse concerning the conception of Christ in our hearts, imitating the Theotokos, here: St Symeon. If you read nothing else, at least read this. |
|
|
|
The festal hymns for the Annunciation emphasize the dialogue between the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin. Though the Biblical narrative of the Annunciation is quite brief, it is expounded upon in the liturgical hymns which draw from the great well of Scripture and Tradition. Those hymns are in the form of a conversation between Gabriel and Mary, and this contributes to the conversational emphasis in the composition of the icon.
The version most familiar to folks can be found on the center doors of the iconostasis in Orthodox churches, commonly known as the Royal Doors. The Archangel Gabriel on the left door, Mary on the right door, and facing one another in conversation. This door is the veil and the East Gate of the Church.
The Gospel enters this door at the little entrance and proceeds from this door at the Gospel reading. The bread and wine are prepared and pass through these doors at the Great Entrance. After the bread and wine are placed back onto the altar, there they become the body and blood of Christ. The altar is at once the womb of Mary, the Cave of Christ's birth, the place of Christ's crucifixion, the tomb where Christ was laid and from which he is resurrected and ascended into glory. The bread and wine which have been transfigured into the body and blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit is then brought back out of the doors to be received by the faithful.
|
|
|
The composition of the icon, then, intends to draw our attention to the means by which salvation has come to us: the incarnation of the Son of God by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. This is why St Symeon puts so much emphasis on the personal reception of God in the imitation of the Theotokos. Christ must be conceived in us if we are to be saved. In my composition, below, I have chosen for the Theotokos to look at us while also in dialogue with Gabriel in order to focus our need for participation in the Annunciation. |
|
|
Looking at Gabriel, follow the sweeping motion from his wing in the upper left corner through his gestured hand directing our attention to Mary. There is in this movement of heaven toward mankind. Gabriel and Mary present to us the event of heaven meeting earth. Notice that Gabriel's hand gently passing through the center line, and that the Holy Spirit is also proceeding from heaven toward the Virgin. This reveals Mary's willing reception of God for our salvation.
The vertical and evenly proportioned composition invites us into the silent moment of prayerful conversation between Mary and Gabriel, and there we too experience heaven moving into our life. In the next issue we'll take a close look at some of the details, such as the postures of the figures, the building behind Mary, the bundle of thread in her hand, and so on. |
|
|
Thank you for all your support! ~Alypius (Emanuel Burke) Website: www.alypiusloft.com Email: emanuel@alypiusloft.com |
| | Haiku Corner light breaks the surface
of my watery dream state now time to wake up --Debra Hanna |
|
|
|
