Praying with icons through the church year
Meditations on three icons created by Ukrainian iconographer, Khrystyna Kvyk.
An icon is an image you look through to behold the beauty of the Lord. Icons are portals that, when contemplated with the eyes of faith, open the seer into communion with God.
Over the past two years or so, I have come to love icons. The reason I love them is simple: they’ve helped me learn to pray (and we’re always learning this, aren’t we?).
I have written about icons in other places. Here is an introduction to icons. Here is a guide to praying through icons. Here is an interview with my favorite living iconographer, Khyrstyna Kvyk.
In this essay, I want to share meditations on a triptych of icons that were painted by Ms. Kvyk. My wife and I purchased each of these for a little prayer chapel in our home. They are an absolute treasure.
I initially wrote these meditations for the Daily Prayer and Lectionary Guide that my church offers to parishioners. Each year, we produce three guides that correspond with the liturgical calendar (Advent through Epiphanytide; Ash Wednesday through Eastertide; and Pentecost to Advent). We are an Anglican church and so the prayer guide is a simplified form of the Daily Office from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer.
In each of the guides, we include a piece of visual art with a corresponding meditation to facilitate prayer in line with the season. I’m sharing what I’ve written with the hopes that it might spur on a love for icons and, more importantly, help you learn to pray.
Advent through Epiphanytide
As you behold this icon of the Incarnation, what do you see?
The first thing I notice is the rich blue color which is traditionally associated with Mary in art. Typically, Mary is draped in lavish blue cloth. Here the blue draws us to Mary’s womb and to Mary’s head.
Hugged by her hands, the blue within Mary’s pregnant belly is speckled with the stars of the night sky. Her womb reveals a vision into the cosmos. Here, we do not see a developing fetus (although that, too, is what the Incarnation requires). Instead, her womb is an apocalyptic portal through which we see the end from the beginning, an unborn babe is the Eternal Logos. In her womb we behold her son. We behold the Son of God. We behold the Only One worthy to open the scroll of human history (Rev 5).
Looking above, we see a halo of blue adorning Mary’s head. This crown is not the typical luminescent gold of the saints. This crown is the crown of heaven. It is as if, in the process of saying “Yes” to God (Luke 1:38), Mary has gained access and glimpsed into the highest heaven where God is and has been changed.
This icon reveals several Advent themes. In the first Advent of Jesus, heaven comes down to earth and then earth is taken up to heaven when Jesus ascends. In the second Advent of Jesus, heaven and earth will be brought together and God will dwell with his people forever. On that Day, we will not merely peer into the place where God is. God will be with us forever and we will be changed.
Ash Wednesday to Pentecost
As you behold this icon of the Crucifixion, what do you see?
The first thing I notice is the cross (how can you miss it?). It is foregrounded, filling the frame. The cross is the center of the icon and it’s also the center of the triptych of icons. It offers a striking focal point. It is a visual invitation to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1Cor 2:2).
This icon incorporates classic elements of a crucifixion scene. In the background, we see contours of the city walls, indicating that Jesus was executed outside Jerusalem. The gospels describe this location as the Place of the Skull (Mt 27:33; Mk 15:22; Lk 23:33; Jn 19:17). This little detail is reflected in the skull at the base of the cross. In art, the skull also signifies Adam, the first human being and the first human to taste death. On the cross, Jesus is the second Adam who tastes death for everyone (Rom 5). Lastly, we see two pairs of people on either side of the cross. These represent the women and the male disciples who followed Jesus to the bitter end.
The icon is rich with symbolism. But what I am drawn to most in the icon isn’t the details but the balance of the whole. From top to bottom and side to side, the icon is characterized by balance. In the midst of concentrated chaos – the crucifixion of the Son of God – there is a sense of equilibrium. Paradoxically, miraculously, the cross brings order out of chaos. We are invited into this peace as we experience deeper and deeper levels of knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Pentecost to Advent
As you behold this icon of the Resurrection, what do you see?
One of the elements I find most striking is the connection between the Incarnation icon we considered in Advent and this one. Specifically, I am struck by the same starry blue sphere that appears in both.
In the Incarnation, the blue sphere is in Mary’s pregnant belly and it is speckled with the stars of the night sky. In Mary’s womb, heaven has come to earth. The Eternal Logos has become a needy baby.
We see that same blue sphere enveloping Jesus in the Resurrection icon. From the empty tomb at the bottom of the icon, Jesus has been delivered from death. God’s power raised Christ from the dead and God has set him at his right hand in the heavens (Eph 1:20-23). In the Resurrection, the Eternal Logos has been forever wedded to humanity. In the Ascension, humanity as ascended to where God is.
Seeing these together, it becomes clear that the Resurrection (and the Ascension) is the fulfillment of the Incarnation. Just as the womb is a portal, so is the tomb. In Mary’s womb, heaven came down to earth in the body of Jesus. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, when he is resurrected and ascended, earth is taken up to heaven in the body of Jesus.
In Jesus Christ, the God-man, everything comes together. Heaven and earth, God and humanity are united in him.
As we contemplate these icons, we get a glimpse of the beauty of the Lord. In the womb, Jesus Christ the Eternal Logos, is glorious in his humility. From the tomb, Jesus Christ the Eternal Logos, is glorious in his exaltation. Thanks be to God.