*Icons              Icons are traditionally used at Taizé services.   Icons serve to provoke us to see, reflected in the persons or images depicted, the many facets of the face of God.

Below are a sampling of icons recently used at our services.
Many of these contemporary icons are by Robert Lentz and can be found at Trinity Stores  http://www.trinitystores.com/.

               

                        Christ of Maryknoll

            Let us learn to see the Christ among the least of us, and support and encourage those who serve the Christ that lives in the margins of this world.
The icon does not make clear which side of the fence Christ is on. Is he imprisoned or are we? Through our cultural institutions and personal lives we all place barriers between ourselves and true happiness. We and our institutions also try to imprison Christ in various ways, to tame him and the dangerous memories he would bring us of our goals and ideals.

                

                     St. Francis of Assisi

Francis stands before us in this icon as a model of spiritual strength and compassionate love. The crown of his head is shaved, a practice called tonsure in the middle ages to provide a distinctive appearance to those who have taken religious vows. His face, following the tradition of Byzantine icons, is not intended to be a realistic portrait but a spiritual one. His forehead is broad, indicating strength of spirit. His eyes are unnaturally large and soulful, drawing the viewer into communication with God through Saint Francis. His nose is long and slender, conforming to the Byzantine ideal of nobility. His mouth is small and closed, symbolic of contemplation.

Francis is dressed in the brown robe of his famous order (the Franciscans), hooded and with a rope belt. He holds a book in his left hand, probably the Gospels. A small bird is perched on his right hand, with two more in the background among flowers, reminders of his great love for God’s creations. The Stigmata (which he received late in his life) mark his hands, note also the red slash of the lance wound. There is a cave in the mountain behind Francis recalling the period in his early religious life spent meditating in a cave as a hermit. Surrounding his head is a halo of gold. The halo has been used in Christian art for hundreds of years to indicate sanctity. Gold leaf is used to symbolize divine light because of the incorruptibility of gold and its metallic reflectiveness

                   

                          Saint Mary Magdalene

             According to the ancient tradition of the East, Mary Magdalene was a wealthy woman from whom Christ expelled seven “demons”.  During the three years of his ministry, she helped support him and his other disciples with her money.  When almost everyone else fled, she stayed with him at the cross.  On Easter morning she was the first to bear witness to his resurrection.  She is called “Equal to the Apostles.”

Like Peter and Paul, she died a martyr and she bears witness to the important roles women play in the Church.  Mary Magdalene challenges all Christians to reexamine their cultural prejudices about sex and leadership.

The egg Mary is pointing to is a symbol of the Resurrection.  The inscription at the bottom reads “St. Mary Magdalene” in Syriac, a dialect of the language spoken by Jesus.

               

                            Celtic Trinity

A beautiful image from ancient Celtic religious experience was God as a trinity of women.  The Maiden gave birth to creation.  The Mother nurtured and protected it, and the Crone brought it wisely to its end.  A raven accompanied the Crone as a symbol of life and death: though it ate dead things it flew high into the heavens.  In this icon the women are depicted from different races to extend the Celtic image to a more global perspective.  The snake was another sacred feminine image.  It represented life, fertility and rejuvenation.  Devouring its own tail, it represented immortality.

Feminine images have suffered greatly in the west.  Women will continue to suffer oppression in any religious society until their images have been reclaimed and honoured.  These feminine insights can help to present a new healing perspective on the problems that face our modern world.

         

                               Christ Sophia

Various names are used for God in the Jewish Scriptures. "Wisdom" is among the names used most frequently, and God is always feminine when she is called Wisdom. "She is a reflection of the eternal light, untarnished mirror of God’s active power, image of his goodness" (Wisdom 7:26). It is Wisdom who creates and orders the world, making manifest the divine will. And it is Wisdom who delights to be among the human race, teaching us her ways.

In the Byzantine Church, these references to Wisdom are considered references to Christ. Churches like Hagia Sophia in Istanbul are dedicated to Christ. From the Middle Ages on, icons depicting Christ as an androgynous figure, flanked by Mary and John the Baptist, have been painted in Russia and elsewhere. It is important now to take the next step and depict Wisdom -- Sophia -- as the woman Sacred Scriptures describe.

Looking honestly at our ancient tradition, it is clear that the mystery of Christ cannot be described in masculine terms alone. Because of historical and cultural circumstances, the Second Person of the Trinity became a male human being. Before the Incarnation, however, that person was described as "she." As the Incarnation continues to unfold after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, it is again the feminine Sophia who expresses the mystery -- as pointed out by the Russian theologian Soloviev.

Christ Sophia is depicted in this icon in an egg-shaped mandala. The inscription in her halo is Greek for " I am who am," The divine name given Moses at the burning bush on Sinai. The Greek inscriptions in the upper corners are abbreviations for "Jesus Christ," her historical manifestation. She holds the ancient statue called "Venus of Willendorf," and points to herself as if to say, " I am she. Know me more fully."

                   

                            Vincent Van Gogh

            Vincent van Gogh endured a turbulent life with mental illness and many health concerns. His art, his salvation, allowed him to embrace an earth that would have destroyed lesser men. Son of a Dutch minister, he was drawn to the service of his fellow man through the church. His faith led him to live as the poor whom he served, shocking his superiors and resulting in his dismissal. Fortunately, this led him to art, with humanity as his focus.
            Exposure to Japanese woodcuts and Zen Buddhist perspectives changed his life.  Although never a convert, the idea of reverencing nature; allowing it to guide him; resonated in his soul. The smallest element in nature he found worthy of the loftiest conception in art.
            In the self-portrait used for the head in this icon, Vincent saw himself as a simple bonze (monk) worshipping the eternal Buddha. [In the icon, he is placed as an enlightened one on a lotus seat, symbolic of beauty blossoming in dirty water]. He saw his Yellow House as a monastery, seeking from there to honor impermanence, the momentary explosion of the beauty of life; here in an apple blossom, there in a cypress tree and throughout a starry night.  Nature so overwhelming he could dissolve his failures; indeed his whole self in the wonder.
            On July 25, 1890 he walked into the wheat field he often painted, and put a bullet in his chest. With his brother at his side, he died on the 27th. Even as wheat germinates to bear fruit, the millstones of life grind it into bread and in death, it feeds others.  In this icon, Vincent offers his palette, pigments ground from earth, as his offering for our sustenance.