“Long before a creation is completed,…the artist will be able to perceive with new eyes the abundant wealth of all visible reality, and, thus challenged, additionally acquires the inner capacity to absorb into his mind such an exceedingly rich harvest. The capacity to see increases.”
—Joseph Pieper, Learning How to See Again
Directed toward the specific end of our charism, to evangelize the culture, some of our contemplatives sisters have taken up the practice of “writing” icons — drawing from their own life of prayer in order to reveal to people the infinite beauty of God. The tradition of Iconography (long practiced in Eastern rites) is deeply united to prayer and embedded with rich symbolism, drawing one to contemplate the face of God and His celestial court so that all men might be transformed into living icons.
This past February, eight sisters took part in a two-week course taught by a professor from Belarus, Katerina Danieko, in which they painted an icon of the Angel Gabriel. The first week they focused on different painting exercises to better improve technique, as well as the initial stages of the painting on the icon board. During the second week they better learned to paint all the details of the face and hair, as well as the letters and the ribbon in the angel’s hair. The course concluded with a mass and a solemn blessing of all the icons.
Pope St. John Paul II speaks of the importance of the renewal of iconography saying, “…the lawfulness of the veneration of icons also merits special attention, not only for the wealth of its spiritual implications, but also for the demands that it imposes on the whole of sacred art” (Apostolic Letter Duodecimum Saeculum, No. 1). Because God became incarnate, sacred images have always held a special place in the Church, even during the iconoclast crisis. St. John Damascene defended the veneration of icons, saying: “It is not matter [that is, the wood and paint] which I venerate, but rather the Creator of matter who became matter for me” (Discourses, I, 16). It is in Jesus that God reveals to us His Face.
We give thanks in a special way to all those benefactors who helped to make it possible for the sisters to participate in this course. All those who help us spiritually, financially and in so many other ways truly contribute to our goal of evangelization of the culture.
“The icon represents a call to conversion, an invitation to consent to the process of transfiguration to which Paul refers in II Corinthians 3:18: “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.””
—Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations, Iconography and Liturgy
