Saint Michael icon half done. By Fr. Theophan
By Fr. Theophan
Rector
Saint Job of Pochaiv Orthodox Church
As a priest, I hardly ever get to finish a project in the course of my vocation. The services are cyclical, daily, weekly, yearly, everything repeats. There are differences, special days and weeks with special significance, but once a service is done, you start looking forward to the next one. Eternal worship, one might call it.
And you never finish people. Whether they have been faithful members their whole life, or they wander in seeking something and decide to stay and become Orthodox, I just help them on their journey for as long as they, or I, am around. But even if I’m there at the end of their life and do the funeral service and lower them into the ground, I’m still not done.
We continue to pray for the dead as we are instructed in the Old Testament (long canon, 2 Maccabees). We have regular memorial services and have faith that our prayers will do the departed good.
I never get to finish anything. And so, I make pottery, and when it is too cold I come inside and paint icons.
One of the first things one notices upon entering an Orthodox church is the iconography. We have the most colorful churches, hands down. People are often surprised by this, but it makes sense. In Hebrews, Saint Paul describes the “great cloud of witnesses” the faithful are surrounded by. In our church, the great cloud is at least partially visible, you don’t have to use your imagination as much.
We paint (or write) icons, because God became truly and fully human. Jesus’ face is the human face of God. People, real people, really saw him. He was one of us, and yet not a slob like one of us. He was as we are, yet without sin. But because he was human, we can paint him. And each icon is a reiteration of the inherent goodness of matter that God blessed by becoming part of. The saints and angels we paint are an extension of that blessing.
I paint icons, so that I can retain my sanity and sit back from something with a sense of completion and finality. I’m currently working on another icon of Saint Michael, so that I can be sure of myself when I start instruction in June.
This summer, June 9-14, we will be offering a beginners iconography workshop here at Saint Job. It will be six, eight-hour days of quiet instruction, painting, and reflection. It will be a long week, but if you trust the process and listen carefully, you’ll leave with a beautiful icon of Saint Michael and a healthy sense of accomplishment.
If you are interested in the icon workshop, or have any questions about icons, please email us at icons@stjobla.org.