Separating Light from Light
Today’s work on our icons reminded me of an important aspect of the Christian life, that being we are always seeking greater perfection in the Christian life and the journey towards perfection never ends. One of my professors in the seminary, Fr. Bob Barron, once told me that we will never cease growing (even in heaven) because we are not God. God’s perfection is infinite, so there will always be ways that we can grow more and more into our true selves. As we continue to climb the ladder of holiness, we encounter more difficult struggles.
Writing an icon mirrors this journey well. Today we moved from placing the first light onto our boards, to separating the light that is there from the more pure light of the soul. This is is also the task of each Christian. We should not be satisfied with simply being Christians, but should always be striving for greater holiness. This takes lots of prayer and work. So does writing an icon.
Stay tuned to see this one begins to come into focus.
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Thanks for the “in proces” pictures and the commentary. What a blessing to be able to write an icon.
This and the other icon parts might be my favorite part of your blog. And you know I love all of them, even when I am perhaps over-sensitively reacting to other parts.
Thanks for sharing your journey with us Fr. C!
Beautiful! How the light shines forth from your icon…and from you too!
Thank you for the comments and prayers y’all! This has been a good week of writing another icon and meeting some new people interested in iconography. I have learned quite a bit and it has been good to be able to spend some time with my friend Irene.