Icon Army
As I mentioned in previous posts, we recently painted our great room. I have been slowly re-hanging all our wall-hangings. I have begun to re-distribute some icons around the house. This is pleasing to have heavenly windows throughout the house. Last night, I re-organized and re-hung our icons, which serve as our prayer corner. Our prayer corner is really an easterly facing wall. I like this location of the prayer corner, because it is the first thing people will see when they come into our home sending a clear message of our beliefs and it faces our open kitchen where we spend a lot of time, can easily view the wall and remember our connection to God.
I asked my husband to assist me in putting this area back together, but he was also running interference with the children. I hung the icons as I did the previous time. I added a couple of new icons and moved some others. When I was finished my husband came into the room and said, "Why are all our icons lined up like little soldiers?"
I chuckled and asked him if he wanted me to change it. He said, no and said he just thought it looked strange. I told him that this is how I had done it before just with different icons. I put them this way, because they are all at eye-level of the average adult hobbit. Plus it does look nice and orderly, and what is God if not Ultimate Order.
Eventually, when money grows on trees, I would like to add some nice chest or hutch, where we could store both religious books and music as well as have a place to set up incense and candles. This area is not child-friendly for candles and incense as is. I would also like to add two nice reading chairs so that one could easily sit and read the Holy Word of God or other spiritual type reading.
How you arrange the space in your home and the things you hang on your wall speak volumes not only about want is important to you but also who you want to become. If you don't have a suitable place to pray, you will not. I truly appreciate the Eastern theology of icons and am grateful to have these treasures in our home.
2 comments:
I love it. Great comment, hubby ;) So, the whole icon corner thing (well really, the whole idea of the 'little church' or the 'domestic church' was something that I loved about the Eastern Rite. Of course this idea exists in the Roman rite too, but don't you think it's better emphasized in the East? Maybe it's just Fr. Joe. Anyway, having icons has helped my prayer life tremendously since I became a Christian. (I always felt like I was staring at the corner of the ceiling talking to God :) I know what you mean though, about wanting to make the icon corner more kid friendly. I wanted to get some kind of high boy bookshelf for the living room so that little hands cannot reach things (There is a chance Mike and his dad could make them, as they built Lou's little table) I also found these lovely skinny beeswax candles they sell over at the Orthodox Cathedral in Seattle and I want some so bad. We still do not have a hanging candle. That's also next on the list. Alright well I think I'm kind of rambling. But, I like this post and relate in all kinds of ways :) (Though our icons don't look like lined up soldiers, not at the moment anyway. Have I posted a pic of our icon corner?
very nice! Once I find the charger to my camera, I'll take a photo of our icon corner ;)
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