Ikoon-Gebede 'n ander perspektief

Worstel jy ook nog met die ikoon-gebede? Hier is 'n gedagte oor ikoon-gebede vanaf die Taize gemeenskap. Jy kan dit lees op hul webwerf by http://www.taize.fr/en_article340.html 

In die lig van die onderstaande woorde, veral die aanhaling van Saint John Damascene, kom lê daar 'n rustigheid in my. Die ikoon as venster op die koninkryk. Die ikoon as simbole van die inkarnasie. Die ikoon as visuele geheue hulp. Die ikoon as 'n singtuiglike padvinder tussen al die spookasem(candy floss) wat ons oorgestimuleerde (lees oorweldigde) gees oorweldig en smoor. Langs hierdie ikoon-roete reis ek makliker want op hierdie manier word verskeie prentjies vir my ikone. Ek gaan deur my skatkis blaai en soek na nuwe ikone...die prentjie hier is een wat ek sommer dadelik aan dink: Dit is 'n foto wat ek grafies ontwerp het "Die kind is nie dood nie" en dit help my bid vir Afrika.

 

Natuurlik sal ek nie wil hê dat die ikone net by terloopse visuele wekkers moet vashaak nie. Steeds wil ek in 'n eenkant hoekie deur die dieptes van sekere ortodokse ikone worstel, my album word nou net 'n bietjie breër. Mag jy ook nuwe vensters en nuwe simbole sien en mag dit die hart van jou bewus-wees-van-God maseer.

Icons contribute to the beauty of worship. They are like windows open on the realities of the Kingdom of God, making them present in our prayer on earth.

Although icons are images, they are not simply illustrations or decorations. They are symbols of the incarnation, a presence which offers to the eyes the spiritual message that the Word addresses to the ears.

According to the eighth-century theologian Saint John Damascene, icons are based on the coming of Christ to earth. Our salvation is linked to the incarnation of the divine Word, and therefore to matter: “In the past, the incorporeal and invisible God was never represented. But now that God has been manifested in the flesh and has dwelt among men, I represent the visible in God. I do not adore matter; I adore the creator of matter, who has become matter for my sake, who chose to dwell within matter and who, through matter, has caused my salvation” (Discourse I,16).

By the faith it expresses, by its beauty and its depth, an icon can create a space of peace and sustain an expectant waiting. It invites us to welcome salvation even in the flesh and in creation.

ICON: Christ the healer

'n Baie goeie beskrywing van "Christ the healer" : http://www1.georgetown.edu/centers/liturgy/envisionchurch/43178.html

Terwyl jy hierdie ikoon bid dalk 'n paar gedagtes waaroor jy kan reflekteer:

• Waar het jy genesing nodig? (nie net fisiologies nie)
• Waar het ons gemeenskap genesing nodig? (nie net fisiologies nie)
• Hoe kan jy aansluit by God se genesende aktiwiteit?
• Hoe lyk die gebed, postuur, taal, klanke van een wat genesing nodig het?
• Hoe lyk die gebed, postuur, taal, klanke van een wat genesing wil bring?

'n Gemeente het hierdie ikoon (Christ the healer) in hul kerk laat oprig en die volgende gebed daarmee saam gesing en gebid. Ek hoop dit kan dalk vir jou ook van waarde wees. Kyk hoe hulle eers binne die gebou en daarna buite die gebou gaan bid het:

(Inside the Church building)

Heal us, O God
We lift up our prayer in the healing touch of Christ….
We lift up our community in the healing touch of Christ

Protect us when we cling to revenge and violence………..
Transform us when hatred overtakes our actions…….
Teach us when we jump to false conclusions…


Lead us when we are afraid to follow……..
Inspire us when we fear our own talents…..
Sustain us when we turn from your mercy..

Unite us when we would rather go our separate ways…..
Clarify our thoughts when our thinking becomes destructive
...
Bond us together when prejudice tears us apart…


Create life in our culture of death and destruction…….
Penetrate our stubbornness when self-hatred makes a home in us….
Discover new potential in us when we grasp power and authority…

Sooth our hearts when illness claims our bodies…..
Rest in us when anxiety penetrates our souls……
Cleanse our consciences when sin overtakes us


Refresh our hope when we are absorbed in doubt and guilt ….
Wash our feet when we stumble and walk away from love….
Believe is us when we no longer trust in your love…


Forgive us when we do not serve our neighbours….
Provide for us when we lose our employment…
Shelter us when we become homeless….

Recover our lives when addiction and compulsion overpowers us….
Touch us when we cannot bear our pain…..
Cry for us when we grieve those we love


Weep for us when sorrow blankets our hearts and futures…
Anoint us when our bodies are too weak to pray….
Live in us when we are dead to ourselves….
We lift up our prayer in the healing touch of Christ….

We lift up our community in the healing touch of Christ….


(outside the building)
We stand in our streets and offer Christ to the south…..
We pray for immigrants and refugees……
We pray for all people in third-world countries……

We cry out for the needs of the prisoner, the veteran……
We carry on our shoulders the weight of unemployment….
We ask you to guide our homeless youth and pregnant teenagers…


We carry the cross for people who line up daily for our hospitality centre…
We bring Christ to people who line up here for Brother Andre Café…..
We ask you to heal the people who do not trust this community….


We stand in our streets and offer Christ to the east…
We pray for the end of war…
We pray for reconciliation among all faiths and religions…

We ask healing among agencies serving people experiencing poverty…
We ask healing for the elderly, the crippled and bedridden….
We lift up drug-dealers and pimps who roam our streets…..
We carry the cross to those who cannot help themselves…
We bring Christ to those who feel judged by our faith community….
We ask you to heal the divisions within our neighbourhood…


We stand in our streets and offer Christ to the north……
We remember Brother Andre and the people of Canada….
We pray for our Holy Cross institutions of learning…….

We pray for people struggling with sexual identity….
We pray for adequate housing and employment….
We pray for the safety of all women in Old Town….


We pray for reconciliation among neighbours housing the poor….

We pray for all business in Old Town……
We long for the unity of believers and the consolation of the oppressed


We stand in our streets and offer Christ to the west….
We pray for navigators of the sea, travellers and sojourners…
We pray for our dead who have travelled to the eternal shore….


We pray for all people suffering mental illness…..
We pray for people living in the sunsets of depression and loneliness.
We pray for all the grieving and lost….

We pray for patience for a new day of love and concern for people…

Ikoon: Christ Pantocrator

Ek deel die ontdekking oor die ikoon Christ Pontocrator. Indien jy meer wil lees volg gerus die skakel na

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Pantocrator waar ek hierdie brokkie geleen het. Soos die tyd dit toelaat stuur ek dalk meer gereeld enige ontdekkings. Hierdie ikoon lê my persoonlik na aan die hart aangesien ek die klooster daar aan die voet van Sinai besoek het en kon deelhê aan 'n Mass (waarvan ek nie 'n woord verstaan het nie en daarom het die prentjies en rituele en kniel-gebede baie beteken). Wat my nog altyd van die ikoon opgeval het is die twee helftes van die gesig wat verskil. Lees hier om die betekenis te verstaan.


Gedagtes waaroor jy dalk kan mediteer/bid/reflekteer terwyl jy na hierdie ikoon kyk, is dalk:· Jesus se Godheid-Mensheid
· Jesus die orator en onderwyser – hoe gewillig is jy om na Hom te luister?
· Hoe leerbaar is jy?

The oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator, encaustic on panel (Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai). The two different facial expressions on either side emphasize Christ's dual nature as fully God and fully human.

The iconic image of Christ Pantocrator was one of the first images of Christ developed in the Early Christian Church and remains a central icon of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the half-length image, Christ holds the New Testament in his left hand and makes the gesture of teaching or of blessing with his right.

The oldest known surviving example of the icon of Christ Pantocrator was painted in encaustic on panel in the sixth or seventh century, and survived the period of destruction of images during the Iconoclastic disputes that twice racked the Eastern church, 726 to 787 and 814 to 842, by being preserved in the remote desert of the Sinai, in Saint Catherine's Monastery. The gessoed panel, finely painted using a wax medium on a wooden panel, had been coarsely overpainted around the face and hands at some time around the thirteenth century. It was only when the overpainting was cleaned in 1962 that the ancient image was revealed to be a very high quality icon, probably produced in Constantinople. The subtlety, immediacy and realism of the image are immediately apparent when the image is compared to any of the more familiar stiffened and hieratic icons — following the same model — that were painted after iconoclasm had been decisively rejected. Christ here is Christ the Teacher: the gesture of Christ's right hand is not the gesture of blessing, but the orator's gesture; the identical gesture is to be seen in a panel from an ivory diptych of an enthroned vice-prefect, a Rufius Probianus, ca 400, of which Peter Brown remarks, "With his hand he makes the 'orator's gesture' which indicates that he is speaking, or that he has the right to speak."