Lent is a time to slow down and work on our relationship with God and each other. We’ll have some opportunities for working on our relationship with God. The labyrinth will return during the first week of March. It will be available in the Fellowship Hall from Tuesday morning through Thursday night. I will return it to the New Hampshire Conference office on Friday. There will be evening hours until 8 PM all three nights. As we did last year there will be a basket of stones available. You will be invited to select a stone which you can carry with you as you walk the labyrinth, and leave the stone in the center. A number of people came several times. There’s no limit as to how many times you can walk it.
The other opportunity for reflection will be offered in the Chapel. Each Sunday morning I will have a new icon of the week which will stay in the Chapel for the week. Any time the church is open and there isn’t another activity in the Chapel you will be welcome to come and practice contemplative prayer using the icon. During Holy Week I will have several different icons during the week depending on the specific day. This will go through the second Sunday of Easter, April 12.
Contemplative prayer is the practice of simply sitting with a thought, a word or an image and reflecting on it as you look at it. This may sound simplistic, but as you focus on the image you will find that other thoughts and worries will recede to the background. If you have been to a Harmonic Healing event it can be the same sort of feeling, a feeling of release from your worries and challenges.
I realize that icons are not a traditional part of the Protestant tradition. I offer this as an alternative way to work on your relationship with God. Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions have preserved and nurtured the use of images in prayer. The instinctive Protestant reaction is that images can easily become idols, which is true. That doesn’t mean that idolatry is inevitable with the use of images in prayer. If you focus on the deeper meaning that an image conveys rather than the image itself you will find yourself transported beyond the image to the reality it represents. That is why an icon is often referred to as a window.
I have found that painting icons is a wonderful vehicle for contemplative prayer. I reflect on the subject as I paint and I find that I am able to push away all the concerns and worries that try to crowd in. The icons that I will have in the chapel this Lent are all copies that I have painted.
At first I had to overcome the hurdle of idolatry before I was able to appreciate iconography for what it is, a vehicle for prayer. I have always known what icons are, but I didn't have a clue as to how they could enhance my prayer life. The faith that I grew up in was intellectually oriented. Prayer was seen as a practice of the mind. I have found richness in the invitation to prayer through the contemplation of images. Many Protestants have experienced this invitation and taken up the use of icons in prayer as the older boundaries between Protestantism and other branches of Christianity have eroded. There is much more appreciation for the traditions of other branches of the Christian church than there has ever been.
Each week I will post the icon that will be available in the chapel.
No comments:
Post a Comment