Meditation suggests sustained contact with the deeper layers of reality, a careful surveying of the unseen but real context in which we live our lives. It connects us to our roots in God and to our irrepressible desire for God.
This month we feature a unique icon of Our Lady of La Salette. This is appropriate for a number of reasons, the first of which relates to the nature of icons and the access to the inner world they offer. Icons are often described in terms such as these: prayer enthroned on wood, merciful grace made nearly tangible, gates to the realm of the unseen, points of intersection between the world we see and think we know and the world we do not see and should know better.
The La Salette Event is itself an invitation to ponder the words, images and wisdom of the Gospel. Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud fírst saw their heavenly Visitor seated on a bench of stones, elbows on her knees, face in her hands, weeping in solitary stillness. This altitude was recognized early on as an invitation to contemplation and introspection.
While the devotion and spirituality born of this nineteenth-century apparition of the Mother of Jesus in the French Alps spread far and wide, it did not extend to the Churches of the Christian East. Icons depicting the Virgin of La Salette are, therefore, quite rare.
A greatly admired art form, the icon (Greek for “image”) in the Eastern Churches is so much more. It is a sacred reflection on earth of heavenly reality, a channel through which grace attains the worshipper. Thus are icons painted according to precise canons emphasizing: a strong affirmation of the spiritual world, a deep conviction that Christ has recreated all things, and a joyful recognition that grace transfigures us. These principles account for the stylized shaping found in icons: for example, elongated, curved neck, nose and lips small and pinched-looking, direct and fixed gaze, large eyes.
Blue represents our humanity. Crimson symbolizes divinity. The Mother of the Lord is adorned with three stars (one on her forehead, one on each of her shoulders) symbolizing her virginity before, during and after his birth.
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The creative work of a Russian Orthodox émigrée, who remains unnamed in keeping with a rule iconographers adhere to religiously, this depiction of the Virgin Reconciler was completed in January 1986. Essentially, an improvisation, it translates into Eastern icon terms, a Madonna known exclusively in the West. To the classic Eastern-style portrait of the Theotokos or God-Bearer it adds elements that evoke Our Lady's appearance
on the Mountain of La Salette: gem-studded diadem wreathed with roses; mantle fringed with roses, the fringes forming the icthus or fish symbol of early Christians, echoing her references to her People; right hand raised in overwhelming sadness, left hand drawing attention to the figure of Christ crucified; the distinctive La Salette crucifix with hammer and pliers encased in a botonée cross, further adapted to the Russian mode by the inclusion of Adam's skull and the addition of the tilted footrest to the titulus and crossbar.
Conveying an impression of gently reproachful sadness, the icon offers visual commentary on Mary's words: “How long a time I have suffered for you. And as for you, you pay no heed!” May it challenge us to let her gaze pierce the shell of our indifference.
Illustration: Icon of Our Lady of La Salette
Creative work of a Russian Orthodox emigrée; completed in January 1986. Text: Fr. Donald L. Paradis, M.S., owner of this icon.
Meditation suggests sustained contact with the deeper layers of reality, a careful surveying of the unseen but real context in which we live our lives. It connects us to our roots in God and to our irrepressible desire for God.
This month we feature a unique icon of Our Lady of La Salette. This is appropriate for a number of reasons, the first of which relates to the nature of icons and the access to the inner world they offer. Icons are often described in terms such as these: prayer enthroned on wood, merciful grace made nearly tangible, gates to the realm of the unseen, points of intersection between the world we see and think we know and the world we do not see and should know better. Icon of Our Lady of La Salette: A Meditation