Some Words About Icons

In its ministry to bring healing and wholeness in the Church, the Taizé community in France incorporates elements from different Christian traditions, including the Orthodox tradition of religious images called icons.   

The purpose of icons is first to create reverence in worship and second to serve as an existential link between the worshipper and God and bring communion. 

Icons have been called prayers hymns, sermons, in form and color.  They are the visual Gospel.  As St. Basil said, “What the word transmits through the ear, the painting silently shows through the image, and by these two means, mutually accompanying one another…we receive knowledge of one and the same thing.”  (from the web site Overview of Byzantine Icon Art, http://www.csg-icom/icons/)

Icons are not to be worshipped.  (That could be interpreted as idolatry.)  Rather, they are to evoke a disposition of prayer in heart and mind.    Unlike in Western classical representational art, where the subject matter is arranged around a vanishing point that draws the viewer into the painting, the focal point of an icon is found in the heart of the viewer. 

Icons are painted in a state of deep prayer, after profound meditative preparation and revelation, following strictly prescribed protocols for color, form, and illumination.  Every color used is directly related to scriptural references.   The gold illumination represents God’s light.    In icons there is neither blue sky nor starry night.  God Himself is sky/heaven and God is light.   White is always the final burst of light.  The Risen Christ is wholly shown in white. 

Icons are not naturalistic.  No facial expression is given to the icon in order not to limit this “Scripture in Image.“  Nor do iconographers strive to create physical beauty, which would be subject to every change of tastes.  The icon does not try to please.     Icons never use a profile because that would be a turning away, whereas an icon reveals Presence and brings communion.

The following passage is one person’s understanding of the value of the iconic image:

“No one has ever seen God.  God has neither shape, nor dimension, nor color nor volume. However, … God has given us an image, an icon….And this icon is the human being, man and woman together… Thus, the real icon is the human being, of whom Jesus Christ is the prototype.  He is the visible image of the invisible God. …An icon helps us become aware that the Word is a relationship, more than just a series of words or sounds…If we wish to understand the language of the icon, we need to contemplate scripture and the human person.”   (From the booklet Icon Revelation, by Sister Marie-Paul Farran, O.S.B., Benedictine Monastery, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, published by Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri.)