www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Icons & Iconography Icons, Icon Corners, & Liturgical Incense

To facilitate replying to a variety of queries raised in a single thread, the above was extracted from a longer post by Hannah, a new forum member.

Many years,

Neil

Welcome, Hannah!

Selecting an icon is easy! You choose the one that particularly calls you to prayer.

There are many portrayals of Jesus -- the teacher, the shepherd, the crucified, the pantokrator (creator of all), etc. Choose an image that will bring you into His loving presence. It is also appropriate for your icon corner to include the Mother of God: Again, choose an image of her and her Son that will lead you to call upon her for assistance.

If you are fond of a particular saint, add an icon of him or her. Many people choose to include their "patron," the saint for whom they are named, or whose name they chose for their confirmation, or on whose feast day they were born. It might be nice to include your husband's patron, especially if he gets deployed and needs special prayers for protection.

There are many online sources for icons in different styles, the two major styles being Russian and Greek. Again, choose the one that you find most appealing.

To my knowledge, liturgical incense comes only in chunk form, which needs to be placed on lighted charcoal. I assume you are trying to avoid the charcoal: You should be able to find a suitable scent in stick or cone form.

I am going to start out with the "Come Bless the Lord" icon packet sold through, I believe, God With Us publications. I am also planning to introduce my kids to iconography, which will be an awesome combination of art appreciation and faith-formation! (We homeschoolers always like to combine things, lol!)

Hannah,

It's wonderful that you're going to introduce your little ones to icons! You might want to take a look at pg 32 of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese's catalogue of publications, etc, just to compare the various available packets. The GOArch site has the icon packet that you mentioned, as well as several other such. All of them are excellent teaching tools for use with children.

link to the catalogue [issuu.com].

Many years,

Neil

Hannah,

Regarding your personal choice of icons for an icon corner, as my dear sister and friend, Alicia/Penthaetria, said there are many styles and that which speaks spiritually to one of us might not do so for another. Alicia mentioned the Greek and Russian styles that are, as she noted, probably the most prevalent among the Byzantine schools of iconography. But there are also others, as well as a number of non-Byzantine styles.

Several years back, a young friend bemoaned the fact that she felt disloyal because she didn't feel spiritually enriched by the iconographic tradition of her own Church and ethnicity - which was really the sole style/school to which she had been exposed. In an effort to help her deal with the situation, which was causing her no end of distress, I compiled links to a wide range of iconographic styles - among which she indeed found one (actually fairly well removed from that of her own religious heritage) that spoke deeply to her and which she still reveres today.

In the years since, I posted the compilation of links at a few places on-line - for such diverse purposes as to help a Latin better understand icons and to dispel someone's thinking that icons are scary, ugly, or otherwise not edifying. I'm not sure that I ever posted the material here; if not, I'll try and find a copy and add it. If nothing else, it provides an intriguing comparison of the diversity of iconographic expression among the various Eastern and Oriental Churches.

Many years,

Neil

I'm a Roman Catholic and I recently replaced the statues on my home altar with icons. I have an icon of Jesus Christ High Priest (he is vested in an Eastern bishop's vestments and mitre) on the right, and icon of the Virgin and Child ("sweet kissing") on the left, and a hand-painted icon of the crucifixion in the center.

My icons are in the typical style seen in Greek Orthodox churches, but I think I may supplement those with one or two of the more "expicit" styles that many Russian Orthodox seem to prefer.

In addition to the icons there are candles, an incense burner, an iconic holy water bottle, a rosary, a Jesus Prayer rope, a wooden hand cross, and various prayer books. When I pray in this space I often play a CD of Orthodox chant.

I was just thinking, if all these Roman Catholics (myself included) on this forum who are basically Eastern in ideology and practice actually went through a rite change, more Byzantine parishes would have to be built!
I am so excited to get some icons for my home altar. Maybe TOO excited...my husband should probably put me on a budget! Lol

I also did some online research and found "Desert Fathers incense" which makes liturgical incense in stick and cone form. Anyone had any experience purchasing from this company? I would love someday to invest in a beautiful home-use censer and get some good quality liturgical incense, but in the meantime I already have an incense burner for stick incense and would rather put my funds towards books and icons. I just would love to support an incense company that isn't new-agey and weird, but has Christian beliefs...

Hannah, I purchased my home incense burner very inexpensively from the gift shop of a local Greek Orthodox church, but I've also seen them available through a number of Orthodox religious goods shops online. They also sell little "bite size" charcoal briquettes that fit inside them.

I find it's pretty economical because one box (or hermetically sealed "coffee bag" as the case may be) of church incense is going to last a home user an eternity, really, since you're only burning a few grains at a time, and I know in my own case I'm not burning incense every day of the week.

Of course, the advantage of stick incense or cone incense is that you don't need charcoal and a burner, but in my experience cones or sticks always smell too...college dormey, I guess.

"I was just thinking, if all these Roman Catholics (myself included) on this forum who are basically Eastern in ideology and practice actually went through a rite change, more Byzantine parishes would have to be built!"

Ha! I don't know about that. But maybe our numbers could cause the existing churches to add more liturgies and services to their schedules beyond the single 10:00am Sunday Divine Liturgy so many of them seem to have (at least in my area). Or to actually observe the services that they post.

One local church advertised a 7:30 pm Saturday Vespers service on their online bulletin. I was thrilled and drove there to attend it. When I got there (at about 7:20), the lawn sign confirmed the 7:30 Vespers service, but the church was locked and dark. So I went to the rectory and enquired of the priest about the service. "Nnnnnno...nnnnnno...not today. Next week, okay? We'll have next week." I was gobsmacked.

Well, it's a good thing I had my own icons and incense at home! I had my own Vespers service, thank you very much, and it was right and just! ;^)

Do the Armenians have their own Icon tradition? I know their churches actually don't have icons...
For a "home censer", would one a chain that you swing be okay? Is it that more for liturgical use only?
I ask because this great Catholic store sells both hand and swing censers, along with Russian incense.
My favorite icon is one of Pope St. Gregory V, which I bought from my local Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
At their Greek Festival I bought my first Icon, of the Twelve Apostles and Jesus. I think this one may be in the Russian style, while Pope Gregory is in the Greek style.
I am a great fan of the Coptic Icon tradition.

John of Patmos:

I'll let someone else field the question about Armenians and their icons (I haven't the foggiest) but I have seen smaller, relatively inexpensive incense burners on chains for sale. My own incense burner has a handle rather than a chain. If you search around online, though, I'll bet you come up with something.

I bought my first hand-painted icon (of the crucifixion) at Greek Festival a couple of weekends ago; I love it.

Coptic Icons I can relate to; I visited a Coptic Orthodox Church a few weeks ago to attend an evening prayer service and one of the men of the parish was kind enough to take me on a very thorough tour, explaining the significance of each icon on the icon screen and around the church.

Then he took me to the lower level chapel where the evening prayer service was held. Although the chapel was very small, it, too, had an icon screen and various icons displayed on the walls. The service was wild. The women sat on one side and the men on the other. Everyone removed their shoes before entering. The women played cymbals and a triangle and the chant was half in English, half in Arabic.

Hannah,

I don't know anything about them, but I did notice that they had a link to a book recently published by an Ethiopian Tewahado Orthodox gentleman whom they described as a friend. I happen to know the author from another forum and feel certain that he'd be unlikely to do business with anyone of a 'new age' persuasion. They also link to a considerable number of highly respected churches, monasteries, etc, including several Orthodox Churches which carry their incense in their parish bookstores, etc. All in all, they seem to be what they claim to be - an Eastern Christian business.

Many years,

Neil

John,

Yes, there is such a tradition, in painted, mosaic, and textile form, but it's rarely found any longer and most Armenian religious art is very much in the style of Western paintings.

There are efforts afoot to revive the tradition, but the works that I've seen by Armenian iconographers who have stated their intent to revive it are very Byzantine in appearance - so much so as to be indistinguishable.

Here are a few examples:

icon series such as this were popular [globeweeklynews.com]

modern mosaic [freewebs.com]

some historical examples [globeweeklynews.com]

website of one of those hoping to revive the tradition [haikazarian.com] - but appearing very Byzantine in his styling

Many years,

Neil

Let us hope and pray not!

One church. One altar. One liturgy.

And that's all I'll say here, or we'll get in a tangent so broad and wide that the original intent of the thread will be lost!

A brand of fragrant incense-on-a-stick often sold in stores catering to Indian-Americans and Indians recently immigrated here, is "Nag Champa".

Links taking you to the more conventional style of Eastern Christian incense and its accoutrements include:

http://bostonmonks.com/ (new site for Holy Transfiguration Monastery's store)

http://orthodoxincense.com/ (run by a very kindly Orthodox deacon and his wife)

http://www.holycross-hermitage.com./ (ROCOR men's monastic community)