Why do Orthodox Christians Have Prayer Corners? Infographic!

For your friends, who wonder what's up with that weird corner over there?

The Nativity of the Theotokos

Shoebox Ark of the Covenant:
paint gold and glue on skewers, draw cherubim wings with sharpie

Inside paint a wooden square for the law of Moses,
glue a stick and flower to a wooden disc for the rod of Aaron,
and paint a wooden spool as the jar of manna

I used the Children's Garden of the Theotokos curriculum to plan this lesson for our church school kids for the Nativity of the Theotokos. I love an excuse to make a craft for the kids, so I made this ark and its contents and hid them away. I meant to print icons and paste them on, but my printer was out of ink, but I like how the drawings turned out. I found several nice comparisons of the scriptures about the Ark of the Covenant and the Theotokos, and simplified those points into a lesson plan (embedded below). I'll first teach about the Ark and its contents, and then show how those are types of Mary and Christ. If you don't want to make an ark, the coloring handout below communicates the same points.

I taught this lesson to my kids before, without the fancy ark, but the comparison of the OT scriptures with the visitation was new to me. I love how David's dancing foreshadows the Forerunner leaping for joy! And I had never thought about how the presence of the Ark blessing the people is similar to the way we understand the grace of God to work through his saints. This lesson could be used for several of Mary's feasts (or during Lent for teaching about the Akathist Hymn). But I think the point about David welcoming the ark with joy fits nicely with the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos as we welcome her birth with joy.

On the back:of the law of Moses,
an icon of the Transfiguration (Christ the Word, fulfills the law and prophets);
On the back of the rod of Aaron, an icon of the Annunciation (the Virgin birth);
On the back of the jar of Manna, an icon of Christ, the Bread of Life

On one side of the ark, an icon of Panagia Platytera, (or More Spacious than the Heavens)
showing Christ in Mary's womb.

Grab and color this handout that explains the ways that the ark is a type of the Theotokos!

[Quick update to add this page of matchbox covers! My smart husband thought that matchboxes would make a sweet and inexpensive craft box for the kids to cover. We'll color them then modpodge them on in class. I think this would be sweet for matches in the prayer corner, too!]

Print page of matchbox covers - don't scale to fit!

Dormition Fast Calendar Printable and Lesson Plan

Briefly, this is my lesson plan for a class at our mission church this week on the Dormition. We have all of our kids in one class, so its a challenge to try to keep everyone's attention and not let the noise level get out of control! I'm thinking of telling the story with flannelgraph this week - can't wait!

Dormition Fast Lesson:

1. Start with songs and finger plays (“It is truly meet,” “this is the church…” “Our Father”

2. Teach kids to sing refrain, “Most holy Theotokos, save us,” for the paraklesis. 

3. Tell the story of the Dormition in an exciting way.

4. What does it mean? God raised her up and took her to heaven, and he will someday do that for all the faithful. 

5. Give kids Dormition Calendar with instructions to color one flower per day to count the days of the fast and celebrate the feast. 

6. Encourage children to bring flowers to the church for Christ and his mother on the feast of the Dormition (Saturday, August 15, or the next Sunday if their family can’t come).  

Grab the Dormition Fast calendar png above, or print the pdf below. 

 

"Finally it must be stressed that, in all of the feasts of the Virgin Mother of God in the Church, the Orthodox Christians celebrate facts of their own lives in Christ and the Holy Spirit. What happens to Mary happens to all who imitate her holy life of humility, obedience, and love. With her all people will be “blessed” to be “more honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim” if they follow her example. All will have Christ born in them by the Holy Spirit. All will become temples of the living God. All will share in the eternal life of His Kingdom who live the life that Mary lived."

Three Conversations about God's Love

 1. 

On Monday, L wrote "God is Love" to practice her handwriting and reading.  After we sounded out the words, we talked a bit about what it meant: that God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons who love one another. And when we love one another, we are like God.

"When you are kind to your sister, and you love her, you are being like God."

"I do love, J."

Then we colored a picture of the icon of the Theotokos. L enjoys matching the colors to the icons; J reluctantly lets me guide her through one color before she runs away.  I told them, "This is when Jesus was a baby. See how their cheeks are pressed together?  They're hugging just like we do, because they love each other. Mary loves Jesus, and we should love God like Mary does."

This is big stuff for little ones.  I never know how much of it they really get.  L told me after our talk, "I love God, Mommy.  I do."  The girls kissed baby Jesus and pressed their cheek to Mary. Then they each gave me a hug, cheek to cheek, breaking my heart a little.

2. 

While attempting to say our morning prayers, L kept running away and did not want to venerate the icons. Finally I sat down with her and said, "Prayer time is important because we are spending time with God. We can't see God can we?" We looked around.  "No.  But we can see Jesus, because he became a man so that we could know God. That's why we kiss the icons: because we can see Jesus and it helps us remember that God is with us."

"How did God get in this world, Mommy?" (This is a favorite phrase, i.e. "are there any dinosaurs/monsters/zebras in this world?") 

"Well, that's a special story," I told her, and I took her over to the icon of the Annunciation on my bedside table.  She knows the story about the manger and the cave.  It was just Christmas, after all. But this icon was in the room, so I showed it instead. "An angel came to Mary.  She was a girl like you and me, but an angel came to her and said 'Rejoice, Mary! The Lord is with you.' And he told her that God was going to put a baby in her tummy, and it was Jesus.  And Mary loved God, and so she was Jesus's mommy and God was his Father."

"Are there angels in this world?"

"Yes, but we can't see them either."

"But we can see them in the icons! And we can see Jesus in the icons."

"That's right!" And then she kissed Mary and the angel.

3. 

On Saturday, we met with Fr. James and our little mission for the Liturgy on the Saturday of Souls. During the service we remember the dead in prayer. I thought of the child I lost last year, Nicholas. He died unborn, thus unnamed in the service - but still he is remembered by God (and me).

After the service, Presbytera Eva gave me a necklace with a small pendant of the Theotokos and Jesus, pressing their cheeks together. She told me, "Jim (she called him) wanted you to have this because you have the children." Such love is heartbreaking. I thought of how the girls had struggled in my arms during the liturgy, and how I struggled to be patient. Then, I thought of Mary's love for God. I thought of Nicholas, whose cheek I had not touched. I thought of Jesus love for his mother.

And I resolved again to love. It isn't as easy at it sounds, and so each day we have to decide again.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. I John 4.7

"Not one word of the gospel is about Mary,"

"...but everything about Mary points to Christ." - Fr. Thomas Hopko 

I listened to a lovely podcast recently, Mary the Mother of All Believers, which explains the idea that she is the icon of all believers. It's not long, so I'd encourage you to go listen. (The podcast linked above is Fr. Hopko on the magnificat, which is also quite good, but much longer.)

The Spirituality of Color

 

In college, I read "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" By Wassily Kandinsky.  The title appealed to my modern and spiritual sentiments, and the book did not disappoint.  Kandinsky had lofty goals of creating a universal language through painting, functioning the way that music does.  He believed color, specifically, carried universal and spiritual meanings - which again was very appealing to me.   Although, I now feel a bit disillusioned by Kandinsky's idealism, I still adore this book for its idealism. In fact, I cannot deny how much it has shaped me. I certainly don't deny the communicative or the spiritual qualities of color (or painting), but mostly I see that language can rarely be universally understood.

Michael T.H. Sadler says in his introduction:

"If Kandinsky ever attains his ideal—for he is the first to admit that he has not yet reached his goal—if he ever succeeds in finding a common language of colour and line which shall stand alone as the language of sound and beat stands alone, without recourse to natural form or representation, he will on all hands be hailed as a great innovator, as a champion of the freedom of art. Until such time, it is the duty of those to whom his work has spoken, to bear their testimony. Otherwise he may be condemned as one who has invented a shorthand of his own, and who paints pictures which cannot be understood by those who have not the key of the cipher."

Sigh.

I do believe, perhaps naively, that much of the power of visual communication is affective on an unconscious level, meaning the viewer might never realize the impact or any particular message, however, it may still have an affect. Kandinsky says, color "is a power which directly influences the soul.” (page 25) Color functions in another way, best not described as language.  Perhaps it is better experienced as the quality of air you breath, or water you drink, sometimes labored, sometimes clean, sometimes heavy, sometimes thin. Kandinsky calls this communication a "vibration."

As long as this breath, this vibration exists, then this form of painting is still valid. Perhaps I think of myself as a colour-musician more than I'd like to admit? 

But, back to color.  

Kandinsky first discusses the psychic affect of color, which is to some degree, commonly experienced by humans: i.e. red resembles blood and the associations that come with it: blood, death, fire, pain, passion.  Nevertheless, too many variables make this type of association far from universal, as yellow might incite warm sunshine or sour lemons.  

Secondly, Kandinsky discusses the movements of color, and the more spiritual meanings.  Warm colors move out, while cool colors draw in; light moves out, while dark draws in.  He ascribes moods to each color, paraphrased here:

yellow: agressive lunacy

blue: heavenly rest, increasing as it grows darker, decreasing as it gets lighter

blue-black: heavenly grief

green: earthly contentment

white: nothingness, pregnant silence, joy

black: dead silence, grief

gray: motionless

warm red: earthly strength, determination, triumph, sharpness, deepened by browns

cool red: deep, inward glow

light red: fleshy, femininity

orange: outward strength, confidence

violet: physical and spiritual, sadness

He went on to say much more about the movements of color and the specifics of certain pigments, so that anyone who mixes color or is familiar with cadmium or vermillian, ultramarine and pthalo, would soak it in appreciatively.

However, now I want to turn my attention to another source of color theory.  Byzantine iconography, where I discovered mandorlas, consistently use color to represent certain ideas.  For instance, red is a color of earthly life, and blue the color of divine life.  Thus Christ is depicted wearing red and blue as a sign of his humanity and divinity.  Similarly, Mary the Theotokos is shown wearing a red outer garment with blue underneath - a sign that she carried divinity within her humanity.  

Many images of the Theotokos paint her red garment as a deep purple-red like this image of the Vladimir Theotokos of the Tender Mercy type.  Here she is shown cheek to cheek with the Christ child, expressing the deep love between God and humanity.  However, the sadness in her eyes is also quite evident.  The grief, the "sword that shall pierce even her own soul," for all that her child will suffer is eternally present.  The heavy purple contrasted with the vibrant gold embodies the "bright sadness" of the Christian faith.  The joy mingled with grief.

White is used to depict holiness and divine light, but sometimes black is shown in the center of the mandorla, as the mystery of the divine light.  Grey and pink are ambiguous, fleshly colors incapable of the transcendence of iconography, and are thus not included.  

This use of color in iconography was well established over 1000 years before Kandinsky wrote about his color theory. Certainly the iconography uses it in a more literally symbolic way, while Kandinsky uses it more fluidly.  One might suggest that he, as a Russian, was influenced by Russian iconography.  But one might also argue that these colors somehow inherently possess these meanings and movements, that they are ever present and affecting us.