Old Stuff

Saint John Damascene's Defense of Icons

From his Apologia against those who decry holy images, part 1. Seems to me that some Protestants and the modern Catholic iconoclasts could benefit from such considerations. Especially the folks who designed the bare brick walls of Saint Matthew's, our parish church in Champaign, Illinois (see a small sample here behind our crucifix).

How depict the invisible? How picture the inconceivable? How give expression to the limitless, the immeasurable, the invisible? How give a form to immensity? How paint immortality? How localise mystery? It is clear that when you contemplate God, who is a pure spirit, becoming man for your sake, you will be able to clothe Him with the human form. When the Invisible One becomes visible to flesh, you may then draw a likeness of His form. When He who is a pure spirit, without form or limit, immeasurable in the boundlessness of His own nature, existing as God, takes upon Himself the form of a servant in substance and in stature, and a body of flesh, then you may draw His likeness, and show it to anyone willing to contemplate it. Depict His ineffable condescension, His virginal birth, His baptism in the Jordan, His transfiguration on Thabor, His all-powerful sufferings, His death and miracles, the proofs of His Godhead, the deeds which He worked in the flesh through divine power, His saving Cross, His Sepulchre, and resurrection, and ascent into heaven. Give to it all the endurance of engraving and colour. Have no fear or anxiety; worship is not all of the same kind.

From bare brick to a beautiful riot of color and form: Holy Cross parish in Champaign, redesigned in 1983 by Harry Breen. The dark blue ceiling is punctuated by golden stars, the tabernacle, in a large, deep red niche on the right side of the sanctuary, is surrounded by worshiping angels shown in the traditional form of head (intellect) and long exquisite wings (will); behind the baptismal font on the left is a peacock perched on a grape arbor in front of a golden field of wheat, framed by a blue sky and a lovely central Illinois flat horizon; you can see the rose windows on the parish webpage above, and the stations of the cross are Dr. Breen's charcoal drawings. Our kids behave much better at Holy Cross than at Saint Matthew's :-)