Angels against my inner demons

Another picture of one of the icons from the exhibition in the chapel: the angel of prayers.
Throughout this week I have been wrestling with some inner demons: the usual stuff of feelings of lack of self worth, rage against my uselessness and an inability to even glimpse the future (or so it seemed). Loving other people is one thing, learning to love myself is another.
And then there came the angels. I should perhaps explain, I am Reformed, I'm not really into angels particularly ones that look like this beautiful one painted by Didi Marmoud. And yet ... I do occassionally buy strange guardian angel knick-knacks to give to friends and have rather wacky magnetic guardian angel on the oven door.
In human form angels have helped me this week with the inner wrestling and wreckage. It won't have been easy for them, I'm not always open to help even when I know I need it. The angels have come in various forms: wearing suits and ties, lipstick and jackets, jeans and dreadlocks, designer clothes. Some listened, some talked, some brought me gifts, some walked with me, some gave me encouragement, some hugged me, some gave me advice, some watched me weep. Angels are messengers and this week I have been blessed by the silence, the words and the gentleness of my angelic visitors. Like the artist Tirabosco last week when he was decorating the water carafe I would put a halo over each of them, each is blessed and they have blessed me by opening up more than glimpses of the future again. Ah yes, and the angel bearing Italian earings inside a late Easter egg was particularly appreciated - I'm just a material girl really and one day I really should do a blogpost about my earring fetish!

Breastfeeding madonna

This icon shows a breastfeeding madonna, which according to this post here is something the Vatican has been trying to promote to put across the idea that Christ was fully human.

The Paintbox of possibilities

Another photo of the exhibition in the chapel, this one with the palette of pigments at the entrance and showing some of the visitors. The chapel does not have holy water to remind us of our baptism at the entrance but we walk through virtual water at the entrance. This is where the paintbox of possibilities is positioned, a reminder of the creativity and recreativity of baptism perhaps.

Colours for the icon that is your life

I really like the icons which are part of the exhibition in chapel but in many ways this is my favourite photo of the expo. This is a box of beautiful pigments, it's clear that it's in regular use by an artist. Like any artist's palette it speaks to me of the world of creative possiblities, of new art that may be created, of the openness and discipline that creativity requires.
I suppose in many ways I simply want to find a brush and use these pigments and paint ... instead I suspect the computer calls, but then that's just another kind of palette in many ways.

On being an icon - a sermon by Theodore Gill for the opening of an icon exhibition

This morning we gathered in the chapel surrounded in a more visible way than usual by a great cloud of witnesses as most of the icons for the icon exhbition by Josette Laissue and Didi Marmoud were already in place.
Outside Geneva airport was silent as Northern Europe remained under the grip of another kind of cloud - many of our colleagues including the WCC general secretary were trapped in airports in various places across the world. We'll have to see who has the most interesting home-coming story!
Theodore Gill led our prayers and a meditation on icons which you can read here. At the end of the service just before the blessing he called us all to be icons and bear the image of God through our lives into the world. It was a nourishing morning service, here are two extracts from the beginning and end of Theo's sermon:

Icons have been described by admirers as windows into the kingdom of heaven, and also as mirrors that aid us in our spiritual self-reflection.
“Icon” comes from the Greek word for “image” – it is used in the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of Hebrew scripture, when God is said to create humankind in God’s own image (the word applies neither to a man nor a women, but all of “humankind…male and female”; Gen.1:27). And the word appears again in the hymn near the beginning of Colossians, when we are told – somewhat paradoxically, it has seemed to many – that Jesus Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Col.1:15).

Whether the art on display represents a set of windows to heaven or mirrors for reflection, or some combination of the two, icons invite us to consider our own potential as images of divine love – and to re-conceive our own lives as a means of portraying the reality of Christ in the world.

The icon painters prayer

Two wonderful French Roman Catholic icon painters are holding an exhibition of their work in the chapel of the ecumenical centre from Monday 19 to Friday 30 April. they began hanging the icons on Friday and the chapel looks quite different.
I shall try and post at least a photo a day of the icons - some of which have prayers next to them. For now though I've posted the prayer of the icon painter in French, maybe later in the week I'll get around to doing some translations ... maybe means I have good intentions and no will power ...
In the meantime you can already access the liturgy for Monday morning here, part of it includes a responsive reading of part of Colossians:

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation;

More about the exhibtion soon ...