Thursday, October 19, 2023

Icons and the Natural World

On Thursday last week, at our last morning prayer service of Convocation, we had stations.  We could stare at an icon.  We had a board and post it notes where we could leave prayers.  We could stop at an anointing station to be anointed with oil.  It was a quieter, more contemplative service, and I found it very moving.

I found myself drawn to part of the altar that wasn't intended to be a station.  I loved this pumpkin:

 


It was interesting to stare at it after staring at a more traditional icon:




It made me wonder about a contemplative exercise that has participants stare at a traditional icon and then an evocative item from the natural world.  They could write or sketch what comes to them, and then we could have interesting conversations about it.



Let me tuck this away for future reference (and perhaps I will try it in one of my writing classes next week or the next).

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