1. Importance of pondering
2. The use of icons

Today more so than in earlier generations we are being asked about the impact of our Christian faith.  It is not the spoken word that is believable today, but rather the faith that is lived.  We do not want to be "half" Christians, we want to live our faith as "total" Christians.  How can we arrive at the place where our life bears evidence of Christian formation from within?  There is much we know, read and hear about that is new even in the church.  Can it be that all our knowing remains in the intellect and does not have any formative power on  our life?

Ancient Christian meditation survived because believers always looked at the image of Jesus Christ in fresh ways when they prayed and meditated.  This image, just as the Gospel, can be placed "before the eyes" and "printed upon the heart" in many ways.  The longer we stay with the image of Jesus in meditation, the deeper it impresses itself upon us.  It forms us from within shaping our entire life more and more.  The Greek word, typos, from which "typical" is derived, is used in many places in the New Testament.  Originally it meant the stamp itself as well as what was stamped, just like the image on an official seal which becomes visible in the affixed seal.  The modern use of the word "image" retains little of its power to give shape to something.  Christian meditation has to do with intentionally setting before ourselves what we want to shape us so that we in turn become an example that shapes others (1Thess. 1:7; 2 Thess. 3:9).

That, however, is a process that must proceed slowly because there is something here that must grow and ripen.  Therefore, we learn and practice anew how to pause and ponder (Let this word that is becoming obsolete penetrate you deeply!).  In pondering we place ourselves before God and offer ourselves in the confidence that God will do something without our knowing what or when or how it will happen.

Such pausing and pondering applies to everything we do in these exercises.  We must be continually on guard against our resistance to pondering which comes both from within and from without.  During the first ten minutes of prayer we may experience nothing more than a depressing emptiness within.  However, when we persevere, it can happen that a fresh perspective suddenly is opened up for us, or that an important insight is given to us (I have intentionally used the passive forms here).  Similarly it may be that such things occur after a period of thirty to forty minutes of apparent inner emptiness.  Indeed it is often the case that only after many meditations have left us feeling empty within, that a word or a picture is finally opened to us.  We are sometimes chagrined when we learn how some desert fathers and mothers wrestled for months, even years, to understand a single Bible verse before it was revealed to them.  It is very important that we do not see times of meditation that seem "futile" as lost time.  It is often in these times of apparent emptiness that more has happened than we realize.  Although hidden from view fruit is growing and ripening that we can only understand and harvest later.  "Lord, to be in your presence is all I need"  This is what is important; not our feelings about what has happened.

Therefore, the second week has to do with letting ourselves take the risk of lingering.  It is a risk because in this time we might miss out on
 something else.  However, it is only for those who take this risk that the world becomes transparent again in fresh ways and the hidden mysteries  in it revealed.  Then we realize that we have not missed anything at all.  To the contrary.  When we stop trying to deal with everything in order to probe the depths at one point, life is revealed to us in its fullness and richness.  Paul Tillich says, "There  God meets us ".

This is what we will practice this week with a single picture, a picture that has proven itself to be one of the most profound in Christendom for meditation.  It is the Trinity icon by Andrei Rublev .
If we are going to meditate on an icon for an entire week, it may be helpful for us to have at least a short introduction into the world of icons.
Remarks:  Whoever finds after two or three meditations on the  Rublev icon that they have difficulty with this type of picture or with this particular picture should feel free to select another picture that appeals to them using the steps suggested.  However, it is also important not to reach too quickly for substitute material because the Rublev icon often reveals itself only after long, intensive reflection.

For many the use of icons may be similar to the way that I personally dealt with them over the years.  Now and then I encountered an icon that appealed to me immediately, but most of them seemed foreign to me.  However, from this grew a desire to engage more deeply with this type of Christian devotion.  A period of medical recovery presented me with this opportunity:  I borrowed three volumes of icons from the library and looked at one picture after the other reading the accompanying text.  In the evening I placed the icon that appealed to me most on my bedside table with a burning candle (icons need candle light in order to fully display the mystery of their color effects).  I remained at least half an hour in meditation before the icon.  I noticed, of course, hidden treasures, but I did not yet recognize what wealth there was to be uncovered.  Some of the mystery of icons was initially opened during a meditation.  That encouraged me to go further into this world.

After a period of time it became clear that I was returning again and again to one icon - the icon of the Trinity from Rublev.  Each evening it became more valuable to me.  Furthermore, I realized that for those of us who live in a culture shaped so differently, basic training is needed if we want to understand an icon as a prayer and meditation picture that draws us closer to God as was intended by the artist.  What should we know if we are to understand the real purpose of an icon?

- Icons are simply prayer pictures. They have no other purpose.  Originally the icon painter was prepared by fasting and prayer (often for months) before painting a single icon .  In meditative silence the painter looked inwardly at a prototype image that he/she wanted to represent in an icon ("Icon" comes from the Greek word eikonos : image).  In this way the artists felt that their hands were led and directed by the very image being painted When an icon has been authentically formed in this way it is often used by other icon painters.  This explains the similarity of many icons that present the same theme.  It is precisely this similarity of form that frees the artistic creativity as well as the spiritual depths of a great artist like Rublev.  All the artist's skills are free to focus on the spiritual message of the work rather than on the form.

Because icons emerge only through prayer and meditation, they contain in an unique way the ability of drawing the pray-er into meditation and the meditat-or into prayer.

- Icons are pictures that proclaim painted messages of sacred mysteries.  During the "Divine Liturgy ", which lasts for hours, Orthodox Christians set icons before them.  They let the essential content of the Christian message of revelation stream into their hearts.  Just as Jesus became the visible image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), so the Orthodox Christian believes that God's image is present in its full mystery in the icon.  In the icon of Jesus the Orthodox Christian can actually encounter Jesus himself.  "Actually" is used here in the literal sense: actively touching one, encountering one and thereby, transforming one more and more from within.  This experience is so intense that the use of icons as pictures for prayer has in recent years spread widely throughout Catholic and Protestant religious communities.

- Every detail of the icon serves the function of proclamation - nothing is overlooked.

The first thing that usually strikes the eye is how the icon painter uses perspective differently from the way we have been accustomed to seeing.  The perspective used by the western artist draws the observer of the picture into an infinite distance: God is experienced as the distant, the beyond, the transcendent One.  The icon, on the other hand, allows the picture in a certain sense to approach the viewer.  Therefore, people speak of the "reverse perspective" of icons.  "Eastern peoples understand themselves as enveloped by the sacred, over shadowed by the Divine...They  do not need to pursue the Divine, the Divine is already present" .  In this way the message of revelation comes to one in prayer through the icon approaching him or her.

The source of light in many icons does not come from outside - light seems to shine forth from the forms themselves.  In prayer one places her/himself in this light.

Colors also have specific symbolic value as we know in the West from medieval art.  Gold is actually not a color but rather a direct expression of the eternal glory of God.  White is the color of light, of the transfiguration, of resurrection and as is yellow which is very close to white.  Blue means the divine beyond that draws the viewer past the visible into the invisible, into what is no longer discernible.  Red signifies the blood of Christ, his power over death.  And green is the color of life in general.  On the other hand the colors from dark brown to black represent asceticism and grief or often simply darkness and evil.
In many icons colors stand next to each other pure and unmixed while other icon painters use different shadings and the mixing of colors as an expression of their artistic language.  Victor Lasarew, who interpreted the Trinity Icon of Rublev in a deep and unique way, speaks of the "music of the colors".  Colors also serve the purpose of proclamation attempting to make something of God's mystery resonate in us.

The same "painted proclamation" is expressed in the mime and gesture of the figures as well as in the overall configuration of the icon.
In order that there be no confusion as to the nature of the icon message, the picture is often accompanied by a verse, thus icon and word constitute an indissoluble unity.  The intended recipient is always the one who opens her/himself in prayer and meditation to the message of the icon.

Perhaps this short introduction into the meaning of icons may be sufficient to encourage you to become further involved in one of the icons and thereby gather your own experiences.

Suggestion: Just as each day begins in different ways so meditation on the same icon can begin each time at a different starting point.  The many starting possibilities can be used later with each picture meditation and also with many text meditations.  While one needs to linger with a particular image this should not limit one from other images that arise from the meditation itself.  This  however, takes much pondering, staying with and repetition of the same material.  It can happen quite naturally from this that one may spontaneously complete a significant step before it  is offered "formally".  Rejoice over this and be happy to repeat and deepen the experience.  For the rest trust more and more what is going on within yourself.