www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Questions regarding holy objects, prayer books, and crucifixes

Dear Thepeug,

I can personally highly recommend Skete.com icons. The quality is exceptional, the service is very quick, and the packing is above standard.

If you are interested in extremely high quality hand painted icons, at possibly the best price in the industry, then try:

http://www.agapeicons.com/

These icons are hand painted/written. I ordered a few from the dealer for St. Nicholas gifts and the package came from Thessalon�ki Greece. I believe proceeds benefit monastic communities on the Holy Mountain (Mt. Athos) [someone please correct me if this is faulty info]. It did take approximately 30 days from ordering to receiving, but worth it!

Good luck.

In Christ,

Michael

I also recommend Skete.com. Three of my icons are from Skete, and I consider them some of the highest quality mounted icon prints I possess.

Another great location to find mounted icon prints is Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, Mass. (http://htmadmin.phpwebhosting.com/). Their icons are very inexpensive, of superior quality, and are beautifully laminated. (Actually, the lamination can be good or bad, depending upon whether or not your light source causes a glare.) Their icon of the Hospitality of Abraham was a wedding gift to my wife and I from one of my former theology professors. I gave a deacon an icon of both St. Stephen and St. Laurence together --a rare find.

I ought to warn you that some contributors to our forum have discouraged purchases from this monastery due to their anti-Catholic sentiments. On a personal note, when I worked at the Weston School of Theology Library back in the mid-90's some of the monks used to come by on Sunday afternoons and do research. They were very friendly. They have likewise been very pleasant to order from, even though they did insert a triumphalist pamphlet into the shipment :rolleyes: .

Thank you both for the suggestions. The icons at both sites are beautiful. I want to develop a daily prayer routine and construct a modest icon corner to help maintain this routine. Among all these websites, it looks like I've got quite a few options. Thanks again.

God bless,

Chris

1) In my experience, some Roman Catholic churches will take palms to burn for ashes for Ash Wednesday. Ditto, some Byzantine and Orthodox churches will collect pussy willows or palms for proper disposal (burning) as well. My baba was buried in an Orthodox cemetery, so we would occasionally leave blessed objects like pussy willows on graves, because they would be properly and respectfully taken. This poses a problem for me now because I tend to leave objects on more local family graves in a military cemetery where I am not sure that would occur. Feeling funny about not leaving pussy willows, I leave ones that are from the garden and not from the church service and keep the real ones in my home with the festal icon to remind me to think of our deceased family members.

2) I lucked out and inherited such a book (a 1948 edition). I have seen many good collections, including the Byzantine Book of Prayer, as well as a two volume collection from Eastern Christian publications (Let us Pray to the Lord, I think?) and Come to Me (short Carpatho Russian-Orthodox prayer book, one volume).

3) Icon & Book Store in DC or Light & Life Publications. Don't know 'em off hand, but if no one else has given the URLs above and they don't pop up on Google, I can find them in my bookmarks and post. (I apologize I did not read all the responses.)

Is it okay to throw away catalogs (such as Light and Life, etc.) which have icons within its pages? If not, how can I dispose of old catalogs which are taking up so much space?

I've been told that it is permitted to burn them (books, catalogs etc)in your fireplace...though I don't know the particulars for other items.

james

Blessed flowers and foliage can quite properly be buried, especially in an actual garden. I have no immediate thought on what to do with color icon-prints included in commercial publications. I suppose they could be clipped, mounted and given away.

Incognitus

With regards to relics, especially first class relics, is it permissable for a layperson to possess a relic and keep it in their home icon corner for veneration?

In Christ,

Michael

Yes, you may!

Time was when it was fairly easy to get them from the relic bank in Rome but eBay ruined that - lots of people selling real and fake ones like in the Middle Ages. (It's against canon law to sell relics - you pay for the little metal and glass holder, the thecla, they come in.) Now private people can't get them from there but maybe your priest can for you.

Somebody mentioned Icon and Book Service - I understand they keep and give relics owned by deceased priests so you can get one there.

Thank you for the info!

In Christ,

Michael

I love their icons and have bought a number from them - including the smaller Russian wall crucifix!! They come highly recommended in my book, Thepeug.

Sam

Unfortunately it would take more time than I have to clip and mount every icon in every catalog I have (some of which are over 100 pages). Burning isn't pratical since I have no fireplace and live in town, and might get in trouble for starting a fire. Burying would work, except in winter.....

Dear Westerner,

Donate your catalogs, etc to your parish bookstore and/or parish members. What a nice thing to do, and it lets them worry about what to do with them later.

Michael

Father,
It appears that you have remedied your previous problem. If you sell your Daily Worship copies for $200 a piece, then purchase the $52 version, you will have $350 left over to buoy the bank account and afford the Melkite Horologian.