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Hello, I am new to this forum and would like to ask the participants in it a question if they would be so kind as to respond

I am a Roman Catholic who has started to put an icon corner is my room. I have heard from others that it has benefitted them spiritually very much and I hope that it will do the same for me...I think it will.

The problem is I don't know anyone with an icon corner and would be grateful if some of you could share a little bit about yours with me.

While I know that the purpose of an icon corner is to help you get closer to the Lord and not following some specific set of rules and regulations I would like to hear what has really benifitted some and maybe also what has not benefitted. I have read a little on icon corners but would like to hear from someone who has one.

Some of the things I have been wondering about are do you use incense? if so how often? Do you pray by yourself there or with others? What are your favorite kinds of icons to have there? Do you use candles? How has it helped your spiritual life? And anything else you would like to add...

I have noticed that this board,unlike many others, the members treat each other very charitably...I think that reflects well on the people that post here.

Thank you and may the Lord Bless you

Bonaventure,

Welcome to the forum. By and large people here do treat each other with respect. I'm glad that it was noticeable.

I've just begun to develop and use my icon corner.
It is a work in progress but here is what I have thus far and how I use it.

I have three icons so far but hope to get more. I have the icon of Mother Mary and Jesus; Jesus; and Saint Nicholas. I hope to get St. Athanasius, my patron saint, and Saint Cyril and Methodius. In addition I hope to get the crucifix icon. I also have a statue of St. Francis, though I know statuary is not Kosher.

I have purchase a candle holder. I'm sure others can help with the proper name. I don't yet use incense. Our condo is small and my wife has frequent migraines. Incense does not help her condition.

I frequently employ the Jesus Prayer but also use many of the prayers from the Byzantine Prayer book. I spend time meditating and intercessing for others in their needs.

The icon corner is a constant reminder to me of my surrender to God and my communion with Him and with all the saints. It also reminds me to pray for others.

I commend you for pursuing your life of devotion. As my priest often says "The closer one gets to the cross the more holy one can become."

Dan Lauffer

Here's a link to a brief article on the icon corner which you might find helpful:

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/xc_home.htm#corner

Hope it helps.

Frank

Bonaventure welcome.

I also am Roman and I also do have icons - but not in a traditional corner - mine are on a shelf and when I pray I am facing west - not very traditional either.

Shortly after I acquired my first, one of Our Mother, I read somewhere that once you had one then the 'collection' would grow. How accurate - what was one is now seven !

As I type this my icons are there above the screen - arranged in the traditional way - Our Lady on the left [ as I look at them] and Our Lord on the right I also have a crucifix and a small votive candle. Yes I do sometimes just sit there, ignore the Mac and pray. I do always, before I type anything be it letters, posts here or what now can be regarded as work [ notes on my spiritual reading !] say a prayer or two and I am completely convinced that this has helped. I cannot bear to be parted from my icons - one is in my caravan and last time we went away I took two others with me as well.

Shortly I am going to Lourdes on an organised pilgrimage and two very small icons - Our Lady of Pochaev , and 'the Three Hands' -- will be coming with me there.

As to the use of incense - for me not really possible - my husband has terrible hay fever - all the year round too, and the use of incense would cause my house walls to shake

I don't know if my ramblings have helped - but there they are.

May Our Blessed Lady, Mary ever Virgin, Mother of us all and my Mistress keep you in Her most tender care and lead you to Her Son

Angela

Thanks for responding Dan, I wish you well in forming your own icon corner...It is a beautiful tradition. I would like to also get an icon crucifix soon, It seems to me that the Slovakian ones look the best. Thats great that St. Athanasius is your patron saint..he stood up for the faith in an exremely hard time. I also have the Byzantine Book of Prayer and it has impressed me very much (I think this is the book you were referring to)Thanks Dan

Frank the link at orthodoxinfo.com was helpful...there is alot of good information on this site, but sadly they fall into they view that orthodoxy and Catholicism are too radically different and have some wild opinions about St.Francis...i believe this has been discussed here before...Thanks Frank

Angela your "ramblings" were helpful and I am glad you replied..About wanting more icons I know what you mean I keep looking at icon sites online and it is hard not to buy things sometimes..Good luck on your trip to Lourdes, there is a girl who lives down the street from me who was totally healed of cancer from going there...It is truly a holy place...Thanks Angela

Another Site you may care to look at for Icon Corners is
http://www.unicorne.org/orthodoxy/

If you go to the section on articles you will find quite a lot of info. there. Oh and the Icons on their welcome page are wonderful.

I'm sure lots more folk will come in on this subject Bonaventure so keep checking back

Angela

GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST!
GLORY TO HIM FOREVER!

Hi Bonaventur!

Welcome to the list.

There's no big deal with the ikon corner. Each of the Eastern Traditions has items that they keep in and around the ikon corner.

A great deal depends on how much space you have and how much you can afford for your ikon area. I have seen ikon corners that are covered with ikons and lamps and all kinds of things. I've also seen ikon corners that have a simple ikon and a hanging lamp.

The point is to make it a space that IS PRAYERFUL AND HAS MEANING FOR YOU!

See if you can find a copy of the book A GUIDE FOR THE DOMESTIC CHURCH, it was published the Melkite Diocese of Newton. You might want to check with the IKON AND BOOK STORE in Washington,DC www.iconbook.org. [iconbook.org.] They should have. Anyway, there is a whole chapter devoted to setting up an ikon corner in one's home.

My corner is kind of simple, I have a large ikon of the Mother of God that a friend got for me in Poland, a simple hanging lamp and several smaller ikons of Christ the Teacher, St. Nikolas and the Holy Trinity. There is one other ikon that I change with the Liturgical Seasons. I also have an embroidered ikon scarf that I found on eBay. It's very simple but I must pass by it to leave or enter my bedroom so I often stop and pray then

Hope this helps....

the least serant of the servants of God....

the ikon writer
mark

Hey all,

Does the whole house count as a cornor. They do take over you know, and wouldn't have it any other way. It is interesting that our kids, now teens, will go through and rearrange them from time to time. I think they have their own order. Oh there are the rules, but I can't resist chuckling when my 17 year old son rearranges all of them. It it is between him and God. God must enjoy the fact that he thinks about them enough to spend time doing it. They get cleaned too while he is at it.

All the kids have a good size colletion themselves. When Stan and I get older, I am going to put numbers on the back of the icons and have them draw numbers. Then write their names on the back of the icons, so when it is time for us to go home with Jesus they want have to figure out who gets what, I'm not concerned about it right now. I would just like to know that the kids and the icons are taken care of.

Ocassionally I have found them in flee markets and my heart aches. The one who it belonged to I'm sure never thought it would end up there, and I have found crucifixes that way also, could never leave them orphaned. Yes they have order, but Jesus must feel that the order they bring in our lives is much more important, otherwise heaven wouldn't spend so much time looking back at us though the windows.

In Christ,
Rose

Thanks again Angela, that site had alot of good things on it and the icons on the front page were great. Just curious but where is your favorite site to buy icons form? There are lots of places online thay sell them..The icons at orthodoxmall and Skete look very good but I have never bought anything from them. I did purchase one from greekorthodoxicons.net and it was very nice.

I agree Medved that an icon corner is above all to get closer to the Lord...I have seen websites that state "you have to put this here" and "you have to have this in a certain place" or it's just not an icon corner or at least it's a "bad" one and somehow not pleasing to God or something. This to me seems a bit silly. While many western Christians have sadly fallen into the idea that everything HAS to be totally spontaneous and tradition is a dirty word, I think the other extreme can be just as bad...as if every person had to have the exact same icon corner in their house...Thanks for the welcome!

Obviously hand-written icons are ideal, but the best icon reproductions I have found so far are from Monastery Icons in Boscobel, Wisconsin, www.skete.com. [skete.com.] They laminate with a non-glossy finish, have superior quality print reproductions, and mount on solid birch, nicely painted. They also have small hand censors that one can use to cense icons as well as various incense blends. You can generally get the incense charcoal at any religious goods store or also order it somewhere. I have found the "Three Kings" brand charcoal from Holland to be generally cheap, readily available, and reliable to light. I actually get the charcoal here from our local Lebanese grocery store/market. Monastery Incense from Borrego Springs, California is a good source for incense, I like their "Byzantine Blend". Lots of other sources for incense as well.

Our icon corner has now grown from the corner and now overtaken most of the eastern wall of the room it is in. We prefer to burn pure beeswax candles and oil lamps in front of the icons. It is my youngest son's job to do the censing as we pray, I have found that a very good practice to involve my children in prayer at a young age and they have all loved it and take it very seriously, and until they can read well enough to lead reading or sing it is a great way for them to contribute in their own way.
Subdeacon Randolph, a sinner

Bonaventure - now there you have asked the million pound question . Here on this side of the Big Pond and particularly here in the North I have real problems finding what I call 'good' icons. By that I mean an icon that 'speaks' to me. What do I mean by that - well the donor of my first - one of Our Lady [ the Hodgetiria] - himself a Latin Seminarian studying in Rome was in a shop somewhere in Rome at the end of his first year , and was bringing me a book I had wanted and could not find here, saw this particular Icon and told me that it said "Angela" to him - so he bought it for me. I have actually only bought 2 of mine and strangely enough they were bought in Lourdes ! Oh and I should not forget the little medal of the Hodegetiria which is now on a neck chain - which also came from there - now that did speak to me - I stood open mouthed when I saw it.

We only have 2 shops here in Glasgow where you can find Icons - I do keep looking but I don't often find what I would really want to put on my shelf . And if someone could tell me of a UK based Site for buying icons I would be most grateful.

Angela

Once upon a time, I was browsing through my parish bookstore after church. Frankly, I was bored, and about to finish my coffee and go home. In my head, I was bemoaning the fact that one never sees an icon of St. Timothy, my patron. Why, I thought, I'm not sure I even know what he looks like.

Then I looked up. I was standing in front of a little icon I'd never noticed before. A youngish bearded guy in a toga-like thing. I knew who he was even before I transliterated the "Ayiou Timotheou" around his head.

:-) The point is, sometimes you don't find the right icon. It finds you.

How true that is. My little icon of the "Three Hands" came to me at a most appropriate time when I was still concerned about my younger daughter.

And it will be accompanying me to Lourdes again next month.

Yes - Icons do seem to find us - rather than us find them.

Angela

GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST!
GLORY TO HIM FOREVER!

Hi everyone!

I agree with Angela, our ikons find us.

A couple of years ago I was on a bus trip to Atlantic City (East coast version of Las Vegas for those not on the East Coast).

I said a quick prayer to St.Nicholas for some for some help. I walked into a casino to trade in my voucher and saw this monkye on a machine wiggle his finger at me as if to say come over here. Well, I got my coins and started to play the machine. I put in 4 quaters and nothing, did the same thing again, nothing. The 3rd time all these bells and lights started going off.

Well to make a long story short, they people in the Casino gave a VERY NICE check to take home with me. This was on a Tuesday.

The following Saturday, I was at an antique show in Washington DC. There a dealer with an old ikon of St.Nicholas. The dealer had tried to remove the old olifa from the ikon and had managed to remove the halo and most of the face. I offered him $100 cash and was the proud owner of a St.Nicholas.

I sent it to a restorer in Virginia to have it cleaned. Several weeks later, I got a phone call asking if I wanted to sell St. Nicholas. It is one of the best ikons the restorer has ever seen. I said no and she did clean and restore it.

St. Nicholas now proud stands in the center of my poustina (ikon corner).

Holy Father Nicholas, pray for us!

mark

Dear Bonventure,

Just my two cents' worth . . .

The icon corner frames the most significant spot in the home, the corner that ideally faces Eastward and that constitutes a family altar where prayers are said and important family events are celebrated.

A chair often went in the corner where a person celebrating a Namesday would sit.

So since today is St John the Baptist's day (on your Calendar ) and since our Administrator's Church follows it (it's not his fault really ), then the Administrator would get to sit in the icon corner chair as we all joined in singing "Ad Multos Annos!"

One places icons or images of Christ on the right wall and images of Our Lady on the left, as was the custom not only with iconostases, but also with Rood Screens in Britain and elsewhere.

When one lights a candle, one prays the words of the Psalm: He will light my candle, the Lord our God will enlighten my darkness!

When you use incense, one prays: "Your Good Spirit will lead me in a land of uprightness."

Icons of the Old Testament Trinity, of Pentecost, the Epiphany and the Transfiguration are the four official icons of the Trinity and they have a special place among our icons as well as the Holy Cross.

We also place embroidered towels over icons as a symbol of the mantle of protection. Flowers are used to decorate them, especially flowers from the Tomb of Christ during Holy Week, pussy-willows and palm fronds, and other green branches at Pentecost or Whitsunday.

Latin Americans, especially Mexicans, have preserved the tradition of home shrines with their "Santos."

There is no reason why you could not organize any religious statues you would have in this way as well.

Alex