Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

Dear Friends in Christ,
Today, your prayers have borne fruit in this icon. The transformation over the last two weeks has simply been incredible! Not only is the icon done, but finished on a very special day for me: the anniversary of my Confirmation, and the anniversary of my Marian Consecration 5 years ago!

This image was written originally by Br. Claude of Mt. Angel at the request of my former spiritual director. He envisioned it as a "healing icon" for priests. It has truly been a blessing to write this icon during the year of the priest.

The lettering is Greek, and stands for "St. John", "Mother of God", and "Jesus Christ". The scene is, of course, reminiscent of John 19:26-27 where Christ from the cross says to Mary, "behold your son" and to John, "behold your mother". Mary is presenting the stole of the priesthood to John, emphasizing her title as "Mother of Priests".

As with any icon, everything is done for symbolic value. The colors reveal the truths of our faith as much as anything else: Mary is in Blue (Divinity, mystery, eternity) and Purple(royalty) emphasizing her as Queen Mother; John is in Red-Passion, Love; White-purity, uncreated light showing his innocence and love for Jesus and the Virgin; and the Gold leaf represents the Light of Grace and heaven. The shapes are not intended to be "natural" because it is meant to jar us into a different way of thinking: these are windows to heaven, where we will see things differently than we are used to. The perspective is skewed so that we see multiple angles at once (perhaps not in mine, because I'm not the greatest artist), and typically the "vanishing point" is "behind" the icon--drawing the faithful to look beyond the icon and into contemplation of heaven.

May Mary, the Mother of Priests and Mother of God pray for us, that we might follow her Son Jesus more closely everyday. Blessings to all of you!

Icon Progress part 5

Dear Friends,
It is almost finished! All that remains is touch-up work and the varnish. A heartfelt "thank you" to all of you for your prayers--The grace that got me through this last week was truly unbelievable. The Holy Spirit was very palpable during several of the phases. Glory be to God for all His mercy, most especially the gift of Mary, His Mother. I will post a full reflection of the meaning of the icon when it is varnished. Until then...

Icon Progress part 4

Halos are always challenging for me...Fr. Paul helped me a lot on these. Notice also the cool halo effect caused by scratching the gold with a cotton ball.

The other picture is an example of "puddling", a technique which first applies water, then dabs of paint which form "puddles" and diffuse through the water to make unique patterns. (the holy card is of John Vianney, and the small medallion is a relic of St. Faustina).

Icon Progress part 3

Day 3 picture

Icon Progress part 2

After another day of work, prayer, and iconography, here's the results: keep the prayers coming! Blessings to you all and Peace,

Mark
p.s. look at the pictures from the bottom up to see the progression, ditto on the previous post--blogger is not being cooperative...

Icon Progress

Dear Friends,
Thank you for your continued prayers! This week is the final push for me to get the icon done, and I'll be posting the pictures of the progress. Here are pictures from yesterday. There's been a lot of progress today, so stay tuned and keep praying for me! The date I'm aiming to be done by is the 21st of April: the anniversary of my confirmation and my Marian consecration. Blessings to all of you!

Love,
Mark

New Year, New me, Lord's Day, etc.

Dear friends in Christ,
Many blessings and peace to you during this holy Lent! I pray that you are all experiencing the love of Christ in a new and powerful way through your penances, prayer, and alms-giving during these 40 days. As usual, many great things have transpired since the last post, so I hope to share a few of them with you.

Firstly, I completed my second bachelor's in Theology (with the exception of my thesis this June) and have already begun taking Masters classes towards my Licenciate in Theology. Classes are more interesting and challenging, which is great! I've also made a little progress on my icon...which will be pictured in the next post :)

Secondly, at the initiative of Brandon (another seminarian here) and myself, we hosted a "Lord's Day" celebration at the seminary--probably the first one in the history of the American College--which was awesome! You can see some pictures of it below. Brandon made the chili and bread pudding, and I cut the bread bowls and made a strawberry/blueberry/walnut/vinaigrette salad (a first for me). It was a blessed time of community building and I hope that it becomes a tradition. Please pray for continued strengthening of our brotherhood.

Lastly, and most exciting, is that I have been told my pastoral placement for next year: I'll be in Astoria at "Mary Star of the Sea" Parish with Fr. Ken Sampson, a wonderful priest, who I know will be a great mentor for me this next year.

As always, you are in my heart and prayers; each day I yearn more to return home to begin serving you the best I can. Until then, I trust that the Lord will sustain our friendship even across these great distances.