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Aodhagain — Theotokos
Published: 2011-02-05 03:18:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 5829; Favourites: 55; Downloads: 478
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"Theotokos"Acrylics on board
December 23, 2010
I had wanted to do an icon, or icon sort of style, picture for a very very long time and never quite got around to doing it. So around Christmas I was doing a whole bunch of pictures for various people as Christmas gifts, and I decided to do this and give it to my parish. Right now it's sitting in a cabinet in the sacristy, and hopefully someone will get around to framing it and hanging it up.
I think I'll post my process eventually, so people can critique me. I'm definitely going to do more icons, eventually.
The hands are... disproportionate and off, but oh well. I like the face, people have been telling me she looks like my mom. I'm not familiar with all the symbolism of this picture, since I based it off of several icons. Please correct me if you notice anything wrong.
The Theotokos is one of my favorite titles for Our Lady. It means, in Greek, "God-bearer", and it was a title given to OurLady at the Council of Ephesus in 431 to establish that Mary is the God-bearer, the Mother of God, because her son is Jesus Christ - full God, and fully man. This was to correct some of the heresies running around that denied the humanity or the divinity of Christ, or otherwise mixed it up.
It's an Eleusa style icon, referring to tenderness and compassion, shown by the Theotokos holding the Child Jesus close to her, as He touches her face with His.
The iconographic abbreviation of ΜΡ ΘΥ stands for Μητηρ Θεου (Meter Theou) which means "Mother of God."
The IC XC to the right of Jesus is the abbreviation of His name, Jesus Christ.
I believe the stars on her mantle represent the virginity of Mary, before and after the conception of Christ.
The red on the veil to show her suffering. Under the beil is blue, symbolizing the humanity of the Theotokos.
The stars on the halo refer to the crown of twelve stars mentioned in the book of revelation.
I invite you all to read and pray this most magnificent prayer, the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos. [link]
Rejoice, Mother of the never-setting Star. Rejoice, Dawn of the mystic Day.
Rejoice, you who has quenched the fiery furnace of error. Rejoice, you who enlightens the initiates of the Trinity.
Rejoice, you who has removed the inhuman tyrant from power. Rejoice, you who has shown Christ, the man-befriending Lord.
Rejoice, you who has redeemed us from the pagan religion. Rejoice, you who has rescued us from the works of mire.
Rejoice, you who ceased the worship of fire. Rejoice, you who saves us from the flames of passions.
Rejoice, Guide of the faithful to chastity. Rejoice, O Delight of all generations.
Rejoice, O Bride Ever-Virgin.
Agni Parthene, a hymn to the Pure Virgin. [link]
Rightly do we , who have been saved through you, pure Virgin, confess that you are the Mother of God, extolling you with the angelic choirs. For God, whom men cannot see, on whom the ranks of angels do not dare to look, has through you become visible to men as the Logos made flesh. Glorifying Him with the heavenly hosts we proclaim you blessed. And what shall we call you, who are full of grace? Heaven, for you have made the Sun of Righteousness shine forth? Paradise, for you have put forth the flower of immortality? Virgin, for you have remained inviolate? Pure mother, for you have held in your embrace the God of all? Mother of God, you are the true vine, for you have born the fruit of life. We entreat you, intercede in your glory with the apostles and all the saints, that God may have mercy on our souls.” ~ St. Peter of Damascus
I shall let the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, supply the words for my meditation:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On 11 October 1962, 48 years ago, Pope John XXIII inaugurated Vatican Council II. At the time, on 11 October, the feast day of the Divine Motherhood of Mary was celebrated and, with this gesture, with this date, Pope John wished to entrust the whole Council into the motherly hands and maternal heart of Our Lady. We too begin on 11 October. We too wish to entrust this Synod, with all its problems, with all its challenges, with all its hopes, to the maternal heart of the Our Lady, the Mother of God.
Pius XI, introduced this feast day in 1931, 1,500 years after the Council of Ephesus, which had legitimated, for Mary, the title of Theotókos, Dei Genitrix. With this great word Dei Genitrix, Theotókos, the Council of Ephesus had summarized the entire doctrine of Christ, of Mary, the whole of the doctrine of redemption. So it would be worthwhile to reflect briefly, for a moment, on what was said during the Council of Ephesus, on what this day means.
In reality, Theotókos is a courageous title. A woman is the Mother of God. One could say: how is this possible? God is eternal, he is the Creator. We are creatures, we are in time: how could a human being be the Mother of God, of the Eternal One, since we are all in time, we are all creatures? Therefore one can understand that there was some strong opposition, in part, to this term. The Nestorians used to say: one can speak about Christotókos, yes, but Theotókos no: Theós, God, is beyond, above the events of history. But the Council decided this, and thus enlightened the adventure of God, the greatness of what he has done for us. God did not remain in Himself: he came out of himself, He united himself so closely, so radically to this man, Jesus, that this man Jesus is God, and if we speak about Him, we can also speak always about God. Not only was a man born who had something to do with God, but in Him was born God on earth. God came from himself. But we could also say the opposite: God drew us to Himself, so that we are no longer outside of God, but we are within the intimate, the intimacy of God Himself.
Aristotelian philosophy, as we well know, tells us that between God and man there is only a non-reciprocal relationship. Man refers to God, but God, the Eternal, is in Himself, He does not change: He cannot have this relationship today and another relationship tomorrow. He is within Himself, He does not have ad extra relations. It is a very logical term, but it is also a word that makes us despair: so God himself has no relationship with me. With the Incarnation, with the event of the Theotókos, this radically changed, because God drew us into Himself and God in Himself is the relationship and allows us to participate in His interior relationship. Thus we are in His being Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are within His being in relationship, we are in relationship with Him and He truly created a relationship with us. At that moment, God wished to be born from woman and to remain Himself always: this is the great event. And thus we can understand the depth of the act of Pope John, who entrusted the Council, the Synodal Assembly to the central mystery, to the Mother of God who is drawn by the Lord into Himself, and thus all of us with Her.
The Council began with the icon of the Theotókos. Upon its closure, Pope Paul VI recognized Our Lady with the title of Mater Ecclesiae. And these two icons, which begin and end the Council, are intrinsically linked, and are, in the end, a single icon because Christ was not born like any other individual. He was born to create a body for Himself: He was born as John says in Chapter 12 of his Gospel to attract all to Him and in Him. He was born as it says in the Letters to the Colossians and to the Ephesians to deliver the whole world. He was born as the firstborn of many brothers. He was born to unite the cosmos in Him, so that He is the Head of a great Body. Where Christ is born, the movement of recapitulation begins, the moment of the calling begins, of construction of his Body, of the Holy Church. The Mother of Theós, the Mother of God, is the Mother of the Church, because she is the Mother of the One who came to unite all in His resurrected Body.
St Luke leads us to understand this in the parallel between the first chapter of his book and the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which repeat the same mystery on two different levels. In the first chapter of the Gospel the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary and thus she gives birth, giving us the Son of God. In the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Mary is in the midst of Jesus' disciples who are praying together, pleading with the cloud of the Holy Spirit. And thus from the believing Church, with Mary at its heart, is born the Church, the Body of Christ. This dual birth is the only birth of the Christus totus, of the Christ who embraces the world and all of us.
Birth in Bethlehem, birth of the Upper Room. Birth of the Infant Jesus, birth of the Body of Christ, of the Church. These are two events or the one event. But between the two lie truly the Cross and the Resurrection. And only through the Cross is the way towards the totality of Christ, towards His resurrected Body, towards the universalization of His being in the unity of the Church. And thus, bearing in mind that only from a grain of wheat fallen into the earth can a great harvest be reaped, from the Lord pierced on the Cross comes the universality of His disciples gathered in this His Body, dead and risen.
Keeping this connection between Theotókos and Mater Ecclesiae in mind, we turn our attention to the last book of the Holy Scripture, Revelation, where, in chapter 12, we can find this synthesis. The woman clothed with the sun, with 12 stars on her head and the moon at her feet, gives birth. And she gives birth with a cry of pain. She gives birth with great suffering. Here the Marian mystery is the mystery of Bethlehem extended to the cosmic mystery. Christ is always reborn in every generation and thus he assumes the gathering of humanity within Himself. And this cosmic birth is achieved in the cry of the Cross, in the suffering of the Passion. And the blood of the martyrs belongs to this cry of the Cross.
So, at this moment, we can look at the second Psalm of this Midday Prayer, Psalm 81, where we can see part of this process. God is among gods they are still considered as gods in Israel. In this Psalm, in a great concentration, in a prophetic vision, we can see the power taken from the gods. Those that seemed gods are not gods, lose their divine characteristics, and fall to earth. Dii estis et moriemini sicut nomine (cf. Ps 81: 6-7): the weakening of power, the fall of the divinities.
This process that is achieved along the path of faith of Israel, and which is summed up here in one vision, is the true process of the history of religion: the fall of the gods. And thus the transformation of the world, the knowledge of the true God, the loss of power by the forces that dominate the world, is a process of suffering. In the history of Israel we can see how this liberation from polytheism, this recognition "Only He is God" is achieved with great pain, beginning with the path of Abraham, the exile, the Maccabeans, to Christ. And this process of the loss of power, spoken in the Book of Revelation, chapter 12 continues throughout history; it mentions the fall of the angels, which are not truly angels, they are not divinities on earth. And it is achieved truly, right at the time of the rising Church, where we can see how with the blood of the martyrs comes the weakening of the divinities, starting with the divine emperor, from all these divinities. It is the blood of the martyrs, the suffering, the cry of Mother Church that brings about their fall and thus transforms the world.
This fall is not only the knowledge that they are not God; it is the process of transformation of the world, which costs blood, costs the suffering of witnesses of Christ. And, if we look closely, we can see that this process never ends. It is achieved in various periods of history in ever new ways; even today, at this moment in which Christ, the only Son of God, must be born for the world with the fall of the gods, with pain, the martyrdom of witnesses. Let us remember all the great powers of the history of today. Let us remember the anonymous capital that enslaves man which is no longer in man's possession but is an anonymous power served by men, by which men are tormented and even killed. It is a destructive power that threatens the world. And then there is the power of terroristic ideologies. Violent acts are apparently made in the name of God, but this is not God: they are false divinities that must be unmasked; they are not God. And then drugs, this power that, like a voracious beast, extends its claws to all parts of the world and destroys it: it is a divinity, but a false divinity that must fall. Or even the way of living proclaimed by public opinion: today we must do things like this, marriage no longer counts, chastity is no longer a virtue, and so on.
These ideologies that dominate, that impose themselves forcefully, are divinities. And in the pain of the Saints, in the suffering of believers, of the Mother Church which we are a part of, these divinities must fall. What is said in the Letters to the Colossians and to the Ephesians must be done: the domination, the powers fall and become subjects of the one Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning this battle in which we find ourselves, of this taking power away from God, of this fall of false gods, that fall because they are not deities, but powers that can destroy the world, chapter 12 of Revelations mentions these, even if with a mysterious image, for which, I believe, there are many different and beautiful interpretations. It has been said that the dragon places a large river of water before the fleeing woman to overcome her. And it would seem inevitable that the woman will drown in this river. But the good earth absorbs this river and it cannot be harmful. I think that the river is easily interpreted: these are the currents that dominate all and wish to make faith in the Church disappear, the Church that seems no longer to have a place in the face of the force of these currents that impose themselves as the only rationality, as the only way to live. And the earth that absorbs these currents is the faith of the simple people, that does not allow itself to be overcome by these rivers and that saves the Mother and saves the Son. This is why the Psalm says the first psalm of the Hour the faith of the simple at heart is the true wisdom (cf. Ps 118: 130). This true wisdom of simple faith, that does not allow itself to be swamped by the waters, is the force of the Church. And we have returned to the Marian mystery.
And there is also a final word in Psalm 81, "movebuntur omnia fundamenta terrae" (Ps 81: 5), the foundations of the earth are shaken. We see this today, with the climatic problems, how the foundations of the earth are shaken, how they are threatened by our behavior. The external foundations are shaken because the internal foundations are shaken, the moral and religious foundations, the faith that follows the right way of living. And we know that faith is the foundation, and, undoubtedly, the foundations of the earth cannot be shaken if they remain close to the faith, to true wisdom.
Then the Psalm says: "Arise, God, judge the world" (Ps 81: 8). Thus we say to the Lord: "Arise at this moment, take the world in your hands, protect your Church, protect humanity, protect the earth". And we once again entrust ourselves to the Mother of God, Mary, and pray: "You, the great believer, you who have opened the earth to the heavens, help us, open the doors today as well, that truth may win, the will of God, which is the true good, the true salvation of the world". Amen. [link]
Your brother in Jesus through Mary,
~ Aodhagain
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Comments: 68
Lovely icon,perhaps you are willing to make another one in this hi res?
byzantine version of Christ?
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Thank you! 
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Please try the portrait version like this one [link]
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Good idea! Yes, I'll put that on my list... I was also thinking one more focused on Christ the King... something more along the lines of this: [link]
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maybe thats even better version
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Yeah... my parish has something like that, except carved in stone on the outside of the church building. I wanted to do something along those lines.
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i really dont know why you catholics even try to imitate eastern icons, when we said everything we needed to say in 1054
hope orthodox people never forget catholic crusades, ww1, ww2, and many other quasi-christian interventions against the so called "evils of islam"
when in fact we were slaughtered with the popes blessings
wolf can change its fur,but the character never
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First, many Catholics are part of liturgical rites that follow the eastern tradition and icons are something very much a part of their spirituality. 1054 was not a split between the east and the west, but the Catholics and those who left and formed the Orthodox. Icons are a great part of our Catholic heritage. I personally have a very deep love for Eastern spirituality - particularly iconography and chant. There are still many many Catholics today who attend the Divine Liturgy in the tradition of the Byzantines and other Eastern cultures.
I hope the Orthodox never forget that they were the ones who asked for help because of Islamic military expansion which greatly threatened the Byzantine Empire. And the Catholic Crusades were partly a response to this. The evils of Islam were very real, as the Orthodox should remember better than we do, especially what happened in 1453 with Constantinople. There were things that happened during the Crusades, done by Catholics, that we disgusting and horrible in regards to the Byzantine Orthodox. What happened here was certainly NOT done with the Pope's blessings... However, the Orthodox and Christians were united against the Islamic threat. I encourage you to read the Alexiad, a historical document from the time written by the daughter of Alexios Comnenus.
Do not confuse the Catholic Church with the West in general. The Catholic Church, as should be inherently obvious from the term "catholic" (a Greek word, incidentally, that denotes "universal), span the entire world and are part of all cultures and heritages - not simply the west, but the East as well. I should hope you bear this in mind, particularly when looking at the first and second world wars.
I pray every day for the reunion of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
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thats because you made up those so called templars when you needed them, afterwards when the pope wanted to get their gold, he demonized their role in the crusades so they were the ones responsible what happened in the east
luckily the gold went missing,
in any way islam will take over the europe in due time so dont be scared when you see on tv mujaheedin killing people in rome,paris
trust me next time they atempt jihad in europe we wont slow them down like in the medieval times
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Yes, we started the Templars for the Crusades. They were by no means the ones responsible for the abuses in the Crusades. Not by a long shot. What happened later with them being burnt at the stake was more political with the delinquent king Philip of France. There are documents from Pope Clement that show that he opposed what happened to the Templars.
Islam hardly needs to attempt jihad to take over Europe. They pretty much just need to keep doing what they're doing - i.e. having children while the rest of Europe practices contraception and abortion. They can just breed the Europeans out.
No, I don't think we'll slow them down in the way we did in Medieval times. But believe me, that doesn't mean we won't slow them down. God will side with His people.
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by we i meant my nation which payed the ultimate price in every conflict regarding the turks,while you in the west feasted in castles we were on the battlefields fighting sultans and their concept of an "islamic arrow that shall cross through vienna,paris,rome,london and conquer the world" as they said to our captured prince in the kosovo 1389
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To be fair, the Westerns made some effort. Well, I would say more specifically, the Catholics made some effort - particularly the Popes. I'd also mention St. Catherine of Siena. And eventually they managed to stop the Muslim expansion into the west, particularly at the battle of Lepanto. Still, western Europe was rather stupid for the most part.
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yes first in croatia where you forcibly made orthodox serbs into catholic croats
and even today you are still trying to exterminate us,but we will never convert to your religion
your dear pope john paul 2,publicly advocated for explulsion of orthodox christians out of croatia and bosnia in 90s,bombardment of serbia in 1999,now you wanna try that old trick with ecumenism since serbs in serbia hate everything catholic.
we know what you really are,and what you really want
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I am not very familiar with what you're referring to, but I know a bit about it.
Just because a Catholic clergyman is performing some atrocity doesn't mean that our religion, and the Pope, publicly condone this. I should that's obvious, just refer to the sexual abuse scandals. Obviously, the Catholic Church is not advocating the abuse of minors. And it's stupid to claim that they do simply because Catholic clergyman perform such actions.
Were Bl. John Paul II to advocate the expulsion of orthodox Christians out of Croatia and Bosnia, it would utterly contradict his other policies and actions during his papacy. Not to mention what he taught. Just refer to the encyclical Evangelium Vitae. So, though I don't know many details, pardon me if I'm a bit skeptical. What you may be referring to is that he beatified this bishop: [link] which met with some controversy.
Please, I understand that Catholics have committed many atrocities against Orthodox. We do not condone this, and we condemn it as evil just as much as you do. However, I am sure Orthodox have committed many atrocities against individual Catholics - would you condone this, simply because they are Orthodox?
I think it's silly to "wander interminably in the realm of comparative atrocities" (Ronald Knox).
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in every war we never tried to implement our beliefs to anyone,while you harrased us and many more for not wanting to accept pope as the highest authority of christianity on this planet,therefore that makes a difference.
even in times of peace you infiltrated into eastern churches hoping to gain followers,by threats or by means of undermining our efforts to be independent in any way you deemed possible
best example is opus dei and many quasi-orthodox priests who entered our churches to preach us the so called ecumenism aka "pope wanna rule orthodox people" movement
lets just face it-you are losing believers so you wanna forcibly make us into catholics
we have lived under muslim rule for 500 years and many think that it was far better then than it is today in catholic european union
fake friendship never lasts long,many believe there was no friendship between us and you in any point in history
only a pure interest i.e when you wanted the muslims out of europe
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When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what the other side has done. We'll never get anywhere. What matters is what is True or not. Christ instituted the Church, he named Peter the first Pope... the Orthodox left. Yes, we want to bring you back to the fullness of Truth. It's not about the Pope trying to "rule Orthodox people" but trying to reunite Christ's Church. Christ has only one Spouse, God was never big on polygamy.
Well, I object to forcing people to convert. That's not a true conversion.
I don't object to people like Opus Dei going in and preaching the Catholic faith. Sorry, that's what Christ commands us to do.
I am sorry that you've been so purely treated at the hands of Catholics. But the efforts of the Pope are not to force you to be under his rule, but to bring you back to the fullness of truth and to reunite Christ's church. We cannot act differently without disobeying the direct mandate of Christ to preach the Truth.
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everyone can and will believe in the christ as they see it,not what someone says them is right and whats wrong
the truth has been accepted by everyone who calls himself christian, it certainly does not incorporate papacy as the only source of truth nor its supremacy over all other
pope accepts only one doctrine:i lead all other follow
many orthodox dont like that kind of supremacy imposed,much better is to change it completely into this one:first among equals
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The fullness of truth has not been accepted by everyone who calls himself Christian. Some Christians deny crucial doctrines that Jesus Himself taught - such as the Eucharist. Truth is not a matter of opinion!
Read the Bible. Christ gives Peter the "keys to the kingdom of heaven". He is the rock on which Christ builds His church. The Pope should not be a worldly leader, but a "servant of the servants of God".
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that is the problem and the source for utter attack on everyone who oppose it
you started it in 1914 then in 1941 then in 1991
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If Catholics have attacked Orthodox violently in order to try and get them to believe, then I consider them to be against Catholicism as well as Orthodoxy. That is contrary to Catholic doctrine. You're not thinking with common sense.
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i dont judge that at all,but the main reason we cant aggree over 1000 years is so much in doctrine as in neigbourly relations,due to diferences in viewing the family and the politics
family between an orthodox and roman catholic is often very tricky businness for example
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Alright, I'll consent to that. What do you mean by "the family" and the "politics family" specifically?
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mixed marriages never worked and always showed what is the current situation considering the 2 groups of christians
politics are the factor that clearly showed hatred between us
heck,ethnic tensions were just a fabricated excuse during wars,true reason was religion
and its normal we wont unite ever again after 1054 thats the fact
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I agree that mixed marriages hardly ever work. Religion, however, is not politics.
I think reunion of the Churches is very very possible. Because you can bet that God wills it, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of unity. St. Paul clearly says "let there be no disagreement among you" and in other places clearly rebukes early Christians for fighting amongst themselves. God does not want us to be separate. And so therefore, the Churches will be reunited someday (and probably sooner than you'd think) whether you like it or not.
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omg! i grew up in a Byzantine Catholic Church & we always called Mary, the Mother of God, but when i was 15 the priest told us that the Diocese told us we had to call her the Theotokos. I went: doesn't that translate to God Bearer or Mother of God?
& the priest went: well, yeah
me: THEN WAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!
Priest: the Diocese said we have to call her that now
me: if they told us to jump off a bridge, should we?
Priest: ...
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Huh... That's weird. 
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idk, but it's Byzantine, weird.
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Ah well. 
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it's really beautiful. i'm not a fan of roman rite mass, it comes from growing up in the byzantine
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Well, I think the Novus Ordo Mass currently is very watered down and most parishes put very little effort into it. I'm just more comfortable with that form of the Mass having grown up with it.
Question, is Byzantine liturgy in Greek? or do they use English as well?
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not the one I went to. It was in English & b4 it was English it was in Latin
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Very lovely!!! I've been waiting for you to put this one up!! 
In ways of critiques, as you know, I still think her head should be more rounded, and that gold background is REALLY BRIGHT.
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THANK YOU!!! 
I know. Ditto. Oh well. I tried to rectify it, but... it didn't work.
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This is just gorgeous....I love the tenderness in both their faces. May I ask if you're a Priest? Or religious? Many of my most treasured friends are Priests. How I have devoted so much of my heart and my prayers to the Lord's Princes on earth.
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Thank you so much.
No, not yet.
Our priests, our bishops, our war leaders so to speak, have a very special place in my prayers as well.
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"I'm too young still to join the priesthood. I plan on joining the seminary as soon as I can."
Stay strong, keep the Faith. The call to priesthood is at once one of joy and burden; of exaltation and humiliation. If it truly God's will that you become a priest, He shall lead you accordingly. And all of Hell will be bent on destroying you.
Entrust yourself to Christ. Bind yourself to the Trinity; nail yourself to the Cross. Remember that the greatest is truly the least. Love all, and despise your sin. Pray fervently, and walk in honesty.
But, you know all of this. Alas, forgive the ramblings of an old soul...
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"And all of Hell will be bent on destroying you."
I know. I'm excited. 
"Entrust yourself to Christ. Bind yourself to the Trinity; nail yourself to the Cross. Remember that the greatest is truly the least. Love all, and despise your sin. Pray fervently, and walk in honesty."
Best possible advice to give to anybody for any occasion.
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"I know. I'm excited.
Reminds me of a quote:
"Plunge your head into hell, and despair not."
"Best possible advice to give to anybody for any occasion.
I deserve no props. But, thanks anyways
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Well, it was well said.
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I have been occasionally known to say something worthwhile.
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I can feel a Priest's heart in you. I tend to get drawn to a lot of Priests and men called by the Lord to join the Priesthood. What a long story that is lol. And GOOD ON YOU!!! I promise to include you in my prayers also
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Thank you, many people have told me that they can tell I am called to the priesthood (even without having met me before).
I shall pray for you as well.
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Fun fact: The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom has tons of references to the Theotokos. In fact, every petition ends with a 'Theotokion', an invocation of Mary's intercession. That, and constants cries of "Most Holy Theotokos, save us!" abound.
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