A very quiet day with mostly overcast skies and quite cold. It feels cold enough to snow. It has been possible to catch up on some necessary reading, after all, a person can never know too much (although, a person can know too much of the wrong thing).
Today my reading was concerning the developement of the iconostas which was a subject I knew very little about. How interesting it is and also very theological. I had always assumed and thought that the development of the iconostas was mostly for decorative purposes and that it was an immediate creation. Hmm! Wrong on both counts. I also thought that the iconostas divided the congregation from the sanctuary, wrong again. The iconostas was developed over many centuries and is a way of presenting, in condensed format, the story of the development of the Church and of our salvation through struggle with the passions and union with the Holy Mysteries and the past, present and future congregation of believers. Notice dear diary that I use the word “congregation” in the singular because all true believers of the Orthodox Faith are one congregation; past, present and future.
Not only was it possible to get some profitable reading done, but with the day being on and off sunny, there was opportunity for some exceptionally beautiful photographs of several crosses on the monastery grounds.
Seeing the crosses and
reading about the iconostas simply reminded me of the fact that for all
Orthodox believers, “Christ is Risen!”