Divine Ascent

by Andrea Elizabeth

I cannot dogmatically speak of the talk given by Father Justin from St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai. I did not take notes so pictures, phrases and names are passing through my head. The digital images of the 1000 year old Constantinoplean Lectionary were stunning. Each word in the gospels was gold leafed, as were the seven icons of: Christ, the Theotokos standing in humility, not my will but Thine, the four gospel writers and a Saint named Peter, I believe, of whom little is known. They also don’t know how the Manuscript made it to the monastery, but it is in beautiful shape. Much was explained on the process of producing such an exquisite book, and how St. Catherine’s became a haven for icons during the iconoclastic period. Father Justin spoke in appreciated detail of the defenses of icons made by St. Dionysios the Areopagite, St. John of Damascus, St. Maximus the Confessor, and the new to me St. Theodore the Studite. The explanation that stood out to me was that we learn, or come to know through our physical senses, so the visual representations enter into our consciousness and we physically venerate them, but then we are lead beyond the physical to venerate the prototype, Christ, His Mother, or the Saints. The soul is introduced through the physical but then in contemplation it sheds the physical and ascends to the spiritual.

Father Justin told me afterwards that St. Theodore the Studite’s explanations are a bit more dense and deeper than St. John of Damascus’. This is partly because he was in Constantinople at the time and under more direct persecution. What a terrible time. His works don’t seem available on the internet, but his books can be ordered. Maybe one of these days.

I missed yesterday’s presentation of the illuminated with 40 icons,St. John Climacus’ Ladder of Divine Ascent, a book many people read during Lent. I regret not being able to make it to SMU to see those illuminations.