Prayer Ropes For St Demetrios Available Online!

As stated earlier, we are making prayer ropes to sell to raise funds for the St. Demetrios Mosaic Project. 

You can now purchase your Prayer Rope online using PayPal to help contribute towards the purchase of materials for the St Demetrios Mosaic Project. 100% of the money raised goes towards the project. The prayer ropes are available via Byzantia Icons

Painting the Icon (Part One) - Transferring The Image On To the Icon Board

With the sketch completed, the time has come to begin painting the Icon onto an icon board.
The icon board is a wooden board onto which 12 layers of gesso has been applied and sanded in between each coat to leave a smooth, ivory-like finish.The sketch is then traced on to tracing paper.

The prepared Icon Board.

 The image is then traced on to the board using a special "carbon paper". The "carbon paper" is a sheet of art paper on which is rubbed the dry pigment of Burnt Sienna.

Burnt Sienna being rubbed on to art paper to produce "carbon paper".

The prepared "carbon paper"

T






The "carbon paper" is then placed face down onto the surface of the icon board and secured.

Securing the "carbon paper" on to the icon board.

The tracing paper image is then secured on top of the "carbon paper"

Placing the tracing paper image over the "carbon paper".

The image is then traced over again:

Tracing the image.

When the image is traced, the tracing paper and "carbon paper" are removed, and we are left with a feint, burnt sienna image of the icon on the icon board which can be painted over.

the image on the icon board.

Reflections on Iconography and Life

The original sketch

The new sketch

"Not a knowledge that you learn, but a knowledge that you suffer. That is Orthodox spirituality."   -Eldress Gavrielia 

 The sketch for the icon has changed, particularly with the Saint's armor where a more angular design was chosen to emphasize the Saint's manliness.

 Iconography and Orthodox spiritual life have a lot in common because, of course, they cannot exist without each other. Icons are an integral part of Orthodox theology, since they are ultimately about Christology. Christ became incarnate and sanctified the matter of the universe, therefore we can use matter to depict Him and His Saints.

When designing an icon, we begin with prayer and then the sketch. The iconographer is not really an artist. The Artist is God, and the iconographer strives to be His instrument. But the iconographer is a human instrument living under the conditions of the Fall. In sketching the icon, the iconographer sits with their design and continually looks for ways of improving it. This means using the eraser as much as we use the pencil. And Orthodox spiritual striving is like this also, is it not? It is not an end but a continual process, a journey towards God which continues throughout this life and the next. We fall, we get up, we improve, we see ways of improving more, we fall again, we get up again and so on.

Sometimes, the iconographer sits with a sketch and looks at it for a long time. They know something is wrong, but can't quite put their finger on it. They pray, they study, they look at more perfect models, they seek advice from the more experienced, and then, God willing, they see what needs to be erased and changed, what needs to be added or subtracted. Just like all of life and especially spiritual life.

St. Demetrios Mosaic Project Prayer Ropes

Prayer Ropes (Gk: "Kombokine", Ru: "Chotki") have been used for centuries by Orthodox Christians in the practice of the "Jesus Prayer" or "Prayer of the Heart". In 1Thessalonians 5:17, St Paul exhorts us to "Pray unceasingly". The original Greek version is "αδιαλέιπτως προσεύχεσθε" which means "all of you, pray without interruption". Yet we have to work, we have to tend to our families, there are dishes and laundry to do and garbage bins to put out. Is the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle, asking us to do something impossible? How do we pray unceasingly? The answer is the Jesus Prayer. The words of the Jesus Prayer are simple yet profound:

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner."

This prayer is repeated continually, paying deep attention to the meaning of the words. The prayer presents us with two "poles", it begins with the greatness of the Living God on the one side, and finishes with the acknowledgement of our wretchedness on the other. Like a ship in distress which continually sends out the SOS signal, we repeatedly call on the Son of God to have mercy on us and save us. Using the prayer rope to anchor ourselves, we repeat the prayer on each knot of the prayer rope.

There is an interesting story about how the design of the Prayer Rope knots came about. There was a monk who wanted to make a prayer rope in order to count his prayers. However, each time that the monk completed a few knots, a demon would come by and untie them all. The demon knew for what purpose the monk was tying his rope and out of fear and spite wanted to keep him from being able to complete it. One day an angel of God appeared to the monk and, answering his prayers for help, taught him how to make a special kind of knot composed of seven interconnected crosses. This knot was so complicated and, having on it so many crosses, the demon was unable to untie it and the monk was finally able to finish his rope.

We are currently making prayer ropes to sell in order to raise funds for the St. Demetrios Mosaic Project.We have two designs: a wrist prayer rope featuring a cross with a bead in the centre, which is worn on the wrist as a reminder to "pray continually", as well as the 50 knot prayer rope with a cross and tassel (traditionally, the tassel is for wiping the tears of repentance). Both are made from strong, durable parachute cord (paracord). The wrist prayer rope sells for $10, and the 50 knot prayer rope sells for $20. Please allow extra for postage if required. Contact us if you would like to purchase one.

Wrist prayer rope, $10

50 knot prayer rope ($20)

Sanctify Those Who Love the Beauty of Your House.

Planning a mosaic icon above the entrance to the Church of St. Demetrios, NSW.

A visitor to an Orthodox Church building is often struck by the extraordinary beauty of the structure and it's furnishings. Despite centuries of suffering of the Orthodox Church throughout the world (last century alone saw the slaughter of 50 million Orthodox Christians), Orthodox Christians have insisted on making their church buildings, or more correctly, their "Temples" (Gk: "ναοί"), as beautiful as they could. This is how it has been for the two millennia of the Church's history, beginning with the frescoes which adorned Christian catacombs in ancient Rome. There is even a reference to Christian love of beautiful places of worship in the ancient prayers of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom which the Church has used in it's for 1600 years:

"O Lord Who blesses those who bless You and sanctifies those who put their trust in You, save Your people and bless Your inheritance. Protect the whole body of Your Church. Sanctify those who love the beauty of Your house..."
(From the Dismissal of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom)

 "Ὁ εὐλογῶν τοὺς εὐλογοῦντάς Σε, Κύριε, καὶ ἁγιάζων τοὺς ἐπὶ Σοὶ πεποιθότας, σῶσον τὸν λαόν Σου καὶ εὐλόγησον τὴν κληρονομίαν Σου. Τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς Ἐκκλησίας Σου φύλαξον, ἁγίασον τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας τὴν εὐπρέπειαν τοῦ οἴκου Σου..."
(Από την Απόλυση της Θείας Λειτουργίας του Αγίου Ιωάννου του Χρυσοστόμου)

 It is with this in mind, that permission was sought and granted from the Archdiocese of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia for the installation of a Mosaic Icon of St. Demetrios above the main entrance door of the Church of St. Demetrios in St. Marys, NSW, Australia.

Currently, the entrance door to the Church of St. Demetrios looks like this:

Main entry door of the Church of St. Demetrios

The potential is amazing given the large, flat surface of the wall and the beautiful arched shape of the door as well as it's centrality between two identical doors. Interestingly, the three entry doors reflect the three doors of the "Iconostasis" or Icon Screen which separates the Holy of Holies (altar area) from the Nave of the Church:

Iconostasis of the Church of St Demetrios

Above the central door of the Iconostasis (called the "Beautiful Gate") is the icon depicting the Mystical Supper when Our Lord instituted the Eucharist, which links what is happening in the Icon with what is seen happening below it on the Altar or "Holy Table".

So, what icon should go above the main entry door of the Church? Since the Church building is dedicated to St. Demetrios, the logical answer is that the Icon should depict St. Demetrios. In order to make the icon unique to the Church, it was decided to depict St Demetrios actually holding his Church building . After much research into various mosaics and several attempts at preliminary sketches, the iconographer came up with this sketch:

Preliminary sketch for Mosaic

The sketch depicts the Saint dressed as a warrior, holding the Church in his left hand while his right hand holds his spear. In the icon sketch, you can see the three entry doors of the Church.

The aim is to make the icon as large as possible without interrupting the arch of the church entrance, but rather, enhancing it. Here is an idea using raised borders that highlight both the entry door and the icon:

This is the plan. May The Lord bless our efforts!