Feathering the Nest ~ icon corners and books

I love my bedroom icon corner.
The other day I had a tall beeswax candle burning
(I checked on it periodically) and by the end
our room had a wonderful deep sweet scent
from the candle...

I have had icons on this shelf in the same corner...
but I knew I would have to rearrange it as we
have more books coming...
we ordered some and picked out the best of
my old book collection that is in my parent's house... 

 

This is how it looks now;
more changes will be made
as the boxes arrive,
but I am happy with the progress! 

St. Elizabeth ~ Mother of the Forerunner

Years ago
on the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist
my spiritual father gave me my name's Saint,
St. Elizabeth the Mother of St. John the Baptist.
She is celebrated both
on this feast and on a feast in September.
*
I blogged a few years back
about how I did not yet have the icon
of my name's Saint
and felt it would come when it was supposed to.
*
For my first names day
on the summer feast of
St. Elizabeth the Mother of St. John the Baptist 
as a married woman
Mr. Husband got me this icon!
*
It just came in the mail today!


I knew where I would put it, as I explained
to Mr. Husband that I had a place for her waiting
since the time I put up my icons in my
icon corner.

She's right next to
St. Irene of Chrysovalantou
who is the Patron I took at my chrismation
but never felt called to change my name to her name.
*
One of the female monastics
I talked to years ago
said that we can have more than one Patron Saint.
Some of my 'most special' ones are seen on my wall in the
picture above.
St. Nicholas, St. George, St. Spyridon,
St. Herman of Alaska, St. Phanourios,
St. Irene and St. Elizabeth

I told Mr. Husband years ago of
Kathleen Norris writing of the
Catholic Saint Theresa the Little Flower
that she was offered a ribbon and said
I choose all.
Mr. Husband says I am the same;
all the ribbons is one of our
family sayings.
Well, when it comes to Saints and Icons,
It's a good thing in my book.

The paper icon is of the
Mother of God of Hawaii
that was recently given to me and is a
real blessing to me.

 

My first icon:
St. Xenia of Petersberg.
Above is St. John of Rila and St. Barbara.
*
I've been waiting for the icon of St. Elizabeth
for a long time
and so glad she is with me now.
*
Though I remember years ago when my Ukrainian mother
helped me put up my icons
in my second apartment in Ottawa,
a sunny U-shaped apartment with carpet,
white and black linoleum in the kitchen,
and a lovely little icon area...
I was so relieved to have icons up,
my relief was palpable but
I was merely laughed at:
do you think the Saints are only with us when we can see them
in their icon?! 
*
So it is.
St. Elizabeth has been with me for a very long time.
I even have an older plaque of the name
Elizabeth: beloved of God
that my Mom found for me.
*
I always knew that was what my name meant.
It was wonderful to see how indeed
my spiritual father knew
that St. Elizabeth the Mother of the Fore-runner
is my name's Saint.
*
Mr. Husband and I were recently inspired to
add a small prayer to our patrons and I am delighting
in this prayer to St. Elizabeth:

As the full moon brightly reflects the light of the sun,

you reflected the glory of the Messiah, the Light of wisdom!

With Zachariah you walked in all of the Lord¹s commandments,

Elizabeth, beloved by God.

Thoughts on Saturday - St. Olga's Day

I am very slowly reading

Fredrica Matthewes-Green's book,

The Jesus Prayer;

So far all I can say about this book is that it is not for the

faint of heart,

is very instructive and accessible

and that if you are an Orthodox Christian

I would strongly recommend consulting your priest or spiritual father

for discernment for how to apply it.

*

Meanwhile, I am hoping to listen soon to her podcast on distractions in prayer

as I have much to learn.

*

In her book she speaks of growing in the Jesus Prayer

and that one eventually can be given the space

to begin seeing and examining one's thoughts

to see if they are actually good or true thoughts.

*

I have been thinking about thinking and thoughts

since reading the beginning pages of this book;

how often are we more interested

in our own thoughts

than in concentrating in prayer;

how silly my own thoughts can be

when I actually look at them just a tiny bit.

How quick wrong thoughts are and how embedded;

as easy as a quick stab of jealousy over a picture of some one's house

with a well ordered beautiful icon corner

while forgetting that one's own corner

is a gift from God

and is also beautiful.

Not to mention forgetting that things like Icon Corners

develop over time;

for example,

my first Icons were almost all printed paper copies;

I was a student and did not have money

to spend on much...

*

God is so merciful to give us authors like

Kh. Fredrica who help make sense of these things.

God has been merciful also to me this week!

Even though I did fail my first French test

I took another one on reading

as I was given the option to do so.

*

While on this French test also

I did not get the level needed,

I was really close to it

and did quite well.

*

I was so happy!

By God's mercy I was able to have a better strategy for taking

the timed online test

and was more peaceful, since there was no pressure as

I had already failed the first test

which put me out of the running for the job

that I was doing the test for.

*

So while I will be job searching full time now

(i.e. instead of studying French full time)

I am still going to seek to keep up practicing my French.

*

I will need God's mercy to do so...

Am hoping to have another tea party soon.

*

It is so beautiful to create beauty and I thank God

for the opportunity.

*

God is so good to us.

*

Lastly, St. Olga's day is today, old calendar;

Read her story here

and take heart and

see how a Grandmother's influence is strong!

How many of us have been saved by our Grandmother's prayers...