Denver Catholic

8 JULY 8-21, 2017 | DENVER CATHOLIC Around the Archdiocese BY THERESE BUSSEN I cons have existed from the time of the early Church and grew in popularity over the years as an aid in prayer and worship — but today, icons are often seen as irrelevant to our modern world because of their perceived rigidity and austerity. But it hasn't died out, and there's a reason. In Denver, instructor Laurence Pier- son, a former nun in the Community of Beatitudes, teaches a course at the Botanic Gardens called "Sacred Door- ways — Byzantine Iconography," which is the only icon painting class in the greater Denver metro area. Pierson attributes the long-surviv- ing tradition of icons to the same reason the Church still exists. "Tradition has great value, and if it's an art that's survived so many centuries, that's because there is a great value to it, and it's not only the tradition, it's that mainly, it's rooted in the Gospel," Pierson said. In an article called "Sacred Icons," painter Aidan Hart quotes John of Damascus, who said of icons, "What the written Word proclaims through letters, iconography proclaims and presents through colors." It is the same story of the Gospel, presented in art rather than word, and as the Gospel is timeless, so is the art of icons. And while they may look austere, that's not something to be afraid of, nor is it irrelevant in our modern time. "Even though an icon might look austere, it actually drives us beyond superfi cial emotions — they want us to go deeper. It's a deep joy," Pierson said. "I think you have to be quiet and go deeper. In the spiritual life, our ascetic aspect doesn't have to be forgotten, and some- times there is an ascetic aspect, and our human condition needs to be redeemed." "It's a medium that has to be redis- covered, and there is so much poten- tial," Pierson added. INVISIBLE REALITIES The deep spirituality of icons is part of what has preserved them through- out the roughly 2000 years that they've been around. Hart explains that icons are "not just pictures to look at, but are a door to heaven, a way of meeting those who dwell there." Hence the name of Denver's class, "Sacred Doorways." The material use of the paintings are a way for us to pass through the material world and into a knowing of the holy people depicted. This is just the tip of the spiritual mean- ing of icons. THE FORGOTTEN SPIRITUALITY OF ICONS A commissioned painting by Laurence Pierson, which depicts St. Seraphim of Sarov and St. Francis of Assisi together, symbolizing the bridge between the Western and Eastern rites and traditions of the Catholic Church. Why icons still matter to a modern world Around the Archdiocese PHOTO PROVIDED

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