Icon Corner

[AureateDawn]

I am making a little icon corner in my room out of some icons I managed to print off. I also printed out a few extras of the Cross and Mother and Child to hang elsewhere. I have a nice corner, but it's facing Northwest. The east area is completely occupied. So... is that alright? And where should I put the additionals?

In Christ,
Justin

 

[VickiY]

It's fine...my east wall is occupied (by doors and windows) in all the rooms of my house, so my main icon corner is on a north wall, although I have icons on the east walls of some rooms (over doors, for example) where they fit best (like my icon of St. Euphrosynos the Cook, which is in my kitchen)

 

[Shubunkin]

I thought the icons were supposed to face west so the person can pray facing east.

 

[AureateDawn]

Hrm. Well, the icons would be facing east, but I would be facing west, as the corner is in a northwest.

 

[wynd]

I read somewhere that west represents Satan (as evidenced in the baptismal liturgy where one spits three times towards the west), so one should not face their prayers that way if they can help it. But you should ask someone else, I don't know much!

 

[VickiY]

Icons should hang on the EAST wall, so YOU are facing east, if possible. Do try to avoid facing west, for the above referenced reasons.

 

[SeraphimSarov]

I know this is supposed to be done and I observe this, and I kind of remember the reason for it, but can someone post that reason again? Something like "I will pray toward your temple in the east," I think?

 

[nutroll]

When Christ returns, it is supposed to be from the east. To be fair, I am unclear as to what happens if you live anywhere east of where Christ appears on the globe, or whether someone due south would have to look north. In the end, I think it matters more that you pray than what direction one is facing. All things equal, one should face east, but i wouldn't lose sleep if your eastern wall has no room for an icon corner.

 

[MariaRegina]

Believe it or not, there are some Orthodox Churches here in the USA that do face West because the city government demanded that they do so. There is the placement problem.

 

[nutroll]

I would imagine a lot of churches have this problem because they were not originally designed to be Orthodox Churches. If a church used to be another kind of church, a storefront, or any other kind of building, it might not be possible to orient the church toward the east...

 

[AureateDawn]

Here is my finished icon corner! I am so happy that God has allowed me to have one! Even though we will be moving soon to accommodate my soon-to-be baby sister Lexie, I figured it was well worth it for the next few weeks we will be here. I tried to take some pictures of it last night with the candles lit, but no shot turned out quite right. It is so beautiful when I light the candles for evening prayer; I wish I could have taken a better picture.

I also took a couple during the day a few minutes ago.

The notebook is my makeshift prayer book; the Antiochian red one I found online and printed. Is it OK for me to keep my Bible open to Acts all the time on the table, or should I keep it closed? And lastly, do I light candles during evening only, or morning also?

Pictures I have seen have a cloth on the table. Plus, it's not the best looking table. Since it isn't winter, I covered it with a quilt my Granny hand sewed me.

I put names on the bottom of the printed icons so I could remember what they were called. xD

 

[AureateDawn]

And this last picture I figure I'd throw in here. It's the rest of my room (mostly, anyways) facing away from the icon corner. The long one, the pothos, was my great great grandmother's. Granny gave half of it to me.

 

[DonVA]

Nicely done, Justin! I think leaving the Bible open to Acts is just fine.

 

[Andrew21091]

Nice looking icon corner Justin. Very nice.

 

[Mysterium_Fidei]

Very, very nice!

While it is preferable that the icons be situated in such a way that allows you to face east while saying your prayers, it is perfectly fine to hang your icons wherever you have the space to put them. I think it is much more important for one to have a sacred place to pray rather than to worry so much about the direction it faces.

I'm currently in the process of moving, and I believe that my new icon corner may be on a western wall.

There are several ways to set up your icon corner. It is traditional to have Our Lady on the left side of the corner, and Our Lord on the right. The icon of the Theotokos and child represents Christ at his first coming, and the icon of the Pantocrator is Christ at his second coming. We are between these events, so thus the symbolism of the corner. At least that is what I have heard.

In any event, the icon corner can be set up a number of ways. You've done a very good job.

(Oh, and the candle should be left burning as often as you can attend it. Some keep theirs burning only during prayer, and that's OK too. I typically light mine in the morning, and leave it burning as long as I am home and awake.)

 

[Mysterium_Fidei]

Justin, do you have a prayer rope? If you're not very good at tying knots, you may wish to string beads together and add a cross or a tassel. I make chotki out of beads, and while not exactly professional, they are certainly a good reminder to pray.

Perhaps it would even be acceptable to order a free rosary on the internet and use it to count the Jesus Prayer on. I'm not sure if that would be considered OK or not, however.

 

[AureateDawn]

I've thought about doing beads. Mum is considering letting me order a prayer rope online from Holy Myrrhbearer's Monastery. She is quite opposed to my wanting to be an Orthodox Christian.

 

[Mysterium_Fidei]

I've thought about doing beads. Mum is considering letting me order a prayer rope online from Holy Myrrhbearer's Monastery. She is quite opposed to my wanting to be an Orthodox Christian.

I hope you can get your prayer rope! I'll pray for you and for your mother. My family was very opposed to me converting to Catholicism at first, and when I started "decorating my room Catholic" they were convinced I was in a cult or something. My grandparents, (God love them!) are very puritan minded people, and think religious imagery is weird to say the least.

Don't get me started on what happened when I started lighting candles and burning incense.

 

[ClementofRome]

FORGIVE ME! (I cannot resist)

MAKE YOUR BED YOUNG MAN!!

And, by the way, what is the name of your very cute dog?

Forgive me.

Clem

 

[AureateDawn]

I am a very neat person, but I cannot stand to make my bed. Especially when I used it as a chair for the TV and computer.

That's my sister, Sasse! I just realized she had her head poking in there.

In IC XC,
Justin