Matrona's first icon corner

[Matrona]

Within a week or so, I should be moving in to an apartment, and for the first time I'll be able to have my very own icon corner. I don't have all that many icons just yet, but I'm going to place an order once I get back to school. I already have several saints in mind. What I want to know is, what, besides icons, do I need for my icon corner?

Also, how do I go about getting the icons blessed? The ones I have were blessed before they were given to me. I know my priest blesses them but I don't think he makes you wait forty days.

By the way, since we're not supposed to have candles or incense, I don't think I can have an oil lamp. But I think I can get away with something like a votive candle, since that wouldn't be too difficult to hide.

 

[MariaRegina]

Within a week or so, I should be moving in to an apartment, and for the first time I'll be able to have my very own icon corner. I don't have all that many icons just yet, but I'm going to place an order once I get back to school. I already have several saints in mind. What I want to know is, what, besides icons, do I need for my icon corner?

Also, how do I go about getting the icons blessed? The ones I have were blessed before they were given to me. I know my priest blesses them but I don't think he makes you wait forty days.

By the way, since we're not supposed to have candles or incense, I don't think I can have an oil lamp. But I think I can get away with something like a votive candle, since that wouldn't be too difficult to hide.

Perhaps you can light the votive candle whenever you pray before the icon corner. They probably don't want fires started by unattended candles.

 

[nicodemus]

Matrona,

I remember getting to put mine up for the first time, it's great! When I got baptized, I got about 10 million icons...way more than any human being could put in one house. Not only that, but I was given many, many duplicates, etc. I'd be more than happy to send you a few if you'd PM me your address.

Just ask your priest about blessing the icons.
Things to go in the corner: icons, lamp or candles, incense, a cross, I keep a Bible there as well as a prayer book and a prayer rope.

 

[Philip]

I keep a Bible and my prayer book with my icons. I keep a small candle there as well, but I only light it when I am there. I fear what my cat might do with a lit candle.

 

[Matrona]

I keep a Bible and my prayer book with my icons. I keep a small candle there as well, but I only light it when I am there. I fear what my cat might do with a lit candle.

You have a kitty! I love kitties!

I think you and Chanter are right--I will only keep the candle lit when I'm in the room. I had a roommate who once left candles unattended. After she moved out from my room, she was later kicked off campus for causing a fire with one. (VERY luckily, no one was hurt. It was in the middle of the night, and more than one person I know has slept through a fire alarm.)

Incense, I think, is relatively safe. The most dangerous part is when you're lighting it and it's only smoldering the rest of the time. I already have a glass bottle incense burner where I burn incense sticks ($0.10 per stick is much cheaper than a lot of those artificial air fresheners and I like the scent of incense better anyway--it makes me feel like I'm in church). I've never had a problem.

I think the only reason they do not allow incense is because most students use it to try to cover up marijuana smoke. (The students are fighting a losing battle, trust me.) But if I burned incense in a censer of some sort in my icon corner, I'd be using it for a legitimate religious purpose, so I don't think they could get me for that. If it hasn't caused a fire the worst they can do is tell me to get rid of it.

 

[cleopa_of_emmaus]

I always used tea lights for my icon stand in my apartment, and they worked very well. I also put them out when I left because of my cats. Curious creatures, aren't they?

~cleopa

 

[Photini]

In my icon corner (which isn't really a corner...), I keep my incense, Bibles, prayer books, prayer ropes, holy water and oil, candles, and my oil lamp--which I try to leave burning constantly. It's in a protective "shelter", so there's really no danger of a fire when we're gone. My only pet is a bird...he's a canary.

 

[Photini]

Incense, I think, is relatively safe. The most dangerous part is when you're lighting it and it's only smoldering the rest of the time. I already have a glass bottle incense burner where I burn incense sticks ($0.10 per stick is much cheaper than a lot of those artificial air fresheners and I like the scent of incense better anyway--it makes me feel like I'm in church). I've never had a problem.

Is there a way you can purchase some incense from your church? It's quite different than the store bought kind. If not, I can send you some. The women's monastery (www.holyannunciation.org) that is not too far away makes it in many different scents. It's the kind we also use in my parish. I could send you charcoal and a little censer too if you need those as well.

 

[Philip]

You have a kitty! I love kitties!

I also put them out when I left because of my cats. Curious creatures, aren't they?

I don't know if you guys were here for the discussion last summer, but there was considerable debate on the merits of cats and dogs. It was observed that cats are (or at least were) allowed in an Orthodox church while dogs are not.

Okay, back to the icons.

 

[Photini]

I don't know if you guys were here for the discussion last summer, but there was considerable debate on the merits of cats and dogs. It was observed that cats are (or at least were) allowed in an Orthodox church while dogs are not.

Okay, back to the icons.

cats are the usual pet of monastics too...

 

[Orthodox Andrew]

cats are the usual pet of monastics too...

Cats seem too cold for me to like.

 

[Matrona]

Is there a way you can purchase some incense from your church? It's quite different than the store bought kind. If not, I can send you some. The women's monastery (www.holyannunciation.org) that is not too far away makes it in many different scents. It's the kind we also use in my parish. I could send you charcoal and a little censer too if you need those as well.

How wonderful! Thank you so much! You and Nicodemus are so kind! I've never had incense from a monastery or a censer or anything like that. My church is small so we buy our incense from elsewhere; I don't know where, though. Many of our candles come from Ss. Mary and Martha Monastery in Wagener, SC (http://www.oca.org/pages/directory/listing.asp?KEY=OCA-SO-WAGSMM). I'm hoping to be able to get my votive candles from them. My baptismal candle is one of their beeswax candles.

 

[Oblio]

We have a cat, (or he has us ) More than once he has jumped up on our home altar and dumped icons, cold ashes, candles and prayerbooks/bible behind the dresser that serves as the altar

Fo a safe vigil lamp, try using one that hangs well out of climbing and leaping range of your cat (Thanks to Mrs. prodromos for this idea )

 

[Philip]

We have a cat, (or he has us )

The latter is correct. (I am a cat-Calvinist.)

Fo a safe vigil lamp, try using one that hangs well out of climbing and leaping range of your cat (Thanks to Mrs. prodromos for this idea )

I may have to give this a try. I will have to move my icons away from the bookcase/cat-launch-pad for it to work.

 

[MariaRegina]

I don't know if you guys were here for the discussion last summer, but there was considerable debate on the merits of cats and dogs. It was observed that cats are (or at least were) allowed in an Orthodox church while dogs are not.

Okay, back to the icons.

A Matuska once told me that cats help the church by controlling rats and mice and that is their purpose.

Anyway, my cat likes cottage cheese, which she begs every noon.

Don't forget the rose petals and laurel leaves which are tossed all over the Church on Holy Saturday. These can also be placed on the icon corner.

 

[Matrona]

Cats seem too cold for me to like.

I had a kitty named Toby who LOVED attention. Sometimes, when I held him, he'd curl his body around the back of my neck like a fur wrap because he didn't want to be put down. (Good thing he wasn't very heavy, poor thing.) More than once when he came across me while I was asleep, he'd curl up in my arms and go to sleep himself!

I can see why monastics would like cats--they're good companions without being excessively messy and overbearing. Plus, they don't need to go outside to answer the call of nature. Give him a can of tuna, a litter box, and a warm patch of sun, and you have a happy little kitty.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, female cats are the only female creatures allowed on Mount Athos, since they catch rats.

Is it true that if you take a dog into an Orthodox church, you have to have it reconsecrated? What about seeing-eye dogs?

 

[Orthodox Andrew]

I had a kitty named Toby who LOVED attention. Sometimes, when I held him, he'd curl his body around the back of my neck like a fur wrap because he didn't want to be put down. (Good thing he wasn't very heavy, poor thing.) More than once when he came across me while I was asleep, he'd curl up in my arms and go to sleep himself!

I can see why monastics would like cats--they're good companions without being excessively messy and overbearing. Plus, they don't need to go outside to answer the call of nature. Give him a can of tuna, a litter box, and a warm patch of sun, and you have a happy little kitty.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, female cats are the only female creatures allowed on Mount Athos, since they catch rats.

Is it true that if you take a dog into an Orthodox church, you have to have it reconsecrated? What about seeing-eye dogs?

Sounds like you had a nice cat.

However, I did hear once that cats wait for their owners to die, so they can have the run of the house.:o

 

[nicodemus]

To order incense and other items go to:

http://orthodoxproducts.com/

It is the Orthodox Monastery of the Glorious Ascension in Resaca, Georgia (the state, not the country!) They're good monks and super nice. They're Jerusalem Patriarchate, but are Southernerns Fr. Parthenios (who handles most of the ordering) has a thick country accent!

 

[xenia]

I gotta agree- you have to be careful with cats and candles. One of my cats knocked over a candle- good thing I was there. I have thought of a hanging lamp, but I think that would just cause my cats to lie awake nights thinking of ways to get at it.

I have the usual things on my icon corner: Icons, incense, candles, prayer books, a Bible, charcoal, bottle of holy water, assorted flora from Church services, and some semi-quasi-pseudo relics that are special to me, such as a sea shell I picked up on the beach at the Med. Sea in Spain, which reminds me of St. Paul.

There is a wonderful Orthodox children's book about a monastery cat called The Abbot and I. It's a very sweet book!

Love to all,
Xenia

 

[Matrona]

I always used tea lights for my icon stand in my apartment, and they worked very well.

Tea lights would definitely work, at least part of the time. I don't know how often I'd be able to get the candles from the monastery.