The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer By Frederica Mathewes-Green – Christian Life – Iconography
Paperback 164 pages
Discover how icons can become part of your own life of prayer.
Encounter twelve of the world’s most significant Orthodox icons with one of today’s best-loved spiritual writers as your guide.
“The Open Door provides an open window into a radically different approach to spiritual formation, one that is more ancient/Eastern than modern/Western, one that feels refreshingly new as well as seasoned, rich, and time-tested.” —Brian McLaren, author of Everything Must Change and A Generous Orthodoxy
“The joy of [this] book is to allow us to meet the icons where the saints want us to meet them – face to face in a prayer corner, in candlelight as we approach the altar, above the beds of our sleeping children…This book is a call to stand still, take a deep breath and face the cloud of witnesses.” —Terry Mattingly, columnist, Scripps Howard News Service
“Framed as a visit to an imaginary Orthodox church, this series of meditations on icons—depictions of biblical and church history figures in paint, mosaic and other media—serves not only as an art history lesson but an examination of their role in public devotion and private prayer. Mathewes-Green pulls the reader right into the sanctuary with her, which gives the book immediacy and perspective…Redolent with the drama of liturgy, soaked in church history and laced with quotations from the Bible and Orthodox hymns, this slight volume offers rewards for both the intellectually curious and the religious seeker.” —Publishers Weekly
