Page 155
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2026 1:02 pm
Another icon is being highlighted for me. I really liked it — here the sun and the moon are depicted, and there is also something interesting in how two balls, or two spheres, two circles, are shown overlapping each other.
And here is what they write to me on the internet about this icon:
“In the upper part of the icon, there is often the sun and the moon. As here — the red sun and the silvery moon with faces. They symbolize that Christ is the master of all time. Of day and of night, of cosmos and of history. The angels around are the Cherubim and the Seraphim, the powers that ceaselessly glorify God. Below, in a blue circle, is the infant Christ Emmanuel (‘God with us’), young, sometimes with wings, indicating that the same one who was born of the Virgin is the eternal God, the Judge and the Saviour. The inscription above is often ‘Lord Sabaoth.’ This is the Lord of Hosts. This is one of the names of God the Father, but in the Russian tradition this was sometimes also the inscription for Christ in this image, emphasizing His divinity. The main meaning of this icon is the image of Christ in Glory.” You see — again “Christ in Glory.” “How will He appear at the end of times? Not as a meek infant, and not as the suffering one on the cross, but as the King and the Judge, who holds in His hands the fate of every person. But even in this awesome majesty He is the Saviour. Not one who punishes piercingly, but one who has already conquered death and sin by His sacrifice on the cross and by His resurrection. That is why the icon both frightens (‘The Last Judgment’) and consoles (‘Salvation has already been accomplished’).”
Now I want to share a little of what I have found on the internet about the created and the uncreated. “The uncreated is God Himself in His being. He is not made, has no beginning, depends on nothing, is limited by nothing, does not change, is not born and does not die. This is His essence, which is completely unknowable, unapproachable, beyond every mind and word. But it is also His energy. And His energies are uncreated actions, processions, radiances, grace, light, love, life — through which He Himself comes out to meet the creature, touches it, pervades it, dwells in it, does not mix with it and does not turn into it. The main difference is: the created is always after God. It depends on Him, of course. The uncreated is eternal, self-existent, and infinite.”
And here is what they write to me on the internet about this icon:
“In the upper part of the icon, there is often the sun and the moon. As here — the red sun and the silvery moon with faces. They symbolize that Christ is the master of all time. Of day and of night, of cosmos and of history. The angels around are the Cherubim and the Seraphim, the powers that ceaselessly glorify God. Below, in a blue circle, is the infant Christ Emmanuel (‘God with us’), young, sometimes with wings, indicating that the same one who was born of the Virgin is the eternal God, the Judge and the Saviour. The inscription above is often ‘Lord Sabaoth.’ This is the Lord of Hosts. This is one of the names of God the Father, but in the Russian tradition this was sometimes also the inscription for Christ in this image, emphasizing His divinity. The main meaning of this icon is the image of Christ in Glory.” You see — again “Christ in Glory.” “How will He appear at the end of times? Not as a meek infant, and not as the suffering one on the cross, but as the King and the Judge, who holds in His hands the fate of every person. But even in this awesome majesty He is the Saviour. Not one who punishes piercingly, but one who has already conquered death and sin by His sacrifice on the cross and by His resurrection. That is why the icon both frightens (‘The Last Judgment’) and consoles (‘Salvation has already been accomplished’).”
Now I want to share a little of what I have found on the internet about the created and the uncreated. “The uncreated is God Himself in His being. He is not made, has no beginning, depends on nothing, is limited by nothing, does not change, is not born and does not die. This is His essence, which is completely unknowable, unapproachable, beyond every mind and word. But it is also His energy. And His energies are uncreated actions, processions, radiances, grace, light, love, life — through which He Himself comes out to meet the creature, touches it, pervades it, dwells in it, does not mix with it and does not turn into it. The main difference is: the created is always after God. It depends on Him, of course. The uncreated is eternal, self-existent, and infinite.”