At the centre of the Nativity icon—and, in fact, an image of Christmas complete in itself—is the stable cave. Within its dark outline, the wonder of the incarnate Christ dwells, along with his mother and a pair of animals. I think it’s fair to say the Nativity icon is especially beautiful within the iconographic canon, …
For the past five or six years, I’ve been working on the icon of Christ’s Nativity. Unlike a portrait icon of a saint—which I can usually design and sketch with a week spent learning, praying, and sketching—a festival icon is far more complicated in both its composition and theology, so the time spent designing any …
Place: Mount Carmel Spirituality Centre, 1225 Township Rd 535, Parkland Village, AB (West of Edmonton and north of Stony Plain)/ Time: 11 am Talk (following the community’s 10 am Mass) In preparation for the celebration of the Christmas Feast in 2024, the friars of the Mt. Carmel Spirituality Centre and Symeon van Donkelaar invite you …
In August, my family and I once again found ourselves on the move. The opportunities that led us out west in the first place presented themselves in new and exciting ways in the Albertan capital city of Edmonton. We had thought of the home we had found outside Red Deer as a place where we …
As I sit here in my little studio space in the city of Edmonton, I am being forced to ask myself whether the work of the Conestoga Iconographic Studio is worth continuing. For the past 26 years, I have been working steadfastly (if imperfectly) on the task I was commissioned to do for the church—to …
And so, with the Archbishop pouring out holy chrism oil onto the altar and proceeding to spread it across the altar table’s entire surface with his hand, the altar at Mt. Carmel is consecrated!
I was honoured to be invited to seal the altar during the chapel’s consecration. So, with the relics safely entombed, I set the table’s stone in place and sealed it in an act of completion.
Now the altar waits for the Bishop to come and consecrate it (and the new chapel) for use. My boys and I have been invited to attend and I’m looking forward to it next week.
After a herculean effort (especially moving the altar’s stone table) everything came to rest in place and there was a moment of fellowship among the friends who had helped.
Believe it or not, my son and I were able to load up the altar by ourselves by sliding it up on two lengths of plywood. And, after covering it up and strapping it down I made the trip up to the Mt. Carmel Spirituality Centre without incident.