Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;

For my eyes have seen Your salvation
Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,

A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.

Seen above, the art of Suzanne Thompson. Top and front-page mastheads: "Count the Stars," Genesis 15:5; silk-screened, embroidered, beaded, hand- and machine-quilted. Middle: "Union," hand- and machine-quilted. Bottom: "Grace," Silk-screened, machine- and hand-quilted.

Words above: Luke 2:29-32 (New King James version)

For centuries icons have been recognized as tangible reminders of the spiritual reality that surrounds and encompasses the world of the senses, and as such, impart grace to the faithful who gaze upon them.

Everything shown in an icon is symbolic. The figures depicted in icons are intentionally stylized and two dimensional.

The unseen "third" dimension of an icon is beyond the natural eye: an icon is a window into the spiritual dimension.

Images above by Caroline Furlong. Top and front-page mastheads: Pantocrator. Middle: Guardian Angel. Bottom: Theotokos.

Words above by Caroline Furlong.

See these icons and more in a new EDOT Gallery show — Icons and Saints, curated by Marilyn Biles — which opens November 7, 2010 and runs until December 30, 2010. EDOT Gallery is located at the Episcopal Diocesan Center, 1225 Texas Avenue in downtown Houston.

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,
or being loved.

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey
to find its source, and how the moon wept
without her lover’s
warm gaze.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither
like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon
us.

Images above by James A. Mangum. Top and front-page mastheads: "El Alma de Maria." Middle: "Nuestra Senora de Tejas." Bottom: "Nuestra Senora de Czestochowa."

Words above: "The Hope of Loving" by Meister Eckhart

Look, in these silences
which things sink into
and seem on the verge of
opening their closest secret,
you'd expect once in a while
to uncover some mistake

in nature, the world's still point,
some weak link, the loose thread
that leads us at last
to the heart of truth. Eyes
rummage in every corner:
the mind seeks agrees argues

with itself in this perfume
that floats – as day fades –
over everything; a silence
in which, in every dwindling
human shadow, a troubled
divinity could be seen.

Images above by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Top and on front-page mastheads: "Moon Night" Middle: "Snowy Landscape" Bottom: "Schlemihl's Encounter With The Shadow"

Words above by Eugene Montale, from “The Lemons”