Christ the Teacher, Theotokos, Guardian Angel
For lay Orthodox believers who are not priests or monastics, the step-by-step work of spiritual life, anagogy, occurs largely at home and work, through prayer. The home is considered a mini church, so all Orthodox Christians have icons in their homes, and even on their desk at work, in their cars, and in suitcases when they travel—for them, prayer happens all the time. Most importantly, each home has an “icon corner” or room, the spiritual center, where the family gathers for prayers, often before or after meals, and throughout the day. Because the family is considered a microcosm of the Church, with Christ as its head, this “Beautiful Corner” will usually have at least one icon of Christ.
A family might decorate the corner with a cloth embroidered with the patterns and colors for each church feast: red for Nativity, green for Transfiguration, blue for feasts of the Theotokos (Mary). Icon cards might lean against larger icons as well as blessed flowers, candles, prayer books, and various remembrances from pilgrimages. It is an active place of prayer with lit candles and incense that need tending throughout the day.
When young couples marry in the Orthodox Christian tradition, they will ask a slightly older married couple to be their “wedding sponsors.” The sponsoring couple holds marriage crowns over the heads of the couple during the wedding procession and promises to pray daily for the couple. Either the couple’s parents or the sponsors will give the couple a wedding icon, which is blessed on the church altar during the wedding ceremony and stays with the couple for the duration of their married life. In addition to the wedding icons, the new family will collect meaningful icons of their name saints or saints that have become important to their family over time.
The most basic icon corner will almost always include an icon of Christ, an icon of the Theotokos, and an icon that represents something personally meaningful to the household. Here, the iconographer chose to add the guardian angel because of the verse in Psalms 91:11, “For to His angels he has given command about you, to guard you in all your ways.” As we have seen, angels are messengers from God; and this guardian angel holds a small linen-wrapped figure, which symbolizes the body of our soul being protected by God. The Book of Wisdom says, “The souls of the righteous are in the Hands of God.”