ANGELS REJOICE WITH US

Lyuba Yatskiv

Saint John Chrysostom (his name means "golden-mouthed), one of the great  doctors of the Church, was at the same time a Pastor and the Patriarch of Constantinople, where he too preached eloquently at the sacred liturgies each Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

“Behold on Christmas a new and wondrous reality. The angels sing and the archangels blend their voices in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt Christ’s glory. All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth and man in heaven. He Who is above now for our redemption dwells here below, and we who are lowly are by divine mercy raised up. Bethlehem this day resembles heaven, hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices. Ask not how. For where God wills, nature yields. For He willed. He had the power. He descended. He redeemed. All things move in obedience to God. This day He Who is born and He Who is becomes what He is not. He is God become man, yet not departing from His Godhead.”

(Lyuba Yatskiv whose icons I have used for this Christmas season was born in Lviv, Ukraine in 1977.  Her credo is a “search for spirituality in art forms”.   She says her work shows the inner world of man.  For me there is a startling beauty in her warm earth tones , especially in the faces of her subjects, who engage us as we gaze . When I look at her Virgin Marys I see life.  Lyuba has been criticized for not writing icons in the “traditional “ style, but for me there is a fluidity which  is so unlike the static icon, lacking in movement, action, or change.)