Brother Richard Maidwell: The Spirituality of Icons

by Admin · February 12, 2015

Br Richard Maidwell, on his video explains the spirituality of Icons

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

Brother Richard Maidwell, who has been a Brother for the Redemptorist Province of South Africa for thirty-one years now, is an icon writer who has a particular love and passion for Icons as part of the Church’s rich tradition.

Br Richard Maidwell, in his video explains the spirituality of Icons

Br Maidwells passion for icons began as a child, when parents received an icon from the Irish Christian Brothers. He said As a child this image spoke more to me then the images they I had at home.

He wanted to find out why this image spoke to him more than others.

When speaking about icons Br Maidwell likes to quote the first letter of St John, that which we have seen and touched and we have heard. This is the word of life, this is our subject. This is what we are trying to express to you.

Br Maidwell breaks down the Church’s teaching that Icons are an expression of the mystery of the incarnation and not a self expression of the artist as we find with other forms of art.

In his video, The Spirituality of Icons, Br Maidwell explains seeing the face of God for the first time and what it meant to humanity.

There is a long history in the face of Jesus – suddenly God has a face. The old testament speaks about seeking your face O Lord, there is a human need and a human longing to see the face of the beloved, Br Maidwell said.

To encounter the face of our God – this longing was filled in Jesus. That being the fundamental and the first revelation of God to humanity, that God has a face. It stands to reason that the image must and needs to be perpetuated to remind us that God became one of us in Christ and that he didnt have just any face, he had a very particular face, He added.

As we know a face expresses who we are and what we are. We are recognised by our facial features and expressions and no less the son of God in Christ.

Close to the end of the video, Br Maidwell speaks about an Icon being a perpetuation of Church tradition, the same way the priest reads the gospel, and he cannot change the text. In the same way I cannot change the painting, because of the canon of iconography. I just perpetuated the tradition, its not my expression of what Jesus and his mother looks like, its the expression of the Church.

He continues: That is what makes the Icon very special, because they are outside the whole idea of art being a personal expression.

They hold within them the dogma, the teaching and the fundamental idea that God became one of us. Every Icon whether its an Icon of Our Lady or of the saints, is actually an icon of Christ, because we all called to become him, were all called to become Icons and to see everyone around us as an Icon of Christ, as a Icon of the living presence of God, Br Maidwell said.