This kingly Logos Emmanuel reinforces the Triumph of Orthodoxy. After the years of icon smashing and destruction were finished, the doctrinal implications for iconographers came down to one simple truth: all icons, essentially, represent Christ, the True Image. Icons of other saints reflect Christ because it is Christ’s light shining through the saint that makes them holy. Christ is the center of everything, as the Apostle Paul says, “In him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28 KJV).
A core proposition of the Prosopon School is that the process of learning to make icons physically, step-by-step, introduces and engages each student with the True Image, the Logos Emmanuel, God-With-Us. Our awareness of the Logos within us is activated when we notice God’s messengers mirroring and carrying his energy to us, for God longs to be in communion with us. Since the Logos Emmanuel, who is Christ, is the center of every synaxis or gathering of angels, it is an appropriate image for the Prosopon School. By assembling these images on separate boards, the Prosopon School calls our attention to the energetic strength of each angel, particularly the Logos. He is bold, royal, and on the cusp of manhood. Standing in front of this image, the Logos beckons the viewer to engage.
The expressive “presence” of this Logos Emmanuel is based on the mosaics in Kiev, and on the Mid-Pentecost icon of the young Christ teaching the leaders in the synagogue, where the boy, with the confidence of budding manhood, opens up scripture to his elders. It is this type of energy and confidence that speaks not only to an American audience, but universally to those who notice the stirring of the Logos within their own souls.
It is why the Logos was given wings—to reiterate the energetic movement, confident and bold, active and forceful, ready to ascend the ladder of spiritual journey. The presence of the Logos is summed up movingly by the prophetic words of King David in Psalm 62: “For You are my helper, and in the shelter of Your wings I will greatly rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand takes hold of me.”
At the middle of the feast of the Law, O Maker and Master of all, Christ our God, Thou sayest to those who came to it: Come ye and draw the water of immortality; therefore, we fall down before Thee and cry out with faith: Bestow Thy bounties upon us; for Thou art the Well-spring of our life.
~ Festal Kontakion