CERTAINTY THAT
WE ARE LOVED
How should we interpret Christ- mas in our lives? - In our lives, Christ’s birth unfolds as a gracious visit of the Holy Spir- it. “God desires, in each of us and in all generations, for the Secret Incarnation of the Son of God to occur,” wrote St Maximus the Con- fessor in the 7 th century. He meant not to limit oneself to one place, but to become meaning and life, again and for all. Christ responds to the existential pulses within us. That sense of certainty that we are loved provides the ultimate meaning to our lives.
the chains of formalism so that we won’t insist on symbols without that which they epitomise. We shouldn’t transform God in- to an object, rather we should accept him as Life. The badnjak Yule branch is becom- ing a rarity in California, with branches on- ly piled and burned beside temples, or in replaces in homes. Lighting a Yule branch doesn’t make as much sense in the heat of Hawaii as it does in the cold of Chicago or Colorado, but the church doesn’t deter- mine customs, rather customs determine the Church, as a living community that has throughout history transferred people to the other shore of true existence in love with God and people. Christ responds to the existential pulses within us. That sense of certainty that we are loved provides the ultimate meaning to our lives. You practise iconography and paint- ing. How do your works emerge? - They emerge spontaneously, as the fruit of momentary inspiration. However, that is the fruit of studying the paintings of great masters. All we have when we come into the world is the face of our mother, and perhaps that’s why the human portrait fascinates me. Greek painter Fassianos says that he gets the jitters in front of a blank white canvas. I’m called to that experience of struggling with the canvas, a slight fe- ver and mysterious urgency ahead of that which comes after applying new shades of pigment. I then feel like I’m caught in the domain of some fairy tale. I try to avoid fall- ing into arti ciality, because it’s not beauty that I’m seeking; I’m more interested in the living truth of that which I paint.
U srpsku crkvu u Kaliforniji dolaze i holivudski glumci, poput Kristijana Bejla i Stane Katić The Serbian church in California is attended by Hollywood actors like Christian Bale and Stana Katić
To what extent can art be a prayer and to connect us with God? - It seems to me that this depends on whether our life is a prayer. Man uncon- sciously lives a prayer, in the sense that through desire he anticipates what is com- ing. That’s prayer in the broadest possible sense of the word, but the proper one is a living dialogue (not a monologue) with one’s personal God. And proper art is a prayer pro- vided the truths of life are revealed with it. What do you think about while ying
over the ocean? - I don’t know why, but up there thoughts are unburdened and I have more beautiful thoughts about people while y- ing... Taking o provides an opportunity to look towards Heaven, but I fear that the need for “connectivity” also strives to pre- vent that. Still, by the moment of Christmas we are all connected with Christ and there’s no longer room for delusions: everything is overwhelmed by the realism of God in the form of man.
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