Icon of Emmaus

 

 

Icons have long been used in prayer as aids to experiencing the beauty and love of God. This icon depicts the story in Saint Luke’s Gospel (24:13-35) about how two of Jesus’ disciples experienced the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus.

 

As the disciples made their way along, they talked about Jesus’ recent death and the heartache of their loss. Jesus himself joined them on their journey, but they did not recognize him as they travelled together. Jesus then taught them from the scriptures about himself, and at the end of day joined them at table for the breaking of bread. In that moment the disciples’ eyes were opened in recognition of the one their hearts had known all along.

 

Emmaus House is named after this story because our ministry seeks to help people come to that same recognition of Christ in their lives. Through spiritual direction, retreats, and other opportunities to share about our lives and the scriptures, and in the celebration of Eucharist, we too become better able to recognize the risen Christ ever in our midst. The one whom our heart already knows is recognized in new and ever more personal ways.

 

This icon copyright belongs to Sister Marie-Paul Farran, O.S.B.,of the Monastery on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, Israel. Her community is a cloistered French-speaking small group of nuns. They are a very poor community located in the Arab part of the city. One of their main sources of support is sale of Sister Marie-Paul’s icons, both originals and reproductions. The Printery House of Conception Abbey is a North American defender of her copyright.