This quote is beautiful because it has two movements - first from our words to our actions, and then from our actions to our deepest selves. This true, essential self in each of us, the place where Christ makes his home, is the self that Mother Gavrilia saw in others and what filled her with such joy.
Icons take shape over hours, days, weeks of time: layers and layers of nearly nothing–just pencil marks and paint–built up over time into a living presence. In the same way, the icon of Christ is within each of our hearts, built up over time through the ordinary acts of teaching, prayer, liturgy, community - and together, we join each other on the journey of that icon’s ripening.
This is our goal at Axia - that Orthodox women across jurisdictions will have a space to gather together to learn, heal, connect, and share, and that together we will create a space to encounter the icons of Christ within each other. In a beautiful and mysterious way, we each contribute to the layers that build up over time and refine this icon in our hearts. That is why, in our celebration of Women of the Week and Featured Saints, we want to introduce you to incredible Orthodox women past and present who in some way add to our Orthodox experience and become companions on this journey.
Our strategic planning meeting in September brought us to a vision whose core is the need to create spaces where Orthodox women, who may feel or are unseen, unheard, or marginalized, can bring their full selves and where the Church’s teachings can be lived out in real and tangible ways through training, healing, and research. We’ll be rolling this out over the next three years starting this January, and can’t wait to share the details!
Help us get there: https://app.aplos.com/aws/give/AxiaWomen/EOYAppeal2024
ships in your journey towards Christ.
Join us: https://app.aplos.com/aws/give/AxiaWomen//EOY2024