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Voices Online Edition
Lent/Easter 2003
Volume XVIII, No. 1

Click on icon for a closer view
Msgr. Anthony A. LaFemina, The Incarnation, Copyright © 2000

About the Icon...

We are pleased to be able to feature a beautiful icon on our back cover, created by Monsignor Anthony A. La Femina.

The icon, The Incarnation, was written by Monsignor La Femina in celebration of the Great Jubilee -- 2000 AD, and depicts the moment of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she has been chosen by God to bear His Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit, according to the account of the Annunciation in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. The Church celebrates this feast on March 25, nine months before Christmas Day (Saint Luke tells us the Incarnation occurred "in the sixth month").

From Monsignor La Femina:

"At the very summit of the icon in the half mandorla (half circle), God the Father's hand is raised in blessing as He inaugurates His saving plan for the establishment of His New Covenant. The mandorla enclosing God's hand indicates that He is making an extraordinary intervention in our human sphere of time and space. From the Father's hand golden rays emanate and lead to another mandorla, in which God the Holy Spirit is represented as a dove. The rays from the Father indicate that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father to effect the Incarnation of God the Son.

"In the poster Gabriel exercises his most sublime role as Messenger of the Incarnation. He wears a shimmering white mantle over a green tunic. Since, in iconography, white signifies the Divinity, Gabriel's white mantle identifies him as God's ambassador. The green of his tunic expresses the messianic peace, hope and life, of which he is the Herald.

"Mary holds a spindle with thread in her left hand to symbolize that the Annunciation of the Angel took place among the ordinary events of Mary's daily life.

"The birth of Jesus was as supernatural as His conception. As He passed through the closed doors of the Cenacle after His Resurrection (Jn 20:19), so Jesus issued forth from Mary's sacred womb at His birth. For this reason, and in accord with iconographic tradition, Mary's mantle is adorned with three stars. These signify Mary's perpetual virginity: before, during and ever after the birth of her Son.

"In the icon the Lord Jesus is portrayed in all His human condescension as a helpless newly conceived babe in Mary's womb. However, Almighty God's personal name, the awesome Tetragrammaton -- 'I AM' (Ex 3:14) - identifies the Lord Jesus in the halo around His head. This graphically illustrates the truth that God the Son becomes like us in everything except sin (Phil 2:7).

"The representation of the Lord Jesus as a 'fetus' (a term often used to distract from the fact that the human fetus is truly a person) does not follow iconographic tradition. However, it is most appropriate in these times when our culture, most seriously perverted by the contraceptive mentality, has become a culture of death".

Copies of this icon in a poster format are available from:

Catholics United for Life
3050 Gap Knob Road
New Hope, Kentucky 40052 USA

Phone: 800-764-8444

18" x 25" poster with Gospel quote: (ask for #2500)
16" x 20" framable print (no quote): (ask for #2501)

$19.95 each - credit cards accepted

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