The Catholic faith
From Stumble on Water
Picture and quotation



The dome of an Eastern Orthodox church

I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

- John 8:17

• ‘We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth’ as the then-still-pagan Russian envoys to the eastern Roman Empire put it when they saw a church and service of this rite at the time (today the Russian Orthodox venerate St Olga, the Christian convert grandmother of St Vladimir who first had part of Russia baptised in 988).
• The icon of Our Lord is called the Pantokrator (Вседержитель in Slavonic and Russian), the Almighty. He can also be seen as the Judge at the end of our lives and of the world, with a closed book in his hand.
• ‘Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name...’ - the Roman Mass and the Book of Common Prayer
• Jesus saves; Mary prays.

And another beautiful image and quotation:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven
The Mass/Liturgy and Real Presence in a picture (the light is coming from windows ‘in the altar’ in Byzantine Rite terms, streaming through the main — bishops’ and priests’ — door of the iconostasis, the door directly in front of the holy table)