The Meek Sparrow Iconography

✨️ Special congratulations to Fr. Joseph and Matushka Shirley Lickwar - celebrating 60 years in the priesthood ✨️

Thank you, Christina, for the wonderful opportunity to handcraft this special illustration, highlighting all of the patrons saints/feasts of the Churches Fr. Joseph has served as priest.

It was truly an honor to make this and I'm so happy Fr. Joseph and family enjoys it! 🤍

A blessed Theophany to you all!

Lord, when You were baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest. For the voice of the Father gave witness to You, calling You Beloved; and the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the certainty of His words. Glory to You, Christ our God, who appeared and enlightened the world.

Happy New Year everyone!

I know that I haven't been posting as much lately, but I promise to be back to creating more content soon!

I've been working on a big website update recently and am now offering a selection of my handmade jewelry on my website. I am currently offering polymer clay earrings and wire wrapped rings in addition to Orthodox art prints and coloring pages.

I would love for you to take a couple minutes to check it out and let me know what you think!

Website link in bio!

Christ is born! Glorify him!

Here is the cover I illustrated of the Christmas card for this year.

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas!

October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. Each year, approximately one million pregnancies in the United States end in miscarriage, stillbirth or the death of a newborn child.

Many parents who experience the loss of a child during pregnancy, suffer alone. This is especially true in the instance of early pregnancy loss (i.e. miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies) where there is no “body” to be seen and often the mother shows no outward signs of pregnancy. Many people are unaware of the grief that pregnancy loss causes.

I had an early miscarriage back in March and I’m still trying to work through it. I know I’m not alone in my sadness and suffering.

A lot of the icons I’ve seen about infant loss have pertained to abortion, which although an important subject, didn’t really help comfort me. I wanted to make an icon that would provide comfort to myself as well as others experiencing miscarriage and loss of their unborn children, so here is my take on “The Protectress of the Unborn”.

Please pray for all families experiencing loss and for the millions of unborn children. If anyone wants or needs to talk, I’m here to listen ☦️🤍

I am honored to have presented Metropolitan Savas with an illustration of Saint Savas during his visit to our Parish of Saint George in Huntington, WV as a token of our appreciation of his presence in our Community.

Although we won’t be celebrating until Bright Monday, here is Saint George, the Patron of the Church I attend. This will be incorporated into our Church’s new logo so stay tuned for the final result of that!

Liberator of captives, defender of the poor, physician of the sick, and champion of kings, O trophy-bearer, Great Martyr George, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

On the Fifth Sunday of Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Righteous Mother Mary of Egypt. The feast day of Saint Mary of Egypt is April 1, however, she is also commemorated on this Sunday due to her recognition by the Church as a model of repentance.

The image of God was truly preserved in you, O mother,
For you took up the Cross and followed Christ.
By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh, for it passes away;
But to care instead for the soul, since it is immortal.
Therefore your spirit, O holy Mother Mary, rejoices with the Angels.

On March 30 and on the Fourth Sunday of Holy Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Righteous Father John Climacus. He is called Climacus due to his authorship of the great spiritual work The Ladder of Divine Ascent. His commemoration is designated by the Church on one of the Sundays of Lent as his life and writings affirm him as a supreme bearer and proponent of Christian asceticism. The ascetic example of this great Saint of the Church inspires us in our Lenten journey.

Today we commemorate the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. The Feast commemorates the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would become incarnate and enter into this world through her womb.

Today marks the crowning of our salvation and the revelation of the mystery before all ages. For the Son of God becomes the son of the Virgin, and Gabriel proclaims the grace. Wherefore, we also cry out with him, "Hail, O full of grace, the Lord is with you.”

Saint Patrick was a 5th century missionary and bishop in Ireland, and he is the foremost patron saint of that country. His feast is celebrated on March 17 by Christians all around the world.

The Master revealed thee as a skillful fisher of men; and casting forth nets of Gospel preaching, thou drewest up the heathen to piety. Those who were the children of idolatrous darkness thou didst render sons of day through holy Baptism. O Patrick, intercede for us who honour thy memory.

Tomorrow is the Sunday of Forgiveness, the last of the preparatory Sundays before Great Lent, has two themes: it commemorates Adam’s expulsion from Paradise, and it accentuates our need for forgiveness. There are obvious reasons why these two things should be brought to our attention as we stand on the threshold of Great Lent. One of the primary images in the Triodion is that of the return to Paradise. Lent is a time when we weep with Adam and Eve before the closed gate of Eden, repenting with them for the sins that have deprived us of our free communion with God. But Lent is also a time when we are preparing to celebrate the saving event of Christ’s death and rising, which has reopened Paradise to us once more (Luke 23:43). So sorrow for our exile in sin is tempered by hope of our re-entry into Paradise.

The second theme, that of forgiveness, is emphasized in the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 6:14-21) and in the special ceremony of mutual forgiveness at the end of the Vespers on Sunday evening. Before we enter the Lenten fast, we are reminded that there can be no true fast, no genuine repentance, no reconciliation with God, unless we are at the same time reconciled with one another. A fast without mutual love is the fast of demons. We do not travel the road of Lent as isolated individuals but as members of a family. Our asceticism and fasting should not separate us from others, but should link us to them with ever-stronger bonds.

The Sunday of Forgiveness also directs us to see that Great Lent is a journey of liberation from our enslavement to sin. The Gospel lesson sets the conditions for this liberation.

Yesterday was Judgement Sunday.

When Thou comest, O God, upon the earth with glory, the whole world will tremble. The river of fire will bring men before Thy judgment seat, the books will be opened and the secrets disclosed. Then deliver me from the unquenchable fire, and count me worthy to stand on Thy right hand, Judge most righteous.

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son is the second Sunday of a three-week period prior to the commencement of Great Lent. On the previous Sunday, the services of the Church began to include hymns from the Triodion, a liturgical book that contains the services from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the tenth before Pascha (Easter), through Great and Holy Saturday. As with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the theme of this Sunday is repentance, and the focus on the parable of the Prodigal Son leads Orthodox Christians to contemplate the necessity of repentance in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

The icon of the Sunday of the Prodigal Son shows the prodigal being received by his father upon his return. We are presented with an image of a warm and loving embrace, the son showing his need for his father, an attitude that represents repentance, love, and hope for renewal and restoration. The father is shown full of compassion for his son, having born the burden of his sin and suffering, but now filled with joy that he has returned.

When I disobeyed in ignorance Thy fatherly glory, I wasted in iniquities the riches that Thou gavest me. Wherefore, I cry to Thee with the voice of the prodigal son, saying, I have sinned before Thee, O compassionate Father, receive me repentant, and make me as one of Thy hired servants.

Tomorrow is the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and is the first Sunday of a three-week period prior to the commencement of Great Lent. It marks the beginning of a time of preparation for the spiritual journey of Lent, a time for Orthodox Christians to draw closer to God through worship, prayer, fasting, and acts of charity. It is also on this day that the Triodion is introduced, a liturgical book that contains the services from this Sunday, the tenth before Pascha (Easter), to Great and Holy Saturday.

Let us flee the proud speaking of the Pharisee and learn the humility of the Publican, and with groaning let us cry unto the Savior: Be merciful to us, for Thou alone art ready to forgive.

It's such an edifying experience seeing that folks are enjoying using my illustrations as coloring pages!

It truly a blessing to be able to help empower people to learn about our faith in an engaging way!

Thank you for sharing such a sweet photo 🤍

Today we commemorate the renowned Empress Theodora. She was from Paphlagonia and was the daughter of a certain Marinus, the commander of a military regiment. While being the wife of the Emperor Theophilus, the last of the Iconoclasts, she adorned the royal diadem with her virtue and piety; as long as her husband Theophilus lived, she privately venerated icons, despite his displeasure. After his death, she restored the holy icons to public veneration; this is commemorated on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the First Sunday of the Great Fast. She governed the Empire wisely for fifteen years, since her son Michael was not yet of age. But in 857 she forsook her royal power and entered a certain convent in Constantinople called Gastria, where she finished the course of her life in holiness and reposed in the Lord. Her sacred incorrupt remains are found in Corfu, in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Cave, in the capital city of the island.

☦️ Coloring Sheets are now available on my site. Link in bio. ☦️

On January 30th we celebrate the three Hierarchs—an earthly trinity as they are called in some of the wonderful troparia of their service— they have taught us in their writings and equally by their lives, to worship and to glorify the Holy Trinity, the One God in three Persons. These three luminaries of the Church have shed the light of the true Faith all over the world, scorning dangers and persecutions, and they have left us, their descendants, this sacred inheritance by which we too can attain to utmost blessedness and everlasting life in the presence of God and of all the Saints.

With the feast of the three Hierarchs at the end of January—the month in which we keep the memory of so many glorious bishops, confessors and ascetics—the Church in a way recapitulates the memory of all the Saints who have witnessed to the Orthodox faith by their writings and by their lives. In this feast we honor the whole ministry of teaching of the holy Church, namely, the illumination of the hearts and minds of the faithful through the commemoration of all the Fathers of the Church, those models of evangelic perfection which the Holy Spirit has raised up from age to age and from place to place to be new Prophets and new Apostles, guides of souls heavenward, comforters of the people and fiery pillars of prayer, supporting the Church and confirming her in the truth.

Today we mark the Removal of the Relics of John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople.

This event took place on this day in the year 438, when Saint Theodosius the Younger had been Emperor for thirty years; he was the son of Arcadius, and Eudoxia, who had exiled Saint John. The Archbishop of Constantinople at that time was Proclus, who had been the Saint's disciple.

The holy and august Church is mystically gladdened today on the translation of thy holy relics. And though she had kept them hid in concealment like precious gold, by thine intercessions she unceasingly granteth, unto them that praise thee, the divine grace of healing, O Father John Chrysostom.

‼ANNOUNCEMENT TIME‼

Wow, where to even start! Thank you guys so much for your continued support. I can't believe I've got over 300 followers now on Instagram. You guys are truly the best! 🤍

I've updated my website (link in bio).
- All Icon prints now feature (imitation) gold leaf.
- NEW: coloring book page downloads
- NEW handmade products

I've expanded The Meek Sparrow. I've been locally doing craft shows, offering macrame and jewelry. Those products are slowly being added to the site. I have a secondary page that houses the handmade goods ()

I look forward to continuing to offer new items for you guys 🤍☦

Saint Gregory was born in 329 in Cappadocia. After his studies, he suffered in a shipwreck and feared for his soul, as he was unbaptized. God spared him, and arriving in Athens, he joined his friend Basil the Great. They lived as monastic brothers in Pontus for a time. Gregory's father, also named Gregory, was then bishop of Nazianzus and ordained his son a priest. Later, Saint Basil would elevate him to bishop of Sasima. As bishop, Gregory opposed the A***ns and attended the Second Ecumenical Council, which elected him as archbishop of Constantinople. Over the course of two years, he drove all of the A***n clergy out of the city. In 382 he retired to Nazianzus and he reposed in 391 at the age of 62. His feast is celebrated today, January 25, and again on January 30 with John Chrysostom and Basil the Great, the "Three Holy Hierarchs.”

On January 21 we celebrate the divine Maximus, who was from Constantinople. He sprang from an illustrious family. He was a lover of wisdom and an eminent theologian. At first, he was the chief private secretary of the Emperor Heraclius and his grandson Constans. When the Monothelite heresy became predominant in the royal court, out of hatred for this error the Saint departed for the Monastery at Chrysopolis (Scutari), of which he later became the abbot. When Constans tried to constrain him either to accept the Monothelite teaching, or to stop speaking and writing against it - neither of which the Saint accepted to do - his tongue was uprooted and his right hand was cut off, and he was sent into exile where he reposed in 662.