Here is Rublev's 15th century icon titled, "The Old Testament Trinity." In the Genesis story of Abraham receiving the three messengers (18:1-15), there is a foreshadowing of the New Testament doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Icons pre-dating Rublev's make explicit the meal which Abraham and Sarah prepared. But Rublev has pared down that scene to the essential elements and perfected the symbolic meaning.
The three angels depict the Holy Trinity symbolically—the Father and the Spirit are incorporeal and therefore not picturable except symbolically.
The vivid blue—like cornflowers or a cloudless sky—worn by each of the three, symbolizes that while each is distinct, each shares the fullness of divine energies simultaneously. The symbolic figure of the Father wears a light pink mantle with highlights of brown and blue-green. The symbolic figure of the Son, the Incarnate Word, wears a chiton (tunic) the color of his passion.
But the Spirit wears a mantle of green. This is perhaps nature's strongest color—the color of life. In a field of various flowers, green unifies the colors. Green is the color of harmony and balance. Psycholgists suggest green for an office for its calming effect and that it seems to help us to be productive. So here's a prayer before the Holy Spirit angel wearing green.
Green we up, Holy Spirit,
there is no safe place—
the womb,
the classroom,
the soccer playground,
the morning school bus,
the forest depth,
the rare bird's nest.
Green we up, Holy Spirit,
there is no safe place—
the mall,
the church,
the synagogue,
the mosque,
the polar landscape,
the outer space.
Green we up, Holy Spirit,
there is no safe place—
the twelve year old girl at the border cross,
the mother-following fawn,
the pollinator's foraging,
the cyber world,
the hater's heart,
the darkened mind.
And sitting with you
in the welcome-space,
green me up too, Holy Spirit,
my whole life—
please—
a safe-place world
of inner balance,
calm center.
