Joy of All Joys Tenderness Theotokos Iconographic Based on Traditional Orthodox Iconography | Red Design | Christian Spiral NotebookThe Tenderness Icon is remarkable since the Theotokos is depicted without her Child, or even before His conception at the moment of the Archangel's greeting, when she is the Most Pure Vessel of the Holy Spirit Saint Seraphim [of Sarov] commanded us to call this Tenderness Icon [the one he kept in his cell], the Joy of all Joys. Fr. Pavel Florensky

be with us forever

He shows the right way

O Theotokos: but as thou art one with might which is invincible

I am the bread of life

Rublev was inspired to make explicit the Trinitarian content of that fateful encounter with the Venerable Patriarch and his wife

if any man minister

but judge this rather

God created the heavens [Hebrew הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם ha-shamayim: plural] and the earth [Hebrew הָאָֽרֶץ׃ erets: singular]

and if children

defend me on every side by your power

but to the will of God

we are full of compunction