![]() ![]() ![]() Without the right attitude, the rest means little. But the most important component of any act of veneration is an open, trusting heart toward God, and faith in His love for us. These candles serve as visual markers for peoples’ prayers, and remind them of the warmth and light that Christ brings to human experience. Healthy Affection God loves spontaneous acts of worship and love we are free to kiss the icons, just as we might kiss the photo of someone we love. Another act of veneration, that of forming the sign of the cross on one’s body before an icon, reflects several important beliefs: recognition of the holiness of the icon as a sacred object in itself, conviction regarding the subject’s sanctity, and a general acknowledgement of Christian faith. Bows are still used as signs of friendship or honor toward other people in many Middle-eastern and Asian cultures. Our physical selves are as much a part of His much-loved creation as our cerebral and spiritual selves.ĭeference and Honor Bowing and making prostrations before icons are common gestures many people use to express respect. ![]() We are reminded through physical acts of veneration that not only the mind prays, but the whole person – body, mind, and spirit. This veneration is a kinesthetic language that involves the senses it is the physical part of prayer. Christians intercede on behalf of Christ every time His name is invoked in prayer: “In Jesus” name (or, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”) we pray.Īt its simplest, acts of veneration refer to the way believing people respectfully interact with and honor the subjects depicted in icons – the prototypes, not the painted boards themselves. Biblical examples of people interceding on behalf of Christ may be found in the story of Christ’s mother at the wedding at Cana in John 2, the Transfiguration of Christ in Luke 9: 28-31, and the “cloud of witnesses” mentioned in Hebrews 12:1, who are souls in heaven in some way involved in prayerfully advancing the sanctification of Christians still on earth. Just as we ask prayer of good friends here on earth whose virtues we respect and admire, and whom we know are committed to us, we may ask those that have gone before us into eternity for the same help.Īs they were going to their deaths at the edicts of persecuting Roman emperors, early Christian martyrs promised those they left behind that they would pray for them. “Prayer” to the saints takes the meaning of an older English meaning of the word pray, which once meant to ask or plead. Paul (Acts 19:12), or the brass serpent of the prophet Moses we read about in Numbers 21:9. We worship only God, but may venerate holy people, or even physical objects, that His grace has sanctified, much like the healing handkerchiefs and aprons touched by St. Whatever the language connotations for English speakers with the word veneration, this word is not a synonym for the worship that is due God alone. What Does It Mean to Venerate an Icon? venerate |ˈvenəˌrāt| : to regard with great respect reverence Icons are also “theology in color.” ~ Linette Martin, Iconographer The primary purpose of an icon is to enable a face-to-face encounter with a holy person or make present a sacred event. As we move toward an icon, it moves toward us with a warm and precise Christian content if we understand the language that it speaks. If an icon is to do its job, it must have throughput in two directions. ![]() Wells of unchanging stillness in our unstable, post-modern world, icons teach us to contemplate life’s most important matters. We can draw strength from holy people who have gone before us into eternity, who are constantly present within both the form and function of the icon to help us in our prayers. Christ and the saints are alive and well, and they have not forgotten us. With this in mind, we seek to view icons as points of visual and spiritual intersection with eternal things, as living prompts for our prayers, and as reminders of the very real world that exists beyond the limitations of this temporal one. Icons are beautiful, but without relationship behind it, beauty alone feeds only a portion of the human soul, and ultimately patronizes the deep human need for loving connection with the Transcendent. Instead, icons serve as a very real means for connecting us with God and His love. Gazing Into Heaven When we speak of icons as a medium for “gazing into heaven”, we refer to their value as much more than ethereal-looking religious art. The pictures are not there just to be looked at as though the worshipers were in an art museum they are designed to be doors between this world and another world, between people and the Incarnate God, his Mother, or his friends, the saints. ![]()
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