π. Ανδρέας Κονάνος -Οι ανάγκες των παιδιών

Αθέατα περάσματα 5 - 2 - 2013 π. Ανδρέας Κονάνος Θέμα : «Οι ανάγκες των παιδιών»

Man’s Union with God: Guiding the Nous in Theoria

The Prayer Stops, the Bodily Members Cease to Move, and Only the Nous Is in Theoria within an Extraordinary Light…

Source: An excerpt taken from the letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast, from “Monastic Wisdom,” thirty-fifth letter (Florence, Arizona, St Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery, 1988).

 
 

My beloved little child and all the sisters in Christ according to rank, rejoice and be healthy in the Lord. I begin once more to speak into ears which desire and seek to hear. Ask, says our sweet Jesus, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you! (Mt 7:7). I honor your good intentions; I praise your zeal; I appreciate your love, and I emulate you.

So, listen to me once more.

First of all, the method of beginning your prayer that you mention, my child, is very good. With such thoughts you are able to keep your mind from wandering by thinking that the prayers of the elder and the eldress ascend like a pillar of fire and that they converse noetically with God. When the nous thinks and believes such things, it stops for a moment, the prayer is sweetened, and tears start to trickle. Then that grace which is found in beginners, which you mentioned, approaches and like a mother teaches her young how to walk. When she goes away and leaves them, they seek her. They cry, shout, and look for her. After a little while she comes back, only to withdraw once more. Again they cry and shout; again she returns. Until she rears us, there is no way for her to stay with us because our passions prevent her.

The passions are a hard material. Ural mountains! Thousands of feet high! Grace is like the sun. The sun rises, but the shadow of the mountains does not allow it to warm the entire noetic man. As soon as a beam finds him, he is immediately set on fire with joy. The rest of his soul, though, is still beneath the shadow of the passions, and the demons are able to act as soon as grace retracts. Many times they obstruct it as clouds obstruct the sun’s light, for the shadow of the passions raises steam that obscures the little beam of light just dawning. This steam is the thoughts of despair you wrote about. Cowardice, fear, impudence, profanities, and other such things wither the soul and deprive it of its boldness towards God.

Every thought that brings despair and heavy sorrow is from the devil. It is the steam of the passions, and you must expel it at once with hope in God, with confession to the eldress, and with the prayers of those older than you, by thinking that they are praying and entreating God for you.

A small sorrow mixed with joy, tears, and consolation in the soul is from the grace of God throughout our life, it guides us towards repentance whenever we err. A sin drives away boldness towards God, but repentance brings it back at once. Grace does not bring despair, but it continually brings to repentance a person who has fallen. On the other hand, the words of the demons bring despair at once; they blight him like hail falling upon delicate little leaves that have just sprouted.

Now pay attention to this little lesson of praxis: When you see grace acting and your soul rejoicing and tears falling effortlessly (because of the mercies that God has given you), if you are praying, be still. If you are standing, don’t move. If you are sitting, remain seated. If you are saying the prayer, keep saying it without any childish thoughts, and accept the rain of the Spirit for as long as it comes upon you. For even if it comes while you are working, if you get up to pray, it stops. It wants you to remain wherever it found you, so that you do not become its master. It wants to teach you never to trust in yourself, as long as you are in this life. The rainfall of grace of a single day provides enough water for the things planted in the soul for the entire period that grace leaves.

The grace of the priesthood is one thing, the grace of the great schema is another, the grace of the Mysteries is different, and the action of grace in ascesis is also different. They all spring from the same source, but each one differs from the other in eminence and glory. The grace of repentance, which acts in those who struggle, is a patristic inheritance. It is a divine transaction and exchange in which we give dust and receive heaven. We exchange matter for the Spirit. Every drop of sweat, every pain, every ascesis for God is an exchange: a loss of blood, and an influx of the Spirit. The magnitude of this grace depends on how much a person can contain, in proportion to how much his own vessel can hold. This grace of praxis is also called purifying grace.

Now then, illumination follows praxis. Illuminating grace is the second stage. That is, once a struggler has been trained well with the grace of praxis and has fallen and risen countless times, he is given the enlightenment of knowledge and clarity of the nous, which perceives the truth. He sees things as they are, without artifices and methods and human syllogisms. Everything stands naturally in its true state. However, many trials and painful changes are encountered before arriving at this point. But here he finds peace in his thoughts and rest from the temptations.

Illumination is followed by interruptions in the prayer and frequent theorias, rapture of the nous, cessation of the senses, stillness, profound silence of the bodily members, and union of God and man into one. This is the divine exchange in which, if one endures temptations and does not stop struggling along the way, one exchanges the material for the immaterial. Therefore, run behind the heavenly Bridegroom, deers of my Jesus. (cf Song of Solomon 1:4). Smell the noetic myrrh. Make your life, soul and body fragrant with chastity and virginity. I do not know of anything else that pleases our sweet Jesus and His All-pure Mother more than chastity and virginity. Whoever desires to enjoy their great love should see to it that he makes his soul and body pure and chaste. Thus will he receive every heavenly good.

Now, let me explain what the phrase interruption of the prayer means, when grace abounds in a person. The grace of praxis is likened to the radiance of the stars; whereas the grace of illumination is like the full moon; but the perfecting grace of theoria is like the midday sun traversing over the horizon; for the Fathers have divided the spiritual life into three categories.

So when grace abounds in a person and he knows all that we have written, he attains great simplicity; his nous expands and has great capacity. Just as you tasted that drop of grace when much joy and exultation came upon you, it comes again in the same manner when the nous remains in prayer. But much more comes, like a subtle breeze, like a mighty gust (Acts 2:2) of fragrant wind. It overflows throughout, the prayer, it stops; the bodily members cease to move, and only the nous is in theoria within an extraordinary light. A union of God and man occurs. Man is unable to distinguish himself. It is just like iron: before it is thrown into the fire it is called iron, but once it ignites and becomes red-hot, it is one with the fire. It is also like wax which melts when it approaches fire; it cannot remain in its natural state.

Only when the theoria has passed does he return to his former state. Whereas during theoria, he is not functioning in this world. He is totally united with God. He thinks that he has neither a body nor a hut. He is entirely rapt. Without a body he ascends to heaven! Truly great is this mystery, for one sees things that a human tongue cannot express.

When this theoria has passed, he has such a deep humility that he cries like a small child, wondering why the Lord gives him such blessings, since he himself does nothing. He then obtains so much awareness of who he is that if you were to ask him, he would say that he considers himself destitute and unworthy to exist in this life. And the more he thinks like this, the more he is given.

“It is enough!” he cries out to God, and grace abounds even more. He becomes the son of the King. And if you were to ask: “Whose are these things you like wearing?”

“My Lord’s,” he answers. “And the bread and food you eat?”

“My Lord’s,” he again answers. “The money you carry?”

“My Lord’s,” he says. “What do you have of your own?”

“Nothing. I am dirt, I am mud, I am dust. If you lift me up, I stand. If you throw me down, I fall. If you take me up, I fly. If you toss me, I hit myself on the ground. My nature is nothing.”

He never has enough of saying this. And what is this nothing? It is what existed before God created the heaven and the earth: nothing. This is the beginning of our existence. We come from clay; this is the raw material we are made of. And our power? It is the divine inbreathing, the breath of God.

So receive, o God, Lover of good desires and Creator of every good thing, receive the divine inbreathing which You breathed into our face, giving us thus a living spirit, and we shall decompose into clay once more.

Therefore, what hast you, o proud man, that you did not receive? Now if you received it, why do thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? (1Cor 4:7). Acknowledge, lowly soul, your Benefactor and be careful not to usurp things belonging to others, things of God, as your own accomplishments. Realize, wretched soul, your existence, be aware of your ancestry. Don’t forget that you are a foreigner here and that everything is foreign! Now, if God the sweet Benefactor gave you something, render it with a clear conscience, Your own from Your own.

If you have ascended to the heavens and seen the natures of the angels and heard the voices of the divine Powers, if you theologize and teach, if you have defeated the wiles of the demons, if you write and speak and do things, all are a gift of God.

So say to your Lord, “Receive, o my sweet zephyr, my Jesus, Your own from Your own!” And then oh, then, my soul! What things you will see when the treasures of God open and He says to You, Receive everything, my son, for you proved to be a faithful and good ruler! (Mt 25:21).

†   †   †

Some Terms that All Orthodox Should Know

By George Karras, “Orthodox Heritage” Editor.

The terms discussed below appear often in patristic texts and present a significant challenge to the understanding of our worldly intellect. The definitions presented constitute a general and very elementary explanation. They are derived from various Orthodox books, primarily “Orthodox Psychotherapy” by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos (published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery, Greece, 2005). It is a book that is strongly recommended for all those seeking to attain a greater understanding of these key terms.

Nous is the eye of the soul, which some Fathers also call the heart; it is the center of man and is where true (spiritual) knowledge is validated. Man’s soul is intelligent and noetic. God created man with a capacity to receive the Spirit and to attain knowledge of Himself; God did this by creating mankind with intelligence and noetic facilities.

Angels have intelligence and nous, whereas men have reason, nous and sensory perception. Furthermore, the soul of a man is created in the image of God. Since God is Trinitarian, mankind is Nous, Word and Spirit. The same is held true of the soul (or heart): it has nous, word and spirit. For those seeking to better understand this, a study of St. Gregory Palamas’ teaching that man is a representation of the Trinitarian mystery should be pursued.

Theoria is the vision of God and takes on a number of meanings that pertain to union with God (theo-) and holiness, the quintessential goals of Christianity (see the Philokalia). Theoria is the experience of the highest or absolute truth when one is in complete union with God. It is the penetration of the divine darkness or cloud of unknowing, beyond rational understanding. St. Gregory the Theologian says that theoria and praxis (the practice of faith, especially worship and the deeds of a virtuous life) are beneficial because theoria guides him to the holy of holies and restores him to his original nature; whereas praxis receives and serves Christ and tests love with actions. Thus, theoria is the vision of God and praxis is whatever deeds it takes to lead to this love.

Phronema is the understanding of Christian faith that guides the follower of Christ. It is a mindset or outlook; it is the Orthodox mind. The attaining of phronema is a matter of practicing the correct faith (orthodoxia) in the correct manner (orthopraxia). Attaining phronema is regarded as the first step toward theosis which is the state of glorification.

Theosis, meaning divinization (or deification, or to make divine) is the call to man to become holy and seek union with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in the resurrection.

The Holy Orthodox Fathers teach us that theoria is the source or means of growth toward union with God, praxis is the faith practiced along the way, and theosis is the overall path or journey.

" ΑΡΧΙΜ. ΑΙΜΙΛΙΑΝΟΣ ΣΙΜΩΝΟΠΕΤΡΙΤΗΣ: ΧΑΡΑ, ΛΥΠΗΣ ΟΛΕΘΡΟΣ "

 ΑΡΧΙΜ. ΑΙΜΙΛΙΑΝΟΣ ΣΙΜΩΝΟΠΕΤΡΙΤΗΣ

Ο πόνος, η στενοχώρια, η αγωνία, η ψυχική τραγωδία είναι αποτέλεσμα
της πτώσεως του ανθρώπου, η οποία οφείλεται στον εγωισμό του.

Οι αναθυμιάσεις του, εγώ γεννούν στην ψυχή την στενοχώρια, ενώ η
φυσιολογική της κατάσταση είναι η χαρά, διότι ο Θεός είναι ειρήνη, είναι
χαρά, και η ψυχή είναι εμφύσημα* του Θεού, δημιουργήθηκε από Αυτόν και οδεύει προς Αυτόν.

Επομένως, η στενοχώρια είναι ξένη και αδικαιολόγητη μέσα στην ανθρώπινη ζωή.

   Και όμως σήμερα δεν βρίσκεις άνθρωπο χαρούμενο, που σημαίνει πως δεν βρίσκει κανείς άνθρωπο ισορροπημένο, ήρεμο, φυσιολογικό.

    Η στενοχώρια είναι αρρώστια τρομερή που μαστίζει την οικουμένη, η
μεγαλυτέρα ίσως βάσανος της ανθρωπότητος, το μεγαλύτερό της δράμα. Δεν
είναι απλώς τα προοίμια της κολάσεως αλλά η βίωσις της κολάσεως από της
παρούσης ζωής.

    Έλλειψις χαράς σημαίνει έλλειψις Θεού, ενώ η χαρά απόδειξις της
παρουσίας αυτού. Εάν κανείς είναι κοσμικός άνθρωπος και τέρπεται επί
τοις επικήροις, χαίρεται για τις ηδονές, για τα παροδικά και μάταια,
αυτός ίσως έχει κάποια ηδονή, κάποια ευχαρίστηση, αλλά στην
πραγματικότητα, αν προσέξει κανείς, θα δει ότι υπάρχει θλίψις και
στενοχώρια στην ζωή του, όπως λέγει η Αγία Γραφή: <θλίψις και
στενοχωρία επί πάσαν ψυχήν ανθρώπου του κατεργαζομένου το κακόν>.

    Δεν είναι δυνατόν να υπάρχει χαρά εκεί όπου υπάρχει παράβασις της
εντολής του Θεού, όπως είναι αδύνατον να υπάρχει στενοχώρια με την
εφαρμογή του νόμου του Θεού.

    Χαρά, Λύπης Όλεθρος. Λύπη είναι ένα ξίφος που έρχεται αιφνιδίως και
χτυπάει το σώμα, ιδιαίτερα όμως την ψυχή του ανθρώπου. Και μάλιστα κάτι
που εξέρχεται από την κακία των ανθρώπων, από την αμαρτία, από την
δυσωδία, από την αντίθεση των άλλων. Η λέξη λύπη είναι συγγενής προς την
λέξη λύμη, η οποία σημαίνει πληγή, κάτι που στάζει πύον. Επομένως, λύπη
είναι η κατάσταση της ψυχής, η οποία στάζει πύον. Κυρίως προέρχεται από
βέλη τα οποία εξακοντίζονται από την κακία των ανθρώπων ή και από τις
κακίες της δικής μας ψυχής. Η λύπη εδώ δεν είναι αυτό που λέμε,
είμαι λυπημένος. Όταν λέμε, είμαι λυπημένος, κατά κανόνα εννοούμε, ζω
τις αναθυμιάσεις της δικής μου αμαρτίας, της δικής μου εγωπάθειας, της
δικής μου απομονώσεως από τον Θεό. Όταν οι πατέρες ομιλούν για την λύπη,
εννοούν κάτι διαφορετικό.

    Η χαρά λοιπόν είναι λύπης όλεθρος. Επομένως όταν μας χτυπήσουν τα
βέλη αμαρτίας, των πονηρών παθών, των εμπαθών λογισμών, τα βέλη των
κακών ανθρώπων ή οποιαδήποτε άλλα, όταν φαίνεται η δυσωδία του προτέρου
μας βίου, όταν η αποτυχία της ζωής μας έλθει να μας χτυπήσει, τότε η
χαρά είναι όλεθρος της λύπης. Η χαρά είναι σαν μια ασπίδα που χτυπούν τα
βέλη και φεύγουν και δεν παθαίνεις τίποτε. Όλοι εκείνοι και όλα εκείνα
που έρχονται να θλίψουν την δική μας ψυχή καταστρέφονται, απόλλυνται.

    Η τροφή των εν Χριστώ ασκουμένων είναι η χαρά. Η χαρά τρέφει την ψυχή
, το πνεύμα, τον νου, ώστε να μπορούν να ανεβαίνουν και να δίδωνται εις
τον Θεόν. Καμία άσκησις, καμία εγκράτεια, κανείς πόθος, καμία αγάπη δεν
μπορεί να φτάσει εις το τέρμα εάν δεν τρέφεται. Σκεφτείτε κάποιον που
θέλει να είναι καλός αθλητής και δεν τρώει. Απλούστατα θα πέσει εις τον
δρόμο. Έτσι ακριβώς παθαίνει και κάποιος πνευματικός ασκητής αν δεν έχει
χαρά.

Ομιλία π. Στέφανος Αναγνωστόπουλος-Ο ΑΟΡΑΤΟΣ ΠΟΛΕΜΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΩΝ

Παρακολουθείστε την ομιλία του π. Στεφάνου Αναγνωστοπούλου με θέμα «Ο αόρατος πόλεμος των δαιμόνων» η οποία πραγματοποιήθηκε την Δευτέρα, 12 Νοεμβρίου 2012 στον Ιερό Ναό Κοιμήσεως της Θεοτόκου Παραλίας Πατρών στα πλαίσια των εσπερινών ομιλιών της ενορίας. Η τηλεοπτική κάλυψη της ομιλίας πραγματοποιήθηκε από τον σταθμό ''ΛΥΧΝΟΣ'' τον τηλεοπτικό σταθμό της Ι. Μ. Πατρών.

Πατήρ Ανδρέας Κονάνος-Αθέατα Περάσματα

Πατήρ Ανδρέας Κονάνος Εκπομπή Αθέατα Περάσματα 12 Φεβρουαρίου 2013

On the Beginners’ Spiritual Shortcomings

 Fr. Arsenie BOCA

Propensity for Haughtiness

They are more readily inclined to give lessons, rather than to receive them. They condemn within their heart those who do not understand faith as they do and they manifest that condemnation – at first, secretly held in their hearts – through their words – and that is when you feel like you hear the Pharisee who thought he was worshipping God when he was vaunting himself for his own deeds, while despising the tax-payer. That sort of attitude is to please the devil. All of these things drive one’s soul to pride and haughtiness. They are of no use whatsoever to the beginners (on the contrary, they change whatever else they have good in them, into sins), as they cease bearing with one another and if anyone comes up to belittle their fellowman, that pleases them. They will see the straw in their brother’s eye yet will fail to notice the beam in their own eye; they will make a big deal out of the other’s minor deeds and will efface their own – greater – faults.

They don’t like confessor Fathers who do not praise them for their actions and don’t appreciate their good behaviour – because such spiritual sons’ sole pursuit is to be praised and commended in everything they do.

They even try to convince others that they have an accomplished spirit and harbor true piety.

They even go as far as not confess their sins anymore, lest they should downplay themselves in the process and they avoid mentioning their mistakes in order to render them lighter. They will avoid by all means praising others, but they do not like not being praised by others. Sometimes they will go as far as to ask others to praise them. Beginners very seldom escape such weaknesses.

Propensity for Spiritual Stinginess

They complain whenever they don’t receive the comfort they expected from their spiritual Fathers or their fellowman. They always look to filling up their minds with spiritual advice and teachings. They dedicate all their time to reading and have no more of it left for the spiritual work, which should be their first and foremost duty.

Propensity for Anger

They are always in a bad mood.

They do their duty sloppily.

They get upset for the slightest thing and end up being unbearable to the ones around them.

They blame others.

They badmouth others.

They give moral lectures in a bitter and high voice, as if they were the only ones who would have access to being virtuous.

Propensity for Spiritual Greed

They exhaust themselves carrying out prayer rules.

They apply themselves to fasting without limits.

They keep away from people who would invite them to take bodily food.

They lack discernment.

They work against the commandments.

They want bodily canons (rules) rather than mind-based canons.

They don’t listen to their spiritual Fathers.

They take pride in making various efforts without discernment.

Such spiritual “sons” are encouraged by the devil to behave this way.

They always look for pulling out counsels that suit them, from their spiritual Fathers.

In case one rejects their ideas, they sulk like children.

Whatever they do, they do superficially, because they are convinced that they do nothing good before God, whenever He doesn’t work [in their life] as they would like Him to.

They take the Eucharist many times, without their spiritual Father’s approval.

Propensity for Envy and Worldliness

Their fellowman’s spiritual wellness always gets into their eyes.

They suffer when they hear someone else being praised.

Another person’s virtue makes them sad and if given the chance, they will belittle and persecute it, in order to break off all praise for that person.

They want to be the first in everything.

Excerpt from CĂRAREA ÎMPĂRĂTIEI – ”The Way to the Kingdom” – by Fr. Arsenie BOCA

The Icon – A Window into the Age to Come

According to the teaching that the Holy Fathers handed down to our Church, the first Sunday of the Holy Lent is dedicated to the holy icons and to those who suffered for them during the iconoclastic persecution. It reminds us of the victory of Truth over all the heresies that have shaken Christ’s Church throughout the history and particularly over those who despised the icons, stating that God cannot be represented in any way through the mere colours of a painted image.

Through His Incarnation, God gave humans the possibility to reach theosis; He gave all of those who believe in Him the power to become sons of God (John 1:12). Thus, by making Himself seen and felt, our Saviour can be represented in an icon, as a human. Today, icons are always present in any Christian’s life. Any prayer – whether it is done in church or in the peace of one’s own home – is accompanied by the holy icons. They accompany the Christian’s life everywhere.

The Tradition of the Church tells us that icons date back to the first centuries of Christianity. Eusebius of Caesarea, the most important historian of the Church of the first centuries, also states in his “Church History”: “I have seen many portraits of the Saviour, of Peter and Paul, which have been preserved until today” – which proves that icons were an integral part of Christianity ever since its foundation.

Christian teachings were carried out from the very beginning by the Church through word and icon. It is for this reason that by the decisions of the 7th Ecumenical Council, the Holy Fathers were able to say: “The tradition of icon-making has existed ever since the times of Christian preaching by the Holy Apostles. Iconography is in no way the painters’ invention, but, on the contrary, an established law and a tradition of the catholic Church”. This is how their presence in the Church is explained and the way in which it has silently taken its natural place in the Christians’ lives. Already, in the 4th century, several Holy Fathers such as St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. John Chrysostom, and others refer to the icons in their writings as to a natural practice in the Church.

In Christ’s image as a Man we find His entire divine nature

When we honour an icon, we do not worship the painting per se, nor the material of which it was made, but we worship the Truth that is represented by the face depicted in the icon, as the Truth that has always been handed down by the Church. That is what Christians have always done, without needing a full theoretical formulation, initially; it was only later, during the 7th Ecumenical Council, after the heresies and false teachings had disappeared, that the teaching took on a more precise shape. “Nobody has ever seen God; yet His Only-Begotten Son, Who dwells in the Father’s bosom, He has made Him known” (John 1:18). By His Incarnation, Christ reveals to the world, through His divine nature, the Father’s Image, as “Whoever has seen Me, has seen the Father” (John 14:9). We do not know how God is as Himself, but we know that God the Son, after His incarnation, is no longer separated from his human body and appearance and therefore, in Christ’s image as a human we find His whole deification – we find God Himself. By depicting the Saviour, the icon does not only depict His divinity and humanity, but also His Person, in which both natures unite — undivided and unshared. Christ did not reveal the Father only by His words, which we find in the Scriptures, but also by His Face, the Face of God. Rumanian Father Petroniu Tănase, recently gone to the Lord, used to say very beautifully in one of his speeches that “the icon is an opening towards the age to come, through which we see God with our bodily eyes. That is why, when we look at an icon, our eyes do not stop at the matter of which it is made of – wood and colour – but our mind goes beyond it and rises to a mysterious knowledge of the unseen things”.

The honouring of the icon is transmitted to the one who is represented in it

The icon is “our window to Heaven” – is a phrase that is often quoted and very true. Blessed Kallistos Ware, well-known Bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople and Professor of Orthodox theology with Oxford University, says that the icon is more than just a window. It isn’t only a window through which you can see the beauty of the things which it overlooks, but it is also “a door to Heaven”, because as we pass through it, we become part of Heaven and we meet the one who is represented in it, face to face. The icon makes a direct connection between us and the person represented in it and gives us the possibility to commune with that person and to know him/her. Because of that connection, as the Holy Fathers say, our honouring of the icon gets transmitted to the person depicted in it.

Icons use images and shapes taken from the material world in order to transmit the revelation of the divine world and make it accessible for knowledge and contemplation. We can state without any doubt that the current image of Christ in the Orthodox Church renders elements that are characteristic to His Face, that have been preserved ever since the times of the Apostles, through the Church Tradition. This is precisely why the Church art books give meticulous instructions as to the details that one must observe when painting the Face of the Saviour Jesus Christ. Since not all icon-painters are gifted with a great talent and neither are they always worthy of supernatural inspiration, the Church has set the rules based on which one should paint all icons, so that they always express the Truth that has been handed down by the Holy Scripture and the Holy Tradition. The agreement that must exist between the word and the icon was particularly clearly expressed in the decision of the 7th Ecumenical Council. Through the voices of the Holy Fathers of the Synod, the Church decided then that the worship of icons should be similar to the one shown to the Holy Cross and the Holy Scripture: namely, just as for the Holy Cross, as a distinctive sign of Christianity and of the Holy Scripture, because of the complete correspondence between the word and the image. “We preserve, without any innovations, all the traditions of the Church that were established for us, whether they are written or not, including the painting of the icons, according to what the Holy Scripture preaches and tells about […]. Because if one is depicted by the other, then one is also justified by the other”, said the Holy Fathers of the 7th Synod. Hence, we understand that the Church does not see the icon as a mere form of art that serves for illustrating the Holy Scripture, but a complete correspondence between the two – and that is the reason why the icon receives the same honouring as the Holy Scripture.

Denying the icon is denying the reality of the Incarnation

Christ’s image is a testimony of His coming and living in a human body; therefore, in the eyes of the Church, denying Christ’s icon appears like denying Truth and the fact that He became man. Upon defending the icon during the iconoclastic times, the Church not only defended its educational role – much less its aesthetic value – but the very bases of Christian faith, the visible proof that God had become man, as a foundation for our salvation. “I have seen the human face of God and my soul was saved”, said St. John the Damascene. If we understand the icon that way, we will no longer wonder at the firmness and the complete dedication of its defenders, who faced torture and death during the dark ages of the iconoclasm.

http://www.ziarullumina.ro/articole;1543;1;53734;0;Icoana—privire-in-lumea-veacului-viitor.html