From the Catholic religion’s immense repertoire of devotions, I’ve a particular place in my coronary heart for iconography. I like Icons for his or her robust visuals, and concrete depiction of occasions that I could have solely ever pictured in my head. They assist make distant issues appear extra concrete. In addition they have a timeless, nearly everlasting high quality to them, which provides to their attraction. However these photos aren’t simply fairly work, they’re sacramentals. They might help us pray, and even educate us concerning the significance of the physique. So, what precisely are icons?
Icons are photos that depict Biblical occasions, and the lives of the saints for the needs of prayer. They arrive in lots of sizes and styles, however folks most frequently acknowledge the medieval ones, which generally have gold backgrounds, a scarcity of clear perspective, and disproportionately sized folks. Individuals typically discuss with icons as “home windows into Heaven.” The gold or yellow backgrounds point out this, representing mild and abundance. Likewise, the disproportionate shapes and lack of perspective provides to the otherworldliness of the picture. All of this comes collectively to assist elevate the thoughts to greater issues and are available to a larger consciousness of God. Statues serve an analogous objective in serving to to focus our thoughts on a subject of meditation. Like statues, icons draw our our bodies into prayer, one thing many individuals incorrectly see as a purely psychological exercise. Greater than that, icons might help us to grasp our our bodies.
Like icons, our our bodies assist us to change into extra conscious of the divine. God made us in His personal picture, making us an icon of His nature. Likewise, when our our bodies come collectively within the sacrament of Marriage, we picture the Trinity. God the Father loves God the Son who, in flip, reciprocates this love. The love between the Father and the Son is so robust that it’s itself one other individual: The Holy Spirit. Equally, a person loves his spouse who, in flip, reciprocates this love. The love between them is so robust that it overflows into the creation of a kid. On this means, our our bodies in marriage are icons of the Blessed Trinity. Our our bodies reveal God to the world.
