You are so right, about growing into it. It's something about the physical, the material, participating in holiness. All of our lives, all of our being, participate in the knowledge of God. Christ took on flesh and made it divine. He touched things. According to Orthodoxy, the bread and wine *become* the Body and Blood, so we always have the divine and the material, coexisting. So we physically, materially, adorn the space where this happens. We try to adorn our souls, with spiritual "wedding garments," to receive Christ. We adorn His Temple as well. God is with us, in our material world.
I don't at all mean, by the way, to say that you are being "blasphemous" or anything, Tina. Just adding to what ariellejuliana said...
And God shows us mercy through the physical as well. There is an icon of St Nicholas in my Church, that 25 years ago, was completely dark and hidden. No one touched it, it was hanging on a wall, in the corner. It started to get clearer and brighter, and finally someone noticed it. It was put on a stand in the Church. When I first came to the parish, eight years ago, the figures were clear, but it was dark, and reddish brown. I thought it wasn't that impressive, and I also thought "why would an icon restore itself, that seems silly." Eight years later, there is shining gold in this icon. The smaller figures (of Christ and Mary) are clear. Why do such things happen? Someone asked my priest that once. "We don't know, really," he said. "It's because He loves us. He can restore anything, He is showing us." He makes all things new... "because He loves us..." that made me cry. I'm not sure if the point of that comes through, how I meant it, and feel it.
Hope you don't mind my jumping in with the long comments.
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Date: 2006-02-08 06:42 pm (UTC)I don't at all mean, by the way, to say that you are being "blasphemous" or anything, Tina. Just adding to what ariellejuliana said...
And God shows us mercy through the physical as well. There is an icon of St Nicholas in my Church, that 25 years ago, was completely dark and hidden. No one touched it, it was hanging on a wall, in the corner. It started to get clearer and brighter, and finally someone noticed it. It was put on a stand in the Church. When I first came to the parish, eight years ago, the figures were clear, but it was dark, and reddish brown. I thought it wasn't that impressive, and I also thought "why would an icon restore itself, that seems silly." Eight years later, there is shining gold in this icon. The smaller figures (of Christ and Mary) are clear. Why do such things happen? Someone asked my priest that once. "We don't know, really," he said. "It's because He loves us. He can restore anything, He is showing us." He makes all things new... "because He loves us..." that made me cry. I'm not sure if the point of that comes through, how I meant it, and feel it.
Hope you don't mind my jumping in with the long comments.