If someone believes power comes from them and they are worthy of adoration.
Does it happens in other countries? Maybe it’s a homegrown superstition.
God desires our worship of Him to be immersive. In our adoration of God, we use our hands, our knees, our ears, our lips, our smell, our vision, our tactile senses, and even our ability to consume. We have musicians, orators, and artists. We have tiny forest shrines and towering cathedrals. We have fine velum Bibles written in luminescent manuscript and Rosaries made of olive wood and ivory. We have framed portraits of the Blessed Mother, crystal chalices, stained-glass windows, and marble statues. God is not a minimalist; quite the opposite, he is a God of excess and plenty. He isn’t content to impress us. He wants to overwhelm us and leave us awestruck in His majesty. Although all of these things are meaningless if they are not done with a heart of charity, all of them are in themselves holy expressions of our love. It can never be a bad thing to use our senses to further our falling in love with God, because that is why we have senses to begin with.
regarding your last paragraph, I don’t know how mass is in your Church but in the Catholic Church, there is a procession and a Deacon actually caries in a book of the Gospels in an elevated position. It’s a very ornate book and after the gospel is read at mass, the priest or the deacon will kiss the gospel. Then, in our church, the ornate book of the gospels is moved to an ornate stand.I never heard of such a thing. Instead I thought of grave and tombstone rubbings with charcoal to make a type of copy.
And then I remembered living in Springfield Illinois where people at Abe Lincoln’s tomb rub the noses of Lincoln, keeping them very shiny.
But rubbing church statues and considering it “idolatry” never even crossed my mind. I associate idolatry more with Protestants and their hyper reverence toward the paper and ink of the bible.
I was raised in a fundamentalist/Masonic family before I converted and I well remember my granpa telling me to never set another book on the bible. As if the ‘magic’ might escape
What do you mean by “dead Jesus statues”? Do you also have “live Jesus statues”?
I assumed that some of the statues showed Jesus dead and some showed him alive.
Yes in the Orthodox church the book of Gospels is processed around the whole church, censed every Sunday not only on special occasions. The book of Gospels is even kissed. It is bound in silver and gold.
That is the same thing as a burial shroud, but three dimensional. At those prices (ouch) it is no wonder you see them only in churches.
Really?
Well doh! The Pieta never even occurred to me, I’m stupid at times!
That doesn’t seem to be what souldiver is asking. Perhaps he can answer as to what he meant.
What do you mean by “dead Jesus statues”? Do you also have “live Jesus statues”?
There are statues that depict Jesus as alive and some statues depict him as dead.