Venerating Orthodox Icons

[Divine3]

Hawaii’s Myrrh-Streaming Iveron Icon
The Wonderworking Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother of Godhttp://www.eadiocese.org/News/2011/july/bltsvl.lg.jpg

“From thy Holy Icon, O Lady Theotokos, blessed myrrh has flowed abundantly. Thou hast thereby consoled those, in exile, faithful unto thee, and hast enlighten the unbelievers by thy Son’s light. Therefore O Lady, with tears we bow down to thee. Be merciful to us in the hour of judgment. Lest having received thy mercy we be punished as those who have been contemptuous of it. But grant us through thy prayers to bring forth spiritual fruit, and save our souls” - Troparion to the Iveron Icon, Tone 7.

 

[Divine3]

Someone said to me it is like if you had a picture of your mom and you lived far away from her to show your love for her you might pick up the picture you have of your mother and give it a kiss.

 

[brittrossiter]

As a catechumen, I still do not know many things about the Catholic Faith. What does it mean to venerate an icon? How does one venerate an icon?

“Venerating” an icon usually means crossing yourself and then kissing the icon - usually on the hands (except for Christ, Who is kissed on His feet).

If you want to know more about the spiritual significance of this, a good place to start is the writings of St. John of Damascus, who had this to say about the veneration of icons:

Of old, God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was never depicted. Now, however, when God is seen clothed in flesh, and conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. I will not cease from honouring that matter which works my salvation. I venerate it, though not as God. How could God be born out of lifeless things? And if God’s body is God by union, it is immutable. The nature of God remains the same as before, the flesh created in time is quickened by, a logical and reasoning soul.

Source

 

[Peter_J]

WRONG.

Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus; outside the Church there is no salvation.

Hi smead. My reading of this is that you encountered the thinking of so-called “traditionalist” Catholics. You should understand that this is *not *representative of Catholicism.

 

[Peter_J]

Hi smead. My reading of this is that you encountered the thinking of so-called “traditionalist” Catholics. You should understand that this is *not *representative of Catholicism.

P.S. I put this on another thread, but I’ll take the liberty of putting here too for anyone who didn’t already see it:

Lumen gentium 14: " … Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved."

The thing is, however, that a lot of “traditionalist” Catholics have taken this to be talking about being ICWR (in communion with Rome) or not, but the sentence right before makes it clear that it is about being Christian or not: “In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church.”

 

[FollowChrist34]

Hi, All. Although I am a Roman Catholic and do love the Church, I am in awe of Hawaii’s Myrrh-Streaming Iveron Icon, a Russian Orthodox Icon, and I would one day love to venerate the Icon and be anointed by the Icon’s Myrrh. I do not wish to become a member of Orthodox Church, I just want to venerate the Wonderworking Icon. However, I want to keep with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, so would it be alright if I venerate Hawaii’s Myrrh-Streaming Iveron Icon?

Thank You,
Lauren

No problem whatsoever. I have icons of Mary up (1 Greek, 1 Russian). I do pray (or venerate) them more or less - during prayers or reading. I don’t see much difference between that and praying before statues in a Roman Catholic Church. (or flowers in a field - but that is for another thread ) I don’t understand why people have such reservations about this, or, on the other hand, go to the other extreme and do actually come to worship them (or rosaries for us). Take the middle road.