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“We worship Your most pure image, O Good One, asking forgiveness of our sins.” And how can we not worship that image that represents to us our dearest Savior in the form in which He, the infinite God, out of love for us, poor sinners, took on our flesh and became forever, as one of us? Not to honor and kiss with reverence that image, before which the Archangels and Angels revere, of which the spirits of evil tremble, in which our nature flaunts all the glory of the Divine? If we treasure images of people close to our hearts, or great benefactors of humanity; we love to look at them often; We put them in the most honorable places, and sometimes we kiss them, then how can we not preserve and honor the image of the One who shed His blood for us on the Cross, Who freed us from sin and eternal death, returned paradise to us and brought the Kingdom of Heaven? There was, however, a time when this worship cost the blood and life of the worshipers, when not only to worship the image of the Savior, even to have it in one’s possession was charged with the most serious crime. And this was done not among the pagans, not among the Mohammedans, not among the Jews, but among Christians, in a state that from ancient times was famous for its zeal for the faith and the Charter of the Church! And such madness lasted not a year, not two, not three, but more than a hundred years!.. When you imagine all this now, you don’t know what to think and how to explain the blindness so terrible! For what did the holy icons do that they should be the subject of persecution so fierce and long-lasting? That some of the Christians, in their simplicity, extended their reverence and zeal towards them to the point of excess, stopping their thoughts on the image, instead of ascending through it to the depicted? But for this reason it would be necessary to destroy all the icons in the great church of nature; it would be necessary to extinguish the sun, moon and all the stars in the sky, and on earth to destroy springs and rivers, mountains and forests, even animals, for all this was, and still is for entire nations, an object of not only superstitious reverence, but also adoration. And yet, the church of nature, despite such abuse, is still full of icons, as it was at the beginning of the universe. Why should the short-sighted wisdom of earth not imitate the wisdom of heaven in this regard? However, how many of the simplest Christians are there who took any icon directly for the face it depicted, and thought that the wood and paints constituted the Divinity itself? You have to look for such a person for a long time, and with a proper conversation with him you will rarely find something contrary: that is, that he only does not know how to express his concepts as he should, and not that he does not know how to distinguish an icon from the person depicted by it. As for other people, the simplest and most unenlightened, their zeal and love for holy icons may seem to some to extend to excess precisely because these judges themselves have too little zeal not only for the holy icons, but also for the holy faces depicted on them. And isn’t there a whole class of pastors and teachers of the Church, which was established for this purpose in order to admonish those who sin and guide the weak? With such leadership, holy icons are one of the best means of teaching the Orthodox people the holy truths of the faith. These are the most intelligible letters for those who do not know letters. Since there are always and everywhere a large part of these, depriving churches of holy icons means depriving an entire people of one of the most effective ways to instruct them in the faith. What can compare with the edification of a holy church, properly decorated with holy icons? Entering into its sacred surroundings, a person involuntarily separates himself in thought and feelings from the entire sinful world; enters, as it were, into the visible community of saints; is transferred in spirit to the Church of the righteous written in heaven. Whatever the look, there is a pious thought or a holy feeling. Is it prudent to close this source of holy inspiration? And what to replace it with? Are they artificial columns, paintings, images of nature? But they will arouse in you wonder at the artist, and not at the Lord; whereas an icon, even an artless one, directly makes you think about the Saint. Was it not in front of icons and not through their actions that the fate of people, even entire nations, was decided? Remember Mary of Egypt: who aroused in her soul the holy boldness to promise the correction of her life before God? A look at the icon of the Mother of God standing above the doors of the Temple of Jerusalem. Equally, wasn’t it the memory of this icon and the vow pronounced before it that later supported her throughout her fourty years of incredible desert exploits? The fate of our entire Fatherland in relation to faith was also decided, one might say, by nothing else, but by the holy icon. For what especially influenced Saint Vladimir in favor of Eastern Orthodoxy, when he hesitated and was perplexed in choosing the faith? The fact that the Greek philosopher, who convinced him to accept Christianity, concluded his convictions by presenting before the Grand Duke pictures of the Last Judgment. The Holy Icon stopped our hesitation; the holy icon made us Christians, and Orthodox at that. After this, if all other Christian nations, out of unreasonable pride, stopped worshiping icons, then our Orthodox Fatherland, out of sheer gratitude, would never abandon due respect to them. And how can one stop venerating holy icons when their use is approved by the example of Jesus Christ Himself and His Apostles? When their importance and holiness are sealed by the signs and wonders that come from them? If the worship of icons were contrary to the spirit of faith and piety; then the Savior would not have imprinted His face on the ubrus and would not have sent it to Abgar, for how could Abgar not kiss this image and bow to it? Likewise, how could the Sender not know what they would do with what was sent? If the images of saints contained something unholy, then the Evangelist Luke would not have set the first example of depicting the face of the Mother of God on an icon, for he, led by the Holy Spirit, could not help but foresee that the face of the Mother of God, from under his apostolic brush, would not hesitate to become an object of universal reverence, and that the example of the depicting evangelist would not remain without imitators in the Church of Christ. Finally, if the veneration of icons were incompatible with the properties of the New Testament, then the grace of the Holy Spirit would not have chosen icons as the visible instrument of its miraculous actions, performing various healings through them. This is how the ancient defenders of icon veneration thought, and shed their blood for the holy icons. And we, brethren, venerating the holy icons without restraint, will at least shed prayers of gratitude before them for the fact that God’s Providence did not allow the evil of iconoclasm to establish itself in the Orthodox Church, as it has, unfortunately, established itself in some Christian societies. But what did these societies gain by thoughtlessly rejecting the veneration of holy icons? Have you increased your understanding of the objects of faith? On the contrary, they have apparently come close to the danger of losing faith in the most essential dogmas of Christianity and have cooled in feeling to the point that they listen and read with indifference the most bitter blasphemers of the name of Christ. Where is the imaginary benefit from non-veneration of icons? Is it that the churches began to resemble places of simple gatherings in their interior, so that they can always be immediately turned to any use?.. And the short-sighted, having recklessly exposed their church, thought to hide with this nakedness under the shadow of the commandment of Moses: “Thou shalt not make for theeself an idol of any likeness... lest thou worship them, neither shalt thou serve them”! ( Ex. 20:4–5 ). But the godly Jewish legislator obviously prohibits those idols and statues that were used by the pagans and represented their unclean deities, but does not prohibit sacred images of holy objects. The proof of the latter is the golden images of Cherubim, which, at the command of God Himself, were placed by Moses in the Tabernacle of Testimony, and, moreover, in its holiest place - above the Ark of the Covenant, where exactly all those praying turned their faces. And which of us, when creating an icon, thinks of creating an idol or likeness of God? Who hopes to depict the Limitless and Indescribable? We will only write those images in which our Lord and Creator was pleased to appear visibly to us, his creatures. Thus, we depict God the Father as an old man, because in the visions of the prophet Daniel He appears as the Ancient of Days. Thus we depict the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and in the form of fiery tongues; because in the first form He descended on the Son of God in the Jordan, and in the second - on the apostles on the day of Pentecost. What's reprehensible here? As for the Son of God, our Savior, is it possible not to depict Him in human image when He took on this image for all eternity? And depicting this way, is it possible not to worship this image, when we and the whole world are saved by Him? So, no matter how you look at the veneration of holy icons, it seems worthy of all respect, one of the splendid decorations of the church, one of the most effective means for edification in faith and good morals. After this, all that remains is to correctly use this means with gratitude, which cost so dearly to the defenders of icon veneration, who believed, and many laid down, their souls for it. That is, how to use it? Addressing your prayers, petitions and thanksgivings not so much to the icons, but through them to those holy faces depicted on them; excited by the sight of holy faces and their holy deeds depicted on icons, to imitate their faith and virtues; without extending the honor of holy icons to the deification of the substance that composes them, and without attributing to them other extraordinary qualities, except for those that depend on the invisible grace of God acting through them. Those who use holy icons in this way know from experience what a great benefit it is to the soul; and those who do not use it are not surprising if they do not know this. To the latter, therefore, one can and should now say the same thing that was said, as the Gospel now read tells, by the Apostle Andrew to his brother Nathanael: “come and see”! (John 1:46). Amen. You might be interested in: