At first, the term “icon writing” may be confusing. Writing an icon? Shouldn’t it be drawing an icon, or painting an icon?

But although an icon depicts an image, it is so much more than just a religious picture. An icon is visual theology. Those who purchase icons for private devotion should have them blessed, as they are sacramentals. The Catechism tells us that “Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words.”

In early Christianity, this was deeply controversial. Many so-called “iconoclasts” pointed to the Old Testament’s prohibition of idols and insisted that it was sinful to represent the face of God in an image. But defenders of iconography like St. John Damascene pointed to the incarnation as a turning point in our visual relationship with God. In Christ, God made himself visible, and thus continually invites us to contemplate and understand Him visually.

©LPi