Praying With Eyes Open: God's Love Seen in the Holy Family

Icons are sometimes described as “windows to heaven,” the gospel written in an image. They serve as an invitation to pray with your eyes open, and their use extends back to the early days of our ancient faith.

The icon is to the eye the same as music is to the ear, as incense is to smell, as veneration to the touch and as Holy Communion to the taste. The intent is to charge all our senses and guide us toward spiritual understanding.

By contemplating the holiness of the image seen in the wood, we are not praying to the painting itself but using the icon as a means of directing our prayer toward God. It is in praying with eyes wide open that we are taking the image that is seen, and what is unseen, into our hearts. We focus not on the icon, but rather on what is expressed through it: the love of God.

This is prayer without words, with a focus on being in God’s presence. It is an experience of touching and feeling what is holy — a divine mystery.

THE REV. MARCIA ALLISON is an iconographer who teaches icon writing in egg tempera Byzantine style. She currently resides in Ormond Beach, Florida. You may contact Marcia to commission a specific icon for your spiritual needs or review gallery and workshop opportunities on her website, mallison0408.wixsite.com/mysite.