Icons teach us not to look on reality as what we see but perceive its deeper reality. Asceticism in turn trains our spiritual perceptions to perceive reality properly in order to lead us to God.
The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his Master’s crib
"Now then I pray you accept His Conception, and leap before Him; if not like John from the womb (Luke 1:41), yet like David, because of the resting of the Ark (2 Samuel 6:14). Revere the enrollment on account of which you were written in heaven, and adore the Birth by which you were loosed from the chains... Continue Reading →