Overload

Anyone with a brain and access to any kind of news knows that the situation in the US is dire, and rapidly declining. There is enough bad news on the intertubes. NO need for more here.

So come here for a little refreshment, like this:

I [says Father Stephen] have made a contrast between what I have termed a literal view of reality and an iconic view of reality. In the literal view, things are things. What you see is what there is. In an iconic view, things point to something beyond themselves – they make present that to which they point.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

From time to time, I have written about the iconic character of reality – the world about us has the character of an icon. I have also noted the iconic character of language and of Scripture. There is much to say about what is meant by such descriptions as well as what it means to see things in an “iconic” manner.

However, there is much more to this than the mere act of seeing. To see an icon requires that we also be in relationship with that which it represents. Christ is present in His icon but is only made manifest to us because we are in relationship with Him. Thus I have said that to see an icon properly involves its veneration. Veneration is an expression of our relationship with that which is represented.

An important aspect of icons (in the teaching of the Church) is that an icon must be true. We cannot make icons of that which is not true.

As always, Fr Stephen's writings are worth reading. Read the rest of this excellent post here.