If we could do nothing more in our faith, than learn what it truly means to be loved by God and let that shape the way we see the world, it would be the most significant achievement and the most magnificent blessing of this life. But so often, we don’t do that. We play a little game that I am sure all of us remember and probably had done at some point in our lives, where we take a flower, and without counting whether there are an even or odd number of petals, we pick one and say: “He loves me”…and then another…”He loves me not”.

What makes icons different? In them, we recognize heaven. We feel God’s Grace working through them. Icons act as this instrument which takes us from the depths of the fallen world and provides a window into the kingdom.

“When we as Christians hear the hymns and read about the dread judgment seat of Christ, we sometimes view it more like children who see the rubber ball coming out of the closet, on its way to punish us for the sickness that we have brought on ourselves through our own sins. But from the Father’s perspective, just like that rubber ball, the knowledge of the judgment that is to come is unbelievably necessary for us if we are to remain healthy, pure, and in the image of our Creator.”

“Make haste to open to Me O Lord, Your arms in Fatherly Embrace. I have wasted all of my life in sin like the prodigal son. As I now behold O my Savior, the unfailing riches of Thy Great Loving Kindness, do not despise my feeble heart…For unto You, I cry with tears of repentance: “Father, forgive me…I have sinned against Heaven and Before Thee.””

Let me recall a wise custom of the ancient Holy Fathers: when greeting each other, they did not ask about health or anything else, but rather about prayer, saying "How is your prayer?" The activity of prayer was considered by them to a be a sign of the spiritual life, and they called it the breath of the spirit. If the body has breath, it lives; if breathing stops, life comes to an end. So it is with the spirit. If there is prayer, the soul lives; without prayer, there is no spiritual life.”