I’m getting my chrismation icons blessed!

Because there is so much for me to learn now as I pray with the holy icons, I’ve put up finally an icon of Christ the Teacher, one I don’t yet have but that still means a lot to me because there is so much more to learn from him. But if there is anything that I know about icons now, it’s that the gaze of Christ, the Theotokos, and the saints into my heart through them is pure love that must be responded to with the purest veneration. To have these icons blessed on the post-feast of the Transfiguration reminds me that my hope is also to shine with Uncreated Light. Indeed, one of the first stories I heard from my priest was the story of St Seraphim of Sarov, a Russian saint whose face shone with so much light that his disciple dared not look at him. But Seraphim said to him: ‘Don’t be afraid…At this very moment you yourself have become as bright as I am. You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God; otherwise you would not be able to see me as you do’ (Bishop Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church, p. 116). May it be thus for me, even in the secret of my icon corner, as the holy icons gaze at me with the love that is G-d.