Icons are sacred images of Jesus, Mary, or saints used in Orthodox churches to aid worshippers in contemplation and prayer. Iconographers who paint icons live holy lives and pray for divine inspiration so that God can guide their hands as they create icons to bring people closer to God. Contemplation of icons allows one to enter a spiritual world through still, quiet prayer of focusing on the icon in God's presence.

1. Icons – an aid to prayer

2. Blessed Trinity icon
Icon – a sacred image
of Jesus, Mary or the
saints used as an aid
to worship, mainly in
the orthodox
Churches.
See page 216/217 and
324 for more
information on Icons

3. • Icons are symbols that bring people closer
to God, through contemplation of the icon.
The icon allows you to open the door and
enter a new world – the world of Christ
and the saints.
• Iconographers live a holy life, they pray
and fast for inspiration and God guides
their hands as they paint.

4. Contemplation
• Contemplation comes from Greek
temnein: to cut or divide, and means to
separate something from its environment,
and to enclose it in a sector.
• In a religious sense it is a type of prayer or
meditation.
• Contemplation - Deep prayer of the heart.
A sense of being quiet and still in the
presence of God.