In the last issue I shared one of the important aspects of our theology, namely the veneration of saints. Those not of the Catholic and Orthodox faith do not venerate saints through prayer, nor do they keep statues or icons of saints in their homes or churches. Many even actively condemn Catholic and Orthodox devotions to the saints because it seems very dangerously close to idolatry: worshipping a creature instead of the Creator. This is especially true of the practice of venerating Mary, the Mother of God,

Catholic and Orthodox Christians worship God alone. Mary and the Saints are only honored and venerated as humans specially blessed by God. The Catholic explanation is this: The worship of latria (latreia), or strict adoration, is given to God alone; the worship of dulia (douleia), or honor and humble reverence, is paid the saints; the worship of hyperdulia (hyperdouleia), a higher form of dulia, belongs, on account of her greater excellence, to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Similarly, the Orthodox explain it in this manner: The worship (latreia) given to God is completely different from the honor (tim) of love (agape) and respect, or even veneration (proskynesis) “paid to all those endowed with some dignity” (Chrysostom).

The Bible encourages the veneration of angels, who are comparable to the saints in that they are creatures with a special relationship to God (References include Ex. 23:20; Jos. 5:13; Dan. 8:15 and 10:4; Matt. 18:10; Luke 2:9; Acts 12:7; and   Rev. 5:11 and 7:1).

The Council of Trent (1566) taught that idolatry is therefore committed “by worshipping images as God or believing that they possess any divinity or virtue entitling them to our worship, by praying to, or reposing confidence in them”. Catholic and Orthodox Christians do not commit idolatry when they venerate images since they see images as only reminders of the persons they respect. I think that it is important that we don’t say that we pray to icons. We only use icons to help us focus our attention on the persons that the icons represent. Catholics frequently explain the practice of using images to help prayer by comparing images of the saints to photographs of loved ones: both are reminders and memorials of the people they depict.

In our tradition we kiss and touch our heads to icons to help us remember the persons and events they represent.