A Little About Icons

I was pointed to a very interested article by someone on a Byzantine/Orthodox forum about Icons in the Home in Russian Orthodox culture. The customs surrounding Icons in Russian Orthodoxy bring the Presence of God, the Holy and Mighty One, into their daily lives.

...peasants’ tables are often so arranged that it is impossible to sit with one’s back to (them); the table is jammed up into the Ikon corner so that it appears as if the Ikons themselves are sitting down to the meals. Before eating, one bows to the Ikon and crosses oneself three times and one repeats the ritual after the meal and then adds, “Thank you,” addressing the master
of the house.

If you sleep in a Russian home, the Ikon with its little lamp before it looks down upon you all night and guards you from evil.

...all the homes (are seen) as private ante-chambers of the village church, that in passing from the church to the home one’s reverence remains unaltered, and that all lived in the remembrance of the immanence and nearness of God.

I guess many Christians today would think all this a little weird and extreme. But, I think that in these and other customs talked about in this article, such as crossing one's self when passing a Church, the sense of the Presence of God in the everyday is heightened.

We have lost the sense of the sacred in this country. We no longer see God as He is--everywhere and All Powerful. We no longer even treat our Churches as sacred places. We no longer treat the human body as the temple that the Lord created it to be. I think a little reverence and the reminder of religious icons and some of the customs surrounding them would not be misplaced in today's society.