The first Sunday of Lent, is known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy, when we commemorate the victory of the Orthodox faith over the heresy of iconoclasm. In the eighth century the Church had been torn apart by those who objected to the veneration of icons and in 787 the Second Council of Nicacea responded by affirming the role of icons in the Church, stating that ” Whenever these representations are contemplated, they will cause those who look at them to commemorate and love their prototype.” The council distinguished between the worship that is due to God alone, and the veneration that we give icons, and stated that when we venerate an icon we are really venerating the reality for which it stands.
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