Today we commemorate - with the Eastern Christian churches - St. Theodore the Studite (759-826), monk and abbot of the Stoudios Monastery, Byzantine theologian and writer. He encourages us to direct our gaze to heaven through the images (icons), both of Christ and of the saints. In that gaze we will find rest for our souls (cf. Mt 11:29).

Saint Theodore lived through a rather turbulent period in the Byzantine Middle Ages. “With his usual energy, he became the leader of the resistance against the iconoclasm of Leo V, the Armenian who once again opposed the existence of images and icons in the Church” (Benedict XVI). Indeed, Theodore argued that icons are windows to the divine and essential tools for the spiritual education of the faithful: “Icons are to the eyes what the Scriptures are to the ears” and, logically, “he who venerates the icon, venerates in it the reality it represents”.

In the Old Testament, images of divinity were radically excluded from Jewish piety, because they led to idolatry: the Word of God had not yet been incarnated, so that the gaze directed at an image (statues, idols, calves...) did not lead beyond the image itself, and was immediately confused with divinities. They were gods who had eyes but did not see; ears but did not hear; a mouth but did not speak... (cf. Ps 115:4-8).

But with the incarnation of the Son of God, this changed radically. Christ is the visible face of the Father: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). From that moment on, icons teach us to venerate and respect the image of the incarnate God and of the saints, constantly reminding us of their holiness and their example to follow.

Theodore affirmed that “the heart must be continually in prayer, even while we work or rest.” Well, for those of us who are called to be “contemplatives in the midst of the world,” a modern author who has contributed to promoting lay piety, recommends: “Make use of those holy 'human devices' that I suggested to help you keep presence of God: ejaculations, acts of love… 'glances' at a picture of our Lady” (St. Josemaría Escrivá).