May God allow us to become alive images of Christ
On Saturday, February 24, 2018 the most pious Bishop of Salona, Mr. Antonios did the Episcopal Vesper in the Metropolitan Church of Virgin Mary the Spilaiotissa.
In his preaching, the most pious Bishop talked about the chronicle of the Byzantine Iconoclasm, which troubled the Eastern Roman Empire for two centuries. The Orthodox Christians were fought and prosecuted and most of them died as Martyrs when confessing the truth.
The Seventh Ecumenical Synod condemned the iconoclasts and decided the following:
A) that we can depict our Lord, Jesus Christ, since He became a human. B) honor, venerate and worship only the Triune God. We honor the Virgin Mary and the Saints. C) when we venerate an image, we do not worship the wood or the colours with which it is made. We venerate the depicted face. D) God through the prayers of the Saint depicted on an image, makes miracles. E) the holy Relics of Saints are not a pile of bones that we throw away. They are temples and homes of the Holy Spirit and thus, they make miracles. These imperishable relics are those of Saint Spyridon and Saint Theodora the Empress, which are, by God’s grace, in Corfu. Saint Theodora the Empress was the one to validate the decisions of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod and she was fought even by her own husband, the Emperor Theofilos.
In his closing, Mr. Antonios wished that through the prayers of Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker from Trimithounta and Saint Theodora the Empress, along with the paternal greetings of his Eminence, the Bishop of Corfu, Paxoi and Diapontian Islands, Mr. Nektarios God will allow us to become alive images of Christ, to be a home for the Holy Spirit inside us in order to experience the peaceful life of the Kingdom of the Sky.
