Today is the Sunday of Orthodoxy. 

Troparion - Tone 2 

We venerate Your most pure image, O Good One,
and ask forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ God.
Of Your own will You were pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh
to deliver Your creatures from bondage to the enemy.
Therefore with thanksgiving we cry aloud to You:
You have filled all with joy, O our Savior,
by coming to save the world.

Kontakion - Tone 8

No one could describe the Word of the Father;
but when He took flesh from you, O Theotokos, He accepted to be described,
and restored the fallen image to its former beauty.
We confess and proclaim our salvation in word and images.

From the Synaxarion

Iconoclasm, the rejection of the veneration of icons, broke out when Leo the Isaurian ascended the Byzantine throne. In 787 AD, the Empress Irene and her son Constantine called the Seventh Ecumenical Council, which restored the icons. A second period of iconoclasm broke out under another emperor named Leo (the Armenian), and this time, yet another woman, the Empress Theodora, led the way to the final Triumph of Orthodoxy.

Read the story from the Lenten Synaxarion and note how important a theme is the repentance of Theophilus, Theodora’s husband, and the prayers of the Church for him.

Now When God Is Seen

In former times God, who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter; I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter; who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God. How could God be born out of things which have no existence in themselves? God’s body is God because it is joined to His person by a union which shall never pass away. The divine nature remains the same; the flesh created in time is quickened by a reason endowed soul. Because of this I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with His grace and power. Through it my salvation has come to me. Was not the thrice-happy and thrice blessed wood of the Cross matter? What of the life bearing rock, the holy and life-giving tomb, the fountain of our resurrection, was it not matter? Is not the ink in the most holy Gospel-book matter? Is not the life-giving altar made of matter? From it we receive the bread of life! Are not gold and silver matter? From them we make crosses, patens, chalices! And over and above all these things, is not the Body and Blood of our Lord matter? Either do away with the honor and veneration these things deserve, or accept the tradition of the Church and the veneration of images.

~ St. John of Damascus: On the Holy Images I:16

The Synodikon

A “Synodikon” is an official declaration signed by all members of a synod or council, by which a decision by that synod is affirmed. The Synodikon of the Sunday of Orthodoxy is a declaration of the members of the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 AD affirming the truths of the Orthodox Faith, which sprung forth from the controversy concerning icons. This Synodikon was read before the Divine Liturgy that sealed the decision in 843 AD and has since then has been read on this day every year. The tradition is for the people to recite it together and at the end to hold up the icons to affirm their truthfulness and Orthodoxy.

“As the Prophets beheld,

As the Apostles have taught,

As the Church has received,

As the Teachers have dogmatized,

As the Universe has agreed,

As Grace shown forth,

As falsehood has been dissolved,

As Wisdom has presented,

As Christ awarded.

Thus we declare, thus we assert, thus we preach Christ our true God, and honor His Saints in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in churches, in Holy Icons; on the one hand worshipping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord; and on the other hand, honoring as true servants of the same Lord of all and accordingly offering them veneration.

This is the Faith of the Apostles!

This is the Faith of the Fathers!

This is the Faith of the Orthodox!

This is the Faith which has established the Universe!

AMEN!”

Windows into Heaven

Explore the History of Ikons.

The Triumph of Orthodoxy: Past, Present, and Future

Fr. Alexander Schmemann calls on us to remember the triumph of the faith in the past, rallies us to see the triumph of Orthodoxy today in the West, and pleads with us to carry the truth of the Church forward to a new triumph in the future. Read his sermon.