“Quite often, people begin with good intentions, but look where they may find themselves! This was the case with the “icon-worshippers” and the “iconoclasts” of the past: both cases were extremes!  The former had reached the point of scraping off icons of Christ and placing the scrapings into the Holy Chalice in order to “improve” Holy Communion; the latter, on the other hand, burnt and totally discarded all icons. That is why the Church was obliged to place the icons in higher places, out of reach, and, when the dispute was over, lowered them so that we can venerate them and thus confer the appropriate honor to the persons portrayed therein….”
(Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos,  Fr. Luke Hartung translation)

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