Reverence and Participation
Why do people kiss icons?
People kiss icons as an act of veneration, meaning reverent honor. The honor is directed to the person represented, not to wood, paint, or glass as an object. Worship belongs to God alone.
He is the image of the invisible God.
Why Icons Matter
Icons are connected to the Incarnation. Because the Son of God truly became man, the Church can confess Christ visibly. Icons also teach the faithful to remember St. Mary, the angels, the martyrs, and the saints as living members of Christ's household.
Worship And Honor
The Church worships the Holy Trinity alone. She honors holy people and holy things because God's grace has worked in them. Kissing, bowing, or touching an icon is understood as love and honor shown through the image to the person represented.
Icons Confess That The Word Truly Became Flesh
Icons are possible because the Son of God became visible in the flesh. The Church does not worship wood, paint, or gold. She honors the person shown, and the honor passes to the prototype.
When the faithful venerate icons, the body is joining the confession that Christ truly entered visible human life and that His saints are alive in Him. The walls are teaching that the Church on earth worships with the Church in heaven.
The kiss is therefore an act of love joined to Orthodox confession.
- Venerating Icons, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States Q&A. Pastoral answer on venerating icons and how kissing an icon relates to honoring the person represented.
- Holy Tradition, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Explanation of Holy Tradition as the received apostolic life of the Church.
- Icons and Vestments, Coptic Education. Introductory lesson on icons and vestments as visible teaching in Coptic worship.
Icon: A sacred image of Christ, St. Mary, an angel, a saint, or a holy event. In Coptic practice, church icons are consecrated with Holy Myron and are venerated, not worshiped.
Veneration: Reverent honor shown to icons, saints, relics, and holy things. Worship belongs to God alone.
Incarnation: The mystery that the eternal Word of God truly became man for our salvation while remaining fully divine.
Holy Trinity: The one God confessed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one essence and three Persons, worshiped and glorified together.
Confession: The sacrament of repentance in which a person confesses sins before God in the presence of the priest and receives absolution and guidance.
Orthodox: Right worship and right belief, naming the Church's received apostolic faith and the life of worship that preserves it.