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To: dangus
... in fact, read further in the bible, about how God commanded the Israelites to make statues of seraphim and serpents, and how he healed them of snakebites through the serpentine statues. Read how he commanded them to bow before the ark, adorned as it was with Cherubim.
180 posted on 05/07/2004 10:16:30 AM PDT by dangus
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To: dangus
The Catholic Church during the Council of Trent (1545-1563) issued a clear statement concerning images and statues.

According to the 25th Session of this General Council:

The images of Christ and of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the saints are to be had and retained particularly in churches, and due honor and veneration are to be given them; not that any divinity or virtue is believed to be in them on account of which they are to be worshipped, or that anything is to be asked of them, or that trust is to be reposed in images, as was of old by the Gentiles, who placed their hopes in idols; but because the honor which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which these images represent; so that we through the images which we kiss...or bend the knee, adore Christ and venerate the saints, whom they represent. [The Canons & Decrees of the Council of Trent]

The Church does NOT compel her members to kneel or pray before images. No one is allowed by the Church to pray to images since they have no ears to hear or power to help us. The Church allows for the veneration of images as long as the honor is directed towards Christ and His saints.

IMO if one is not moved by great art depicting Jesus, Mary, and the Saints, then they do not have the love of God in them, and theirs is a hollow love, which is no love at all.

I'm sometimes moved to tears at the sight of Our Lord on the Crucifix, because of the repentance of my own sins which caused it, and because of how pure love, in the form of Our Lord, was misunderstood and mistreated.

Those who would refuse to look at that image because of the lie that it is forbidden in the Bible, have fallen victim to the lie that is protestantism.

Out of sight - eventually out of mind.

181 posted on 05/07/2004 4:51:47 PM PDT by Arguss
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