WHY I BELIEVE IN HOLY IMAGES

Nothing can be created by man without the grace of God. The first grace that He lets to shine on us is our talents. It is a gift passed on to us through our parent's Holy Union. We inherit the talents of our parents, through our genes, that was imbued in our body, as our mother and father, will pass on to us, as we develop in our mother's womb.

One of the greatest gift that our parents can pass on to us, is the ability to love, to appreciate that love, and express it in a message that we can convey to the people we love and wish to love. Some will express it in poems. Some will express it through music. Some will express it artistically, like a painting, or a sculpture.

The Catholic church have different saints with different feast days. Each day is dedicated for the feast day of a saint that a particular church wants to honor that day, dedicating the celebration of the mass in the name of that saint, offering the sacrifice of Jesus to save mankind, to God the Father. The Catholic church, with the guidance of the pope, elect saints, from those who have performed miracles while they were alive or as witnessed by devotees after their death. These saints are represented by statues, curved by sculptors as inspired by the Holy Spirit. They are curved with a heavenly being like an angel in the image of San Isidro Labrador, who was known to intercede for the workers. Or they maybe curved with another man, woman, or child as in the Holy Family. Or they maybe curved with an animal like the dog that saved San Roque from starvation while he was in the woods. Or they maybe curved with plants, like the palm leaves of San Pedro Calungsod, the second canonized Filipino saint, being the patron saint of the youth. Or maybe they can be curved with an object, like the bolo, bible, and chain, by which Saint Bartholomew chains the devil, whose threat to posses us in thoughts, words, or actions can be defeated. The images of these saints are painted with colors that would convey messages from God, that we are able to discern, as we meditate on the happening for the day, or before, or after.

Last Sunday as of this writing, January 19, was the feast day of Santo Nino. The image of the Patron saint, is in the image of the likeness of Jesus when he was small. The Sunday's mass was dedicated to his feast day. And the children who attended the mass learned from seeing the image, being able to identify with the Infant Jesus, through the voice and movement of the officiating priest, and those who assist the priest, with the vestments they wear. As children, we are inspired by God, through the His Holy Spirit, that we receive during baptism. This inspiration makes us emulate the Holiness of the child...young and old, wanting to please God each moment...For when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, God the Father, as witnessed by the crowd, said in a thunderous voice..."This is my son, of whom I am well pleased..." as people saw the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus.