ikons of christ

"The essence of prayer is to hear
the voice of another, of Christ,
but likewise to hear the voice
of each person I meet
in whom Christ also addresses me.
His voice comes to me in every human voice,
and his face is infinintely varied.
It is present in the face of the wayfarer on the road to Emmaus;
it is present in the gardener speaking to Mary Magdalene,
it is present in my next-door neighbor.

God became incarnate so that we might
contemplate his face in every face.

Perfect prayer seeks this presence of Christ
and recognizes it in every human face.
The unique image of Christ is the ikon,
but every human face is an ikon of Christ,
discovered by a prayerful person."

Catherine de Hueck Doherty

ikon: picture: a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface.