What is Icon? Why and how we use them?

Icon is a painting or Holy Image that used as an aid to devotion. Icon have been in use since the earliest days of the Christian Church. Actually, It God Himself who ordered to Moses in Exodus 25: 18 to make a picture of an Angel on the Arc of the Covenant saying, "And thou shalt make two cherubim's of gold, . . .". Icons have served a manifold purpose in the Orthodoxy . They help teach the faithful about God, help to learn about the lives, devotion and struggles of the depicted saint, and aid the faithful in prayer and meditation on the person or events depicted. Icons can serve one's mind to keep it from wandering and help focus one's attention on prayer. The icons which fill the church serve as point of meeting between heaven and earth. As each local congregation prays Sunday by Sunday surrounded by the figures of Holy Trinity, Our Lord and Savior, St. Mary, Angels and saints, these visible images remind the faithful unceasingly of the invisible presence of the whole company of heaven at the Liturgy. To venerate or kiss an Icon is to express one’s love and respect to the one represented on the picture. They also served as a reminder to all the Orthodox of God's omnipresence and immanence in the world. In the beginning of Christian Church St John the Evangelist is believed to draw the Icon of Our Lord’s Crucifixion as he saw Him on Good Friday [Jn 19:25]. The Icon of St Mary with Her beloved baby Jesus was drawn by St. Luke as expressed on a Hymn about Icon, “Salutation to your Icon as Luke one of the wise evangelists drew it by his hand” [Melkea’ Seil]
