I love this icon! I need her constantly with me. I bring her in the car when I go for long drives to the grocery store and put her in the sun visor. I keep her in my shirt breast pocket when I take communion and look at her during mass when I put her on the hymn bookshelf in the pew. I need this icon with me throughout the day and night because I can not be given life stability or satisfying sobriety without the Panagia’s help and AA (Daily Reflections). I’m trusting God, the Panagia, Orthodox books, and AA when they warn me that sin (addictions, drugs, and alcohol) only cause isolation, anxiety, and feeling depressed (Daily Reflections). Living without seeing the Panagia ceaselessly is too prideful for me and must be stopped immediately. Or else it will harm my serenity and sobriety. I need daily dialogue with Theotokos to comfort me and heal every one of my wounds of bitterness, of disappointment, and of separation from richer and more successful people. I am grateful to the Panagia. Without Her I would fall into alcoholism, ego, and insanity (Daily Reflections). Purchasing this icon was a financial investment in my faith which will confidently grow a “hundredfold” spiritually (Matthew 19:29).
This icon is helping me love the heart of the Panagia. The more I see Theotokos, the more I contemplate, “pray and converse with God” (which) “is a supreme good: it” (increases my) “partnership and union with God. As the eyes of the body are enlightened when they see light, so our spirit, when it is intent on God (through the icon of the Panagia), is illumined by his infinite light. I do not mean the prayer of outward observance but prayer from the heart, not confined to fixed times or periods but continuous throughout the day and night” (St. John Chrysostom, Supp. Hom. 6 De precatione, in Liturgy of the Hours, vol. II, p. 68-69).
This small Panagia is the perfect materialization of John Chrysostom’s idea who suggests we should always contemplate the Divine. Specifically, “our spirit should be quick to reach out toward God” and the Theotokos, “not only when it is engaged in meditation;” but also “at other times” “when we are “carrying out” our daily “duties, caring for the needy, performing works of charity, (and) giving generously in the service of others, our spirit should long for God” and the Panagia and bring them both to our mind(s) (especially visually) so that our “works may be seasoned with the salt of God's love, and so make a palatable offering to the Lord of the universe” (St. John Chrysostom) (Hom. 6 De precatione, in Liturgy of the Hours, vol. II, p. 69).
Reference: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. (1990). Daily reflections: A book of reflections by A.A. members for A.A. members