Icons and saints are a really interesting part of the Christian tradition for me. In my practice, as a Pentecostal, I have never had a necklace with any religious figures, had any window panes depicting famous people from the Bible in my church, or really knew what a saint was. A lot of Christian practices come from the Catholic tradition: having rosaries that are passed down through generations or having stained glass paintings depicting religious figures from the Bible in churches. As a Protestant Christian (so not Catholic), a lot of those practices were foreign to me. Personally, I was never a fan of iconography because for me, Christianity is more about the relationship between myself and God and less about everyday practices that I keep.

Nonetheless, when I heard more about the stories behind even just the Mary necklaces that some people wear, I was pleasantly surprised. At the Boston Interfaith Leadership Initiative (BILI) conference this past winter, I talked to two of my peers about their necklaces or rosaries and the significance of the mother Mary in the Catholic tradition. What I was told was a beautiful story of empowerment. I was told that in the Catholic Church, Mary is a very important figure—in fact, one of the top three most important figures besides God/Jesus and Peter. This is because of the agency that Mary had in the birth of Jesus. Mary had to accept, to consent, to having Jesus Christ as a baby. She had to say yes to the angel that prophecies about her future child. I had never really thought about it that way. No one had never explained the Birth of Jesus story to me from that angle. Mary is also a very maternal figure in the Catholic Church, a symbol of purity and Christianity to whom all can look. Mother Mary has so much respect in the Catholic Church not only because of her actions but also because of her symbolism to the Church as a whole. Although I am not a fan of having specific people almost iconized through images and the like, I do think the Mother Mary idea the Catholic Church has is a good one. Especially in an institution like the Catholic Church where women have restrictions—for instance, women cannot be priests—the idea of having a woman be one of the most important figures in the tradition is a good thing. 

When I reflect upon my personal definition of Christianity, a specific person or people may present a good lesson that I can learn from and appreciate. While I personally don’t like focusing on one individual from the Bible over another, many women and men in the Bible and afterwards went to great lengths to spread the Gospel. I have nothing but love and respect for those who have paved the way. 

To quote Jesus, the Law can be summed up like this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind; the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37, 39). In the quote, Jesus was summarizing all the Commandments and saying that those two are the most important; doing those two things will lead to being a good Christian. For me, I believe that whatever helps you in your faith journey is a good thing: rosaries, saints, the like. Faith is hard. It is not easy to keep it, so having everyday things close to you is a positive thing. But for me, at the end of the day I think that Christianity does not necessitate paintings in church, iconography, or rosaries; it is about the condition of my heart. The faith-based pieces people have sometimes become more meaningful to people who are not religious, and in a few cases, for some Christians from all denominations, the objects themselves may be more valued than what they symbolize. Articles, images, and iconography are good things, but at the end of the day I believe faith is about your daily life and actions and not based on certain things you have.