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Orthodoxy includes and guarantees incalculable values which man could not possibly draw out of himself.
Frithjof Schuon, Spiritual Perspectives & Human Facts
"If indeed, we could find something to support the mind in its uncertainty, so that it no longer doubted and wavered in the face of this extraordinary dilemma, it would be well. But if our rather feeble powers of reason prove unequal to the problem, we must guard the tradition we have recieved from the Fathers, as ever sure and immovable... If this should be discovered by anyone endowed with grace, we shall give thanks to Him who granted the grace. If not, we shall none the less hold on to our unchangeable faith in those points which have been established."
- St Gregory of Nyssa, "That We Should Not Think of Saying There Are Three Gods".
I have chosen to depict 'orthodoxy' by a type of the Blessed Virgin Mary known as the madonna della misericordia. The Mother of Mercy extends her cloak over her suppliants and gives them her protection and succor. As the madonna della misericordia she embraces those who suffer in life and gives them peace. She si the type of divine Mercy and Charity, or charitas - Grace.
This aspect of Mary is also the heavenly prototype of the Church and its traditions.
"This permanent actualization of the active presence of the Lord Jesus in his people, realized by the Holy Spirit and expressed in the Church through the apostolic ministry and fraternal communion, is what is understood by the term Tradition in the theological sense: it is not the mere material transmission of what was given at the beginning to the apostles, but the efficacious presence of the Lord Jesus, crucified and risen, which accompanies and guides in the Spirit the community gathered by him. ...
"Thanks to Tradition, guaranteed by the ministry of the apostles and their successors, the water of life that flowed from the side of Christ and his saving blood comes to the women and men of all times. In this way, Tradition is the permanent presence of the Savior..."
Pope Benedict XVI
