This is an except from
Abundance of Love: The Incarnation and Byzantine Tradition
By Archbishop Raya
In my younger days I regularly visited holy monks. One day I came to the Monastery of St. Elias of Windows in Zahle. Hieromonk Clement had the Icon and the Gospel opened to the event of the Annunciation of the Incarnation. A week later I found him in contemplation before the same icon of Mary and the angel. Another week later he was still on the same page of the Gospel, in front of the same icon. I dared to ask: "Father, you have been reading the same page and looking at the same icon for more than two weeks!" "Son," he said, "when I come to these words, 'Be it done to me according to your word,' I see God becoming man. The whole world lights up for me. I see that all human beings are my brothers and sisters. I see them radiate holiness and goodness. In the icon all the elements of creation are penetrated and sanctified by the Incarnation of God. I contemplate his divine glory, and I come to know that his Incarnation is salvation and redemption for the whole world. I become myself a flame of holiness and do not feel the need to contemplate anything else."
