I used to pray in front of a Greek Icon of Jesus I had on my desk. One day, realising that that image took my imagination to the Byzantine Ancient world, rather than to the Jewish world of my Jewish Jesus, I decided to perform an “experiment”:
I prayed seeeing my own image in the mirror. This may be interpreted as an act of egolatry. But… let´s face it: to pray in front of a plaster, wood or stone image of Jesus, Mary, or any other saint is taken as idolatry by many Christians (protestants, especially), Muslims or the Jewish.
Personally, I don’t think veneration of images of any kind is opposed per se to the true adoration due to God alone, as long as the image help us to think in the invisible God. And this applies also to our own image.
At the beginning I tried this way of praying thinking of that quotation from the Genesis that says that any human being is an image of God. So, when I see myself, I see an image of God. This is comparable to the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. They say this image was painted by the angels who see Mary in heaven. My body isn’t the product of the creative ability of a Byzantine artist, or the angels. My body is an image of God made by God himself.
One day, while praying the “Glory to the Father” I realised something new. When I look at myself in the mirror I feel something for myself. This is what psychologists call “self esteem”. What I realised is that me, looking at myself in the mirror and feeling something for myself is also an icon of the Holy Trinity I was praising in the “Glory to the Father”.
After all, God the Father knows himself in this reflection who is God the Son. And loves this image with the supreme act of love that is the Holy Spirit. Perfect knowledge and perfect love: the Holy Trinity is the most perfect and healthy act of self esteem. This fostered my devotion during the prayer of this trinitarian doxology.
Some days after I started with this way of praying I received a little sign that this was pleasing God (it’s worth mentioning that I’m quite sceptical about supernatural signs). One morning, while I was praying with the Liturgy of the Hours, I came across a prayer that says: “Lord: fill us with your holy light. May our lives mirror our love for you...”.
After that, I remembered that the Bible also uses the word “mirror” many times. Saint Paul made theology in front of the mirror when he wrote “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12). I like thinking that may be Paul himself prayed in front of a mirror.
