Pope John Paul II at St Peter's Basilica said "A mysterious "presence" of the transcendent Prototype seems as it were to be transferred to the sacred image...The devout contemplation of such an image thus appears as a real and concrete path of purification of the soul of the believer...because the image itself, blessed by the priest...can in a certain sense, by analogy with the sacreaments, actually be considered a channel of divine grace." The Pope Speaks, March/April 1990, vol 35 no 2,"Icons Speak of Christian History"