Mary Green always listened to the words of her god; throughout her life she had meaningful conversations through prayer and found guidance within the gospels. But Green, a self-described “highly visual” person, said she lacked the “eyes to see.”

Green is a Clinton resident, ordained minister and author of the new book “Eyes to See: The Redemptive Purpose of Icons,” in which she discusses the role of religious iconography in prayer, meditation and spirituality.

“Eyes to see” is a reference to the Matthew 13:16 verse which reads, according to the World English Bible, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”

Green will be reading from her book from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26 at St. Augustine’s in-the-Woods Episcopal Church at 5217 Honeymoon Bay Road in Freeland.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Icons (from the Greek eikones) are sacred images representing the saints, Christ, and the Virgin, as well as narrative scenes such as Christ’s Crucifixion.” These are not to be confused with the broader term, religious art.

“Anything that looks 3D and realistic is probably not an icon,” said Green, noting that icons are typically distinguishable due to their depictions of Biblical characters emanating spiritual energy.

Most religious icons mirror the Byzantine artistic style and are found most commonly in Catholic or Orthodox homes and churches.

According to Green, many practitioners of Protestant faiths are unfamiliar with icons as they are, for the most part, absent from Protestant places of worship.

Green, who worked as an Episcopal priest for nearly 20 years before retiring in 2011, was raised in a Christian household but said she became all the more devout in her religious practices after having some “major conversion experiences” in the 1970s. She explained that, although she had always maintained her faith in God and sought divine help in crisis, she found the need for “practical help” while raising teenage step children.

Although she was a staunchly independent person, certain circumstances proved too much to bear.

“I wasn’t very interested in religion in terms of going to heaven when I died as much as I needed practical help day-to-day in terms of raising kids, teenagers that were having a lot of issues,” she said. “God was present with me and helped me through those times. Even though I’d grown up in the church and was a Christian, that was when I really found the presence of Christ in my life.”

After these events had transpired, Green decided to become an ordained minister.

“I wanted to devote my life to serving the God that loved me so much,” said Green, explaining her desire to serve both the church and to guide others in “spiritual formation,” or learning to live a life of faith.

Green explained that, for her and others, deep concentration during a time of prayer could be somewhat difficult without a visual accompaniment, an artistic spiritual manifestation of the Bible’s spiritual leaders.

“They are the image of what scripture is to language,” said Green. “Icons are the eyes to see. In Western culture, the ears to hear are well developed but the eyes to see are not developed at all.”

Green continued by explaining that, in a visually centered Western culture, there is a “hunger” for icons, a sacred image upon which to focus during times of meditation.

“When you are focused on an icon, focused on a holy image, it really helps with the distraction and helps your prayer,” she said. “It helps you to focus on God. It helps you to be … better able to listen to God, to be still and know that God is in charge.”

Despite certain misconceptions, meditation upon an icon does not imply the worship of the image.

“You have to understand the meaning of the symbolism,” said Green.

Harry Anderson, a friend of Green’s and fellow parishioner of St. Augustine’s in-the-Woods Episcopal Church in Freeland, said that it is obvious to him that icons have a deeply personal meaning to Green.

“She studies them for the stories they tell, not just the art they express,” he wrote in an email to The Record.

Anderson recalled that he did not become religious until middle age, having previously dismissed the practice as irrelevant. Anderson explained that he began attending a church in California that employed several old and new icons and was “struck” by one depicting St. Stephen, a Christian martyr who was stoned to death for defying religious authorities of the day by professing his faith in Jesus.

“The look on Stephen’s face in the icon was so profoundly happy, almost giddy, as he was dying,” wrote Anderson, recalling the image. “The depth of it caught me by surprise and invited me to a deeper understanding of faith.”

Although Green had not been raised in a church that employed the use of icons, she said she initially began to admire their beauty and was inclined to begin painting them herself.

“Icons had no influence in my life at all which is what is so amazing to me,” she said. “They are not a part of Western Christianity. I got interested in them simply because I was interested in learning to paint their portraits.”

Soon, Green said, she recognized the power of icons in her own spiritual contemplations and practices. Thus far, she has painted about 24 pieces, three of which she looks to regularly: her first icon — a painting of Christ, an image of the Holy Trinity and an image of the Mother of God.

“It is a mysterious presence,” she said of the images. “They have a spiritual presence about them because they represent real people that have been transformed by God and have lived godly lives.”

Sunday’s book reading is open to the public and refreshments will be served.