We are so influenced by media-driven campaigns for absolute cleanliness that we risk becoming rupophobic, afraid to get anything soiled, to show dirt, to reveal those bad things inside of us, but also to be contaminated from contact from others, with people who are different from us.

[…] and this subtle and pervasive philosophy of squeezing everything into rational schemes has actually made people more thinglike, more robotized and dehumanized.

Last week the Archdiocese sent emmissaries to investigate the icon and decided that the tears were not a hoax, Father Koufos said.

to rise in force of expression; to rise in eloquence; a story rises in interest.