The divine apostle says: ‘Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature…has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made’ (Romans 1.20). If the invisible things are seen by means of the visible, the visible things are perceived in a far greater measure through the invisible by those who devote themselves to contemplation. For the symbolic contemplation of spiritual things by means of the invisible is nothing other than the understanding in the Spirit of visible things by means of the invisible.
MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR Mystagogia, 2 (PG 91,669)