[arrasleds]

Hello
I heard about this miracle last night at our Orthodox Bible study and am very interested to know more about it. From all accounts is truly does sounds like a miracle. In the town where I live is a cross, called the Deville Wood Cross, which "weeps" every year in July around the date when many South Africans died in a particular World War I battle. Here is an extract explaining its background:

"On the night of the 17th/18th the woods were subjected to a bombardment which devastated the forest. At 6pm on 20th July, only 3 officers and 140 men, many of them wounded, marched out. General Lukin survived to take the salute. Six days earlier, on moving in, the strength of the brigade was 433, including all ranks.

General Lukin brought wood back from the Delville forest. A cross was later made of it and is now one of Pietermaritzburg city's war memorials. It is housed in the Garden of Remembrance. Called the "Weeping Cross of Delville Wood", it regularly attracts world headlines. For the cross "weeps" on, or around the July anniversary of the battle in which so many SA soldiers died.

It has been examined by amongst others the CSIR (scientific research council), the Forestry Department and the University of Natal. No rational explanation can be found for the reason why the pine cross still oozes sap. Two similar crosses in Cape Town and Durban do not exhibit this phenomenon. Local legend has it that when the last survivor of Delville passes away, the cross will weep no more."


I don't know if this is marculous or not, but I would love to find out more about the above-mentioned Holy Fire Miracle also.
Many thanks,
Annalise

[Anaerbguagree]

There's a lot of information about this annual miracle. I know people who've been at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Pascha, and it is truly a miracle. Another annual miracle which seems to get overlooked is the turning back of the River Jordan at Theophany. An Hegumen I know from Russia went there last January and witnessed this miracle.

[miel]

... I would love to find out more about the above-mentioned Holy Fire Miracle also.

If you mean the one that takes place annually in the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, there is a website devoted to it:

http://www.holyfire.org/eng/

In Christ,
Mike

[Lymneterfeiff]

Dear Mike,

Thank you so much for that link. Through it I have traced some interesting publications; this one is fascinating: http://www.holyfire.org/eng/doc_PaschalFireJ2.htm

Kind regards,
Annalise

[toyboy]

Dear Mike,

Thank you so much for that link. Through it I have traced some interesting publications; this one is fascinating: http://www.holyfire.org/eng/doc_PaschalFireJ2.htm

Kind regards,
Annalise

The best book on the Holy Firei s "The Paschal Fire In Jerusalem". The book isnt neccesarily about the miracle exclusively but as the inside cover says;"A Study of the Rite of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre." By bishop Auxentios (isbn 0-9634692-0-7)

It traces the origins of the liturgy, when the miracle is first spoken, the reactions amongst the greeks and latins over the miracle thru the ages (it has varied between the two) How the Rite was performed using the historical information available and when it reached its final form as its celebrated today etc etc

[Pipindula]

thanks to you Kosta!

This sounds very good and I will try to get such a book here.

Christos voskrese! Nicolaj

[TheDoctor]

Russian physicist is the first to register electrical discharges during the descent of the Holy Fire

25. фебруар 2009 - 10:17

Section on "Christianity and science" of the 17th Christmas educational readings carried out on Tuesday in Moscow first voiced the results of scientific experiment held by Russian scientists on Great Sunday 2008 in the Church of Lord's Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The branch head of the Kurchatov atomic energy institute Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Andrey Volkov spoke about his own attempt to measure low-frequency long-wavelength radio signals in Jerusalem church during annual descent of the Holy Fire.

The scientist used special equipment to make measurements in the church during 6,5 hours of waiting for the fire and it took him the next few months to decipher it.

Volkov considers "absolute miracle" the difference between indices received on the descent day and the day before. Besides, according to him, analysis of cracks in the column before the entrance to the church really makes him think they could appear only in result of electrical discharge."

According to Volkov, his counterpart, leading expert on mechanics of destruction, Yevgeny Morozov, proves the same things. Though he believes that "measures taken only once cannot be evident enough from the strictly scientific viewpoint," Volkov also states he bears full responsibility for the received results and is ready to present them.

"However, if you ask me as a scientist if there was something (a miracle - IF) or not, I'll tell you I don't know," he said.

Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Commission on miraculous events, lecturer of St. John Russian Orthodox University Alexander Moskovsky said Volkov "made a scientific achievement as he carried out the first in history serious, trustworthy and responsible scientific research of the Holy Fire."

The Holy Fire has appeared at the Lord's sepulcher for many centuries shortly before Orthodox Easter. Eastern Christians are convinced that the miracle of the Holy Fire proves the truth of the Orthodox faith as every Easter the Holy Fire appears at the Lord's Sepulcher. The believers think the descent of the fire disapproves of any atheistic views.

Source: Interfax religion


http://www.spc.rs/sr/russian_physici...cent_holy_fire

[Draftcasino.com]

I was not there, but I find it remarkable 1) that a scientist was allowed in to do his experiments, 2) that the monks on the inside did not beat up anyone stepping on their side of the line (namely the scientist). Well, all this does is now bring our intellectualized minds into play to allow man to now start discrediting even this miracle. Now we know it was low-frequency long wavelength radio waves that cracked the column. Swell. Now what? Do we look for the hidden power source in the walls pointing to some ancient technology going bad that was left over by our true ancestors; space aliens?

Why can't we just accept something for what it is and stop trying to bring it down to our level of understanding.

Paul

[MadMark]

I was not there, but I find it remarkable 1) that a scientist was allowed in to do his experiments, 2) that the monks on the inside did not beat up anyone stepping on their side of the line (namely the scientist). Well, all this does is now bring our intellectualized minds into play to allow man to now start discrediting even this miracle. Now we know it was low-frequency long wavelength radio waves that cracked the column. Swell. Now what? Do we look for the hidden power source in the walls pointing to some ancient technology going bad that was left over by our true ancestors; space aliens?

Why can't we just accept something for what it is and stop trying to bring it down to our level of understanding.

Paul

Dear Paul,

Because for many, faith is a struggle. We should follow the saints and pray for all people, these people especially.

In Christ,
Antonios

[JackieC]

Often on American tv, one sees programmes produced to take an approach to matters of faith that bills itself as "scientific". Just the other night, I saw one such programme that alleged that the power in the Ark of the Covenant that struck down those who touched the Ark but were outside the Levitical privilege, were struck down by current from the Ark because the Ark was a semiconductor (copper and gold metals forming the means that carried the current). In other words, the Ark of the Covenant's being a semiconductor enabled it to electrocute some while leaving others unscathed. (It was not made clear how the Levites were grounded....they could not have been wearing rubber-soled shoes.)

I said, "Big Whoop." It took me back to the days when pop psychology first came into vogue (1950s, early '60s). There was a stylish book then, by a famous London preacher named Leslie Weatherhead, that attempted to convince one that the healing miracles of Jesus occurred due to His ability to mesmerise sufferers from psychosomatic diseases so that the signs and symptoms of those diseases disappeared instantaneously. Big Whoop. Psychosomatic leprosy? What was that, eczema rashes due to stress? Some of my friends began to refer to that author as "Featherbrain".

These days, one encounters more and more people for whom faith is not only a struggle, it has become an impossibility. I do believe that scientific atheism has come back in style. Why? Because while keeping up with the Zeitgeist and perpetually updating accepted theology to fit all the latest scientific breakthroughs, in my humble opinion people become so enamoured of their own intellectual abilities that time-honoured truths appear to them to be irrelevant. When the enemies of faith get to work on their agenda of deconstructionism, revisionism, relativism and modernism in general, those who style themselves intellectuals have a field-day among the poorly-catechised.

It is tiresome to read, repeatedly, opinions claiming to be "scientific" but in reality simply designed to sow doubt, then denial, of what has always been believed, by everyone, everywhere (thank you, St. Vincent of Lerins). It's an old game, and I'm sure those who play it will still be the losers.

Mary Emily