Orthodox miracles
What is a miracle? “The rules of nature are conquered in You, O pure Virgin...” is sung in a church hymn for the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. That is, the ever-virginity of the Mother of God and Her Dormition, when after the end of Her earthly life She was taken with her body to heaven, are supernatural phenomena that defeat the usual laws, natural “statutes.” And any Divine miracle is an overcoming of ordinary physical laws.
But we know that the Lord Himself is the Creator and Legislator of physical statutes and it is in His power, if necessary, to abolish these laws.
Miracles are supernatural, Divine intervention in our lives.
Many of the Savior's miracles are described in the Gospel. He turned water into wine, healed the paralytic, lepers, the deaf, blind from birth, raised the dead, walked on water, prophesied and fed thousands of people with a few loaves of bread. His followers, disciples - the holy apostles - also performed miracles (this is stated in the books of the New Testament). Many miracles are described in the lives of holy ascetics; almost every life tells of miracles. But both the apostles and saints performed miracles not on their own, but by the power of God. Only the Creator of laws can overcome and change these laws. Without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5). But the Lord often gives His saints gifts of grace to help people and glorify the name of God.
Miracles, signs, cases of grace-filled help have been performed constantly in the history of the Church, they are performed in our time and will not stop happening until the end of the century, as long as the Church of Christ stands. But even during His earthly life, and now, the Lord does not perform miracles too often. Otherwise there will be no room for the exploit of our faith. Miracles, signs of God's power, are needed to strengthen faith, but there can never be too many of them. In addition, a miracle must be earned; it is given according to the faith of the person asking.
But there are miracles in the life of the Orthodox Church that happen constantly, for many centuries now. They console us, strengthen us and testify to the truth of our faith. This is the miracle of the Holy Fire, the descent of a cloud onto Mount Tabor on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the miracle of holy Epiphany water, the flow of myrrh from holy icons and relics.
And in general, isn’t the whole life of the Church one continuous miracle? When the grace of God constantly acts in the Sacraments of the Church, when at each liturgy the greatest miracle on earth occurs - the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Savior! And every Christian who has experience of prayer and spiritual life constantly feels in his life the supernatural presence of God, His strong and strong helping hand.
Modern miracles from the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God
In the second part of our story we will continue the conversation about modern miracles from the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Read the first part of the story at this link.
It was as if the Mother of God took our country under protection. Russia is protected on all sides by Miracle-working icons, spreading the Saving Cover over us. The Vladimir Mother of God protects our land from the north, the Pochaev Icon and the Smolensk Icon guard the western borders, the Kazan Icon took the east under protection. Our veneration and love is evidenced by the fact that none of the icons of the Queen of Heaven revered by the Church has so many lists. We turn to her in our sorrows and troubles, she gives us the strength to cope with everything.
All my life the Mother of God is near
This story goes back to Soviet times. The family of the woman who told this story was devout and religious. In their small village house there was a small iconostasis, in front of which a lamp was always burning. There were only three icons in the iconostasis: the Savior, the Kazan Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The family went through terrible times of dispossession. There were times when icons had to be hidden underground. At the time when our heroine was born, the repressions had subsided, there were persecutions, but we could already live with it.
When she went to school, new sorrows began - Octobrists, pioneers, Komsomol. Then her mother firmly said: “We didn’t go through this terrible meat grinder so that you could become a werewolf. We saved icons, we were saved by Saints. While you are a child, I am responsible for your soul, and then choose your own path.” Every evening my mother prayed in front of the icons, every Sunday they went to church.
It is difficult to convey in words what the girl experienced during her school years. She was insulted, humiliated, bullied, and her grades were deliberately lowered. Everyone was sure that she would break and submit, but they were wrong. How could they, who were blind, know that there was a Great Heavenly Power next to her, which no one could resist. Her life took different forms, but she not only believed, she knew that the Lord and the Mother of God would never leave her.
It is difficult to count all those miracles from the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God that were revealed to her through prayers, and no one could explain their nature from the point of view of banal logic. When doctors gave her a terrible diagnosis in 2000 and suggested that she had nothing left to live, the Mother of God brought her back from the other world through the Kazan Icon. One evening, after taking her medication, she sat numbly in her room. Every day she said goodbye to the world. That evening she looked at her favorite icon and tried to remember every detail, if suddenly “tomorrow” did not come.
Suddenly the icon began to glow, rays came from it, and the room was filled with an amazing aroma. She heard a very soft female voice: “Embrace my image and give it to the rector of the Kazan Church.” The woman was filled with horror; it was not because the icon spoke to her. The level of work that had to be done was of a height that seemed unattainable to her. She began to look for some excuses. The same words were spoken, but the tone was already commanding. At the sound of her voice, her husband and children entered the room. They couldn't understand what had happened. The following silence was broken by the son, pointing to the icon. He shouted joyfully: “Look, she’s smiling!” And, indeed, the Mother of God smiled.
A few months later, the illness disappeared without a trace, although work on the icon was not yet completed. The woman is sure: the Mother of God is always nearby, the Savior and Heavenly intercessors are nearby. If it were not for their Holy help and protection, she would not have been among the living a long time ago. That embroidered icon revealed a different reality. In her life there were many icons made by her hands, from different materials and using different techniques. To all questions: “Who is the master,” she answers: “God, He is the Master of my whole life.” There is no point in arguing with this, there is nothing to refute.
Saw the world with new eyes
Two kilometers from a small provincial town there was a holy spring. Once upon a time there was a chapel next to it, consecrated in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Barbarians and time destroyed the building; they tried to fill up the spring several times, but the spring broke through. People constantly came to him, prayed, and collected water. The grannies called the spring water the Mother of God water, which cures all ailments.
In the same town there lived a man who reviled God and religion in every possible way. He worked as a welder. Suddenly at some point I realized that I began to go blind, like a veil before my eyes. Usually it’s easier to blame others for your troubles, especially since the “culprit” lived in the next house. This was a believing woman whom he tried to convince that there is no God. She didn’t argue, she simply said with a smile: “You’re blind, Vaska, you can’t see beyond your nose.”
Soon the man became completely blind, and the family fell apart. The neighbors tried to help at first, but instead of gratitude they heard dirty language. One day that same neighbor came to see him and suggested that he take a walk to the Kazan spring. At first he refused, then reluctantly agreed. On the way, the woman said: “You are not blind with your eyes, your soul is blind. Once you wash yourself with the Mother of God water, you look, and your soul will see clearly, and then your eyes will get better.”
Arriving at the source, she sat him down on a bench and brought him some water. The people who were there at that moment were perplexed as to how they could communicate with this ghoul. The man washed himself once, then a second, a third, and a miracle happened. He looked around and smiled, it was something incredible, he saw the world with new eyes! On the way home, he went into the temple and asked the priest to listen to him. Words of repentance were difficult to come by, but the conversation with God took place.
There is plenty of such evidence in every town of our vast country. People pray and miracles happen from the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. It’s a pity that not everyone talks about this, for fear of losing what was given by God. And who else, if not the Mother of God, should we turn to with a prayer for salvation, because She is the Mother of our entire World and each of us.
O autumn (winter) holiday of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God
FAITH IN GOD WORKS WONDERS.
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FAITH IN GOD WORKS WONDERS.
Miracles happen suddenly in the lives of people who grow in faith. Someone suddenly receives money or simply finds it, some are healed of illnesses, and many women meet their love for life. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?
Not long ago, scientists from the laboratory of neuro-and psychophysiology of the St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Research Institute named after Bekhterev reported sensational news. They managed to discover the fourth state of consciousness, which arises under the influence of... prayer. Until now, science has known three - wakefulness, rapid and slow sleep. It turned out that during prayer our brain plunges into an “infant”, “childish” state, when it seems to us that we are completely protected and happy. Remember this blissful state? You lie in your crib and smile because it’s just morning and you’re happy. Mom and dad are nearby, they will certainly take care of you, because they love you more than anything in the world. You know this for sure, and therefore you are serene, cheerful and confident in the future...
According to scientists, believers also fall into the same “infantile” state during prayer. Only they trust not in mom and dad, but in the Lord God. Thanks to this, their stress level decreases, their blood pressure normalizes, and heart pain disappears. The result is that they get sick less and live longer.
The healing effect of prayer is associated with a temporary retreat from earthly worries, recognition of their insignificance in comparison with eternal and unshakable values. An example is cancer patients. By sincerely and for a long time reading prayers, they cease to be afraid of death, gain optimism and confidence in the future, and overcome despondency. All this leads to a completely objective increase in immunity. And if the body’s resistance to the disease increases, self-healing occurs.
But not every prayer is effective, but only that which is heard by God. What does it mean? Oddly enough, doctors have the answer to this question. In their opinion, a prayer heard by God is one that, albeit for a short time, completely removes us from earthly life. This is expressed in the disappearance or reduction of fast cortical rhythms of biocurrents. And the more significant this decrease, the deeper the prayerful immersion.
PRAYER HEALS.
It is known that the holy martyrs, thanks to their prayers and faith in God, endured terrible pain and cruel torment. Ambrose Optinsky suffered from incredibly serious illnesses, from which, according to doctors, he would have died within half an hour if he were an ordinary person. The elder lived 79 years. Moreover, he managed to amuse those who came to him. Despite the constant pain, he was cheerful and gave instructions to people in such a simple and humorous manner that they were easily and forever remembered. After a conversation with the elder, Tolstoy said: “This Ambrose is a completely holy man. I talked to him, and my soul felt light, I felt the closeness of God.”
Schemamonk Nikita of Valaam also suffered from terrible pain in the last years of his life. Convinced that his death was approaching, he refused medication. Only the Jesus Prayer and words of gratitude to God never left his lips. This saved him and alleviated his suffering.
Cambridge scientists set out to study this phenomenon. How does prayer, meditation and faith in God relieve suffering?
At the Brain Research Center, researchers gathered twenty deeply religious people and the same number of atheists. Each of the participants in the experiment had electrodes attached to the outside of their palms and small discharges of electric current were sent through them. During the test, believers were asked to look at an icon of Jesus Christ, and atheists - at a painting by Gauguin
"Mill". During the 20 minutes that the experiment lasted, each subject received twenty electrical shocks. But everyone perceived them differently.
Those who looked at the face of Christ felt completely safe and did not worry, because they were sure that the Lord would take care of them. At the same time, the sensors showed that they felt pain 15% less than those who saw the Gauguin painting.
The brain scanner showed that the believers' right front part of the brain lit up, indicating the activation of pain-modulating neural activity. In other words, they themselves suppressed and reduced the pain with their own attitude. But atheists did not have such a brain reaction.
BELIEVERS LIVE LONGER!
Scientists from Toronto also recorded differences in the brain activity of believers and non-believers. They conducted a test that uses electrodes to measure brain activity.
It turned out that religious people had significantly less activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, an area of the brain that changes our behavior under the influence of emotional experiences. Scientists were able to track a clear relationship: the stronger the religious zeal, the more passive this area of the brain is and the fewer mistakes a person makes.
Canadian neurologists, summing up their research, stated that people who know how to sincerely pray almost never experience uncertainty or nervous disorders. They worry less about life's failures, get angry and upset less, and always feel protected. And this, according to scientists, already allows us to talk about special functions that appear in the brain of a believer.
PRAYER IS THE SAME MEDITATION.
But why does prayer have a direct effect on the brain?
Yes, because our speech consists of a certain spectral composition, a set of certain frequencies, their combinations and amplitudes. This is the basis of prayer, which has much in common with music and meditation.
By the way, the staff of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center of North Carolina (USA) promise that we will soon forget about painkillers, because meditation relieves pain much better.
They came to these conclusions after a small study in which ten volunteers took part. Since none of them had ever meditated before, all the subjects underwent express training: they were taught to control their breathing and focus their attention on abstract thoughts.
During prayer, our brain plunges into an “infant”, “childish” state, when it seems to us that we are completely protected and happy
At the same time, a special device was attached to the leg of each participant in the experiment, which heated the skin to 32°C, which caused discomfort in the subjects. Magnetic resonance imaging helped specialists figure out how the brains of desperate volunteers reacted to all this.
It turned out that after an hour of meditation, activity in the area of the brain responsible for pain decreased by 40%. While morphine and other painkillers give an average effect of 25 percent.
Tatiana Nikolaeva
