"Miracles in Orthodoxy." Documentary film by a group of Orthodox directors! (Video)

A miracle is a supernatural act of God

According to the classical or school definition:

“A miracle is an amazing phenomenon or event, accessible to external observation, having its cause in the supernatural action of Divine omnipotence, contributing to the achievement of important religious and moral goals.”

So, let's look at this definition one by one. A miracle must be visible to our five senses. For around us, invisibly and imperceptibly, various events of the invisible world take place, for example, angels fly by. But we don’t see it, so we don’t consider it a miracle. But if such an angel appears to us sinners, performing, for example, the healing of a sick person, then this event visible to us will be a miracle.

The most important thing about miracles is that they are not performed according to the laws of nature, but exceed them, i.e. have a supernatural character. Therefore, any even very striking phenomenon or event, but which occurred according to some natural laws that are simply unknown to us, is not a miracle.

Interesting fact

In this regard, the following very important thing should be noted. Based on the above, it follows that the devil and his demons are not capable of performing miracles. Because, unlike God, they cannot rise above their nature, and cannot create anything supernatural. They, however, knowing the laws of nature much better than us, can arrange some amazing demonstrations of supposedly “miracles”, but in fact they are completely natural phenomena. The whole “astoundingness” of which lies in the fact that we simply do not know the laws of nature according to which these phenomena were arranged.

Miracles of Jesus Christ

It follows that miracles are one of the most important supernatural signs of the true Revelation of God, for only God can perform them. What the Lord Himself, who performed obvious miracles that no one but God could do, repeatedly pointed out to the Jews in confirmation of His Sonship to God the Father and the truth of His teaching:

“But I have a greater testimony than John: for the works which the Father gave Me to do, even these very works which I have done, testify of Me, that the Father has sent Me” (John 5:36).

A similar thing happened in the Jerusalem temple, in Solomon’s porch, on the feast of renewal:

“Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him: How long will You keep us in bewilderment? if you are the Christ, tell us directly. Jesus answered them: I told you, and you do not believe; The works that I do in the name of My Father, they testify of Me” (John 10: 24-25).

From here it becomes clear that the Lord performed miracles as evidence of His Divinity and that He is the Son of God. However, the Jews, blinded by their own absurd dreams of world power, were not at all enlightened by these clear evidence of the Savior’s divinity.

So in this episode, when they asked: “If you are the Christ, tell us directly,” then by Christ they meant not the Son of God, but an earthly king, a messiah and a powerful warrior, who, in their opinion, should have overthrown the power of the Romans and, conversely, to give the Jews themselves this imperial power. When the Lord did not do this, they “took hold of stones to stone Him” (John 10:31).

According to the logic of things, normal people, not biased by their ridiculous national ideas, after such great miracles, should have accepted Christ as the Son of God and God. This is exactly what the pagans did, seeing the miracles of the apostles and their disciples, miracles also performed by the power of Christ. But this was not the case with the malicious Jews.

By the way, regarding this episode in Solomon’s porch, when the Jews grabbed stones to beat Jesus Christ with them, the holy fathers remark: how many stones are there in this very porch? This is not a street; Surely there are no stones lying on the floor there. Where did the Jews get them from?! The answer is simple: they brought it with them in advance; so the expression “keeping a stone in one’s bosom” here quite adequately describes this Jewish situation.

And all this taken together says that even great miracles can positively influence the moral state of only those people who see and accept these miracles as something truly wonderful!

Miracles in the Bible

Another important point in the Orthodox teaching about miracles is that they surpass the laws of nature (they “defeat the laws of nature”), but do not abolish or violate them. Let's take, for example, the miracle performed by the righteous Joshua, who stopped the sun and moon during the battle (Joshua 19: 12-13).

Joshua commands the sun to stand still

Usually, scientifically savvy critics of this passage in the Bible refer to the fact that it is not the sun that actually moves around the Earth, but, on the contrary, it, by rotating around its axis, thereby makes day or night. Therefore, in order to “stop the sun”, it is actually necessary to stop the rotation of the Earth for some time.

But, as we know from physics, then the most powerful centrifugal force will sweep away everything on its surface that is not very well fixed there. By the way, in some science fiction novel such a nuisance is described quite colorfully. However, nothing like this happened with the miracle of the righteous Joshua. Have the laws of physics been abolished in this case?!

There is, however, another, much more Orthodox version of that miracle. But according to some theologians and scientists, neither the sun nor the Earth actually stopped. But in the atmosphere of our planet, a huge layer or sleeve of ice crystals miraculously appeared, which played the role of a kind of light guide. Through which sunlight continued to flow, despite the fact that the sun itself had long since disappeared behind the horizon. As we see, in this clearly miraculous event, the laws of nature are not abolished, but are surpassed by the omnipotence of God!

If we talk about other miracles described in the Bible, then these, of course, were the appearance of the Lord to the forefathers Adam and Eve; righteous Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Enoch's taking into heaven was also a miracle.

Further miracles are associated with the name of the great prophet of God Moses and the liberation of the Jewish people from captivity in Egypt. The ten plagues of Egypt themselves were obvious miracles of God. Many miracles were also performed by Moses and Joshua during the exodus from Egypt, the people's journey in the wilderness and the conquest of the Promised Land.

The judges of Israel, especially the prophet Samuel, also performed miracles. The defeat of the powerful giant Goliath by the young men David was also a miracle. The prophets also performed many miracles, especially Elijah and Elisha. Particularly surprising of them was the miraculous offering of the first sacrifice to God, when the fire that came down from heaven devoured not only the sacrifice itself, but also the water with which it was doused, and the stones that protected the altar! Both of these prophets were even honored to perform the miracle of the resurrection of the dead. It was also a miracle that Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire; a miracle that the prophet Elisha saw with his own eyes.

Miracles

What is a miracle? Something supernatural? The film talks about phenomena that can be recorded and even studied using modern methods, but cannot be explained. Why do icons stream myrrh? What does the analysis of the substance emitted by the icons show, and how can we explain the presence of protein in it? Shroud of Turin - a clever hoax or a great shrine? Why do chemists, paleobotanists, anthropologists, and historians claim: The Shroud is genuine, but radiocarbon dating shows the opposite? What are the results of additional research? What can modern science say about the Shroud of Turin? Is there any definitive evidence of its authenticity? How to explain the appearance of a body print on fabric? The Power of Prayer – Does It Really Work Miracles? How can we explain the incredible healings of people who were prayed for? And is it even possible to explain from a scientific point of view the power of prayer, faith, and love? Too much in our world defies scientific explanation. For example, the very origin of the world. Modern fundamental science has calculated almost the entire process of the emergence of the Universe, up to 10 to the minus 43 degrees of a second after the Big Bang. It remains to find out what happened directly at the moment of the Explosion, and why it happened. In order to get closer to understanding this, the Large Hadron Collider was created. Will scientists be able to find out how the world was created? Biologists have been studying living cells for decades. And in many respects they have already achieved enormous results: they have learned to reprogram cells, introduce artificial components into them, etc. But no one has yet succeeded in creating a living cell from scratch. What kind of secret is hidden in an ordinary living cell? Why scientists still cannot explain how life appeared? Doesn't this mean that life itself is the greatest miracle?

The film was attended by: His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill (filmed in 2008), Archpriest Dmitry Kuvyrtalov, rector of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Letovo, Archpriest Valery Zakharov, rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Almaty, Alexey Lyubomudrov (research fellow at the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Edgar Dean Mitchell (astronaut, Apollo 14 pilot, participant in the 1971 moon landing (USA), Giuseppe Ghiberti (Chief Guardian of the Shroud of Turin. (Italy), Tadeusz Trenn (Master of Physics, Professor at the University of Toronto) (Canada), Simon Jacobson, theologian (USA), Hans Rykashevsky (Doctor of Physics, head of European projects at CERN, Switzerland - Germany), Andrey Bryukhovetsky, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor of the Russian State Medical University, Donato Vittore, Doctor of Medicine, Professor of the University of Bari (Italy) , Sister Blandina Paschalis Schlömer, iconographer (Italy), Emanuela Marinelli, professor at the University of Orvieto (Italy), Anatoly Fesenko, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Forensic Sciences of the FSB, Giulio Fanti. Professor at the Physics University of Padua. (Italy), etc.

Director: Olga Dykhovichnaya Publisher: TV company “Masterskaya”

See also the MIRACLE section on the ABC of Faith portal.

Miracles of Healings in the Gospel and Today

If we talk about the gospel miracles, it should be noted that in them the Lord showed Himself as the Lord of the underworld, for the demons, at His one word, obeyed Him, leaving people. The Lord showed Himself to be the Lord of life and death, for He resurrected the dead with His one word. The miracle of the resurrection of four-day-old Lazarus was especially amazing.

He also revealed himself to be the Lord of earthly nature, for he commanded the sea and the winds, and they obeyed him; He repeatedly miraculously multiplied the loaves and fish in the desert. Finally, the Lord revealed that He is the Master of human nature, for He performed many healings: everyone who had any illness, coming to Him with faith, was healed by Him.

These miracles were continued by the apostles, who also performed many healings of the sick. Many similar miracles of healing are narrated in the lives of saints. These miracles have not stopped in our days. Many similar cases of healing are reported in current Orthodox literature and in the Orthodox segment of the Internet.

Most often they are served through prayers offered with faith, in front of icons, especially miraculous ones. When making a pilgrimage to the relics of saints, for example, the blessed Matrona of Moscow, who is especially famous for such healings. They are also due to the action of holy water, especially baptismal water, as well as to the action of other shrines.

Here special mention should be made of the Sacrament of Repentance and the Eucharist, participation in which, cleansing an Orthodox Christian from sins, makes him holiness; and this, having healed spiritual illnesses, in turn, often heals physical illnesses. But all this can be seen only by those who, unlike the Jews, have not only physical, but also spiritual eyes!

Christian Testimonies of God's Miracles

Miracles from our Lord Himself and the Saints are found everywhere in our harsh everyday life. To do this, you should go to any temple, monastery, etc. where the relics of a Christian saint are buried, or where there are miraculous icons and look at the guest books, which, as a rule, are always there.

By immersing yourself in the stories of ordinary people just like us, you can view entire series of miraculous healings, solutions to seemingly insoluble problems and ways out of difficult life situations. At the same time, the way out is usually located where it would seem that it could not exist in principle, but what is impossible for man is possible for God...

Religious miracles occur very often in our modern times. Hoping for miraculous help from above, people visit Orthodox churches of famous Russian saints. So the flow of people at the Church of the Blessed Matrona of Moscow never dries up; it is always crowded both in the Optina Desert and in Diveevo.

Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, Mother Matrona of Moscow, etc. have always been and will be intercessors for humanity before the Lord. There is simply no point in listing all Christian testimonies about Orthodox miracles, because such a listing would simply be endless.

But we will still mention one of the brightest and most obvious miracles - the death and miraculous resurrection of Claudia Ustyuzhanina. This sensational story of a simple Soviet atheist woman who died and, after lying in the morgue for three whole days with unsutured cuts on her body, was resurrected in the morgue, caused shock and bewilderment among the community of non-believers.

A woman who was seriously ill with cancer and died saw all the torments of hell in the afterlife and was returned to earth to testify about them and by her example to guide people on the righteous path.

The Most Famous Miracles of Modern Christendom

By the way, the very consecration of water, which is constantly performed in Orthodox churches, especially on the feast of Epiphany, is an obvious miracle. After all, ordinary water does not spoil for only a few days, until all the tap “bleach” comes out of it. And then the water “blooms” because microorganisms enter it from the air and multiply in it. And so the water, as they say, spoils. To prevent this from happening, it must be specially processed and stored in special vessels.

Meanwhile, the Orthodox, having blessed the water, do not process it in any way and store it in an ordinary, somehow closed container. However, it literally does not spoil for months and even years! Which, of course, is an obvious miracle, but... again visible to the spiritual eye.

An unspiritual person will not see this, but will begin to compose or repeat atheistic fairy tales about some kind of “silver” crosses, supposedly “silvering” the water and giving it the ability not to spoil...

Holy Fire

But the most famous and well-known miracle of Christianity today is the miracle of the appearance of the Holy Fire on Holy Saturday. Repeated attempts to refute this apparent miracle, or at least question it, turned out to be completely untenable. The last time the notorious Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev tried to promote himself with such an alleged “refutation” was the one who tried to promote himself. But this clumsy attempt of his ended in complete failure and complete disgrace for this archdeacon himself. Because of this, many of his fans abandoned him.

The Holy Fire descends into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher only on Holy Saturday - the eve of Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated every year on different days according to the old Julian calendar.

It must also be said that the miracle of the Holy Fire was historically accompanied by other amazing miracles: the conversion of a Turkish warrior to Christianity; the origin of this fire from the column of the temple is specifically for the Orthodox. There is historical and archaeological evidence for this.

Another obvious miracle of our time is the streaming of myrrh from relics and holy icons. At one time, even under Soviet rule, in Kyiv, scientists from the Academy of Sciences tried to analyze the composition of this world. According to chemical analyses, these were high-molecular organic compounds, not only unknown to science, but the very way they appeared, for example, on an icon, was also unknown.

However, the Orthodox know well that this myrrh, if anointed with it with faith, has a beneficial effect on the soul of a Christian, and also heals his bodily illnesses.

Miracles on Athos

The most important miracle of Athonite is that the spiritual world opens up before a person who is there. It turns out that by simply moving in space, from the world to Athos, a Christian also moves in spiritual space, so much so that it itself opens up before him.

The miraculous icon of the Mother of God, called Iverskaya. Iveron Monastery. Holy Mount Athos.

How to treat miracles

First of all, we must have firm faith in all those miracles that are described in the Holy Scriptures and mentioned in the Holy Tradition. Some absurd human considerations and inventions that can raise our doubts must be swept away by the will and mind of a Christian.

Faith is mainly a property of the will. This is what needs to be directed towards strengthening our faith, including in miracles. A person who doubts them, thereby doubts the revelation of God and the truth of our Orthodox faith. Such a person, of course, cannot be a Christian!

But having faith in the miracles that once happened, we should not strive to achieve the gift of miracles ourselves. The most important and necessary miracle that the Lord performs with us is the transformation of us from the old man into a new man, living not by carnal passions, but by the spirit. We must strive for this, and not to create miracles ourselves.

Likewise, St. John Climacus considered the main thing even in monastic life not to acquire the gift of miracles (although he himself possessed this gift), but to achieve dispassion, i.e. liberation of the soul and heart from the action of unclean sinful passions.

This is what we should strive for. However, if a miracle happened before our eyes, then we should also have faith in it. Let us note that there is nothing surprising in the fact that miracles happen before our eyes - no! After all, for example, the already mentioned miracle of the consecration of water is a true miracle, and it happens before our eyes regularly.

Only with these external eyes we must also have internal ones, having faith in the reality of this or that miracle, then we will see it!

Archpriest Georgy Gorodentsev

About miracles (+VIDEO)

Why did Christ ask people about their faith before performing a miracle? Can miracles be harmful to us? Should faith be confirmed by miracles? And how to distinguish genuine miracles from false ones? Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev answers.

Today we will talk about miracles. People love to talk about miracles. When someone hears about some miracle, they immediately want to share this news with others. But in the Church, first of all, they paid attention to the miracle of faith. The miracle of the moral rebirth of man, which looked, in the understanding of the holy fathers, as something more significant than the miracle of the resurrection of the dead, the miracle of the healing of the sick and other miracles.

Thus, the Monk Macarius of Egypt wrote about miracles:

“Now, after the sign of the cross, grace acts in such a way and pacifies all the members and the heart that the soul, with great joy, is likened to a gentle baby and a person no longer condemns either a Greek, or a Jew, or a sinner, or a layman, but the inner man looks at everyone with a pure eye , and rejoices over the whole world, and in every possible way wants to honor and love the Greeks and Jews. At other times he, the son of kings, trusts so firmly in the Son of God as in a father. Doors open before him, and he enters into many monasteries, and as he enters, doors open before him again in proportionate numbers, for example, from a hundred monasteries to another hundred monasteries, and he becomes enriched; and to the extent that he is enriched, new miracles are shown to him.”

As we see, in the understanding of St. Macarius of Egypt, a true miracle is a miracle of moral rebirth, when a person, having achieved certain moral positions in his life, discovers some new universe, which he hastens to enter. Thus, it is said about Moses in the book of Exodus that when he climbed a mountain, he suddenly found himself at the foot of another mountain, as if a spiritual mountain; and, having ascended Sinai, he felt that completely new horizons of the Divine were opening up to him.

Moses receives a revelation on Mount Sinai in front of the elders of Israel. Mosaic of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna

The Lord protects man’s free will, therefore a miracle is always God’s response to man’s faith

The Lord protects the free will of man, therefore a miracle is always a response to the manifestation of precisely this free will: only when a person confesses Christ as his Lord can Christ begin to act in the life of this person. Even when people ran to Jesus Christ asking for help, He asked them if they had faith. Why did He ask that? So that a miracle does not destroy a person’s free will. A miracle must be something organic, natural in a person’s life, corresponding to the level of his faith. That is why in ancient times there were more miracles, but now there are much fewer of them: the level of faith has decreased.

If the Lord invaded our reality with a cascade of miracles, this would mean violence against our free will. On the other hand, this would not be necessary. So, for example, St. John Chrysostom writes: “Miracles are offered for unbelievers, not for believers. An infidel, given the opportunity, will treat miracles with contempt.” That is, a miracle, in a sense, is also a crutch for doubters. And Christ once said: “When you do not believe Me, believe My works” (John 10:38). And we, Christians, believe not because He convinced us with a cascade of miracles, but first of all because we loved the Lord with all our hearts, with all our thoughts and with all our strength.

“What is needed most of all is a heart sensitive to goodness. And if it does not exist, then the signs will be of no use.”

And one more quote from the works of St. John Chrysostom: “Where are those who seek signs now? Let them hear that what is most needed is a heart sensitive to goodness. And if it does not exist, then the signs will be of no use.” These words of Chrysostom echo the statement of St. Macarius of Egypt, which we cited above. It is absolutely necessary to experience the miracle of moral rebirth. And if this does not happen, then an external miracle can hardly help in any way.

Moreover, let's remember that the Bible talks about the miracles of the last miracle worker - the Antichrist. In the Revelation of John the Theologian we find the following words: “And I saw another beast coming out of the earth; he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. He acts before him with all the power of the first beast and forces the whole earth and those living on it to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed; and performs great signs, so that fire comes down from heaven to earth before people. And with the miracles that he was given to perform before the beast, he (that is, the Antichrist - Archpriest O.S.) deceives those who live on the earth, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast, which has a wound from the sword and is alive" ( Rev. 13:11–14). As we see, the last miracle worker, the Antichrist, will perform great wonders and signs. And those who base their faith in miracles not on moral regeneration, not on love for the Lord, but on some external effects, risk being fascinated by the miracles that the Antichrist will perform.

Photo: Emil Gataullin / Expo.Pravoslavie.Ru

The miracle of faith is truly the most amazing miracle. I know people who would like to have faith in God, but they don't have it, and they don't know how to find it. And at the same time, we, Orthodox Christians, know from the Bible that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). The Word of God reaching each of us is the miracle of the Divine presence. And in the days of the earthly life of Christ the Savior, His life is the Word of God, Who became flesh and dwelt with us, full of grace and truth. And, although we were not witnesses to His earthly life, in the Holy Gifts, tasting His Body and Blood, we partake of those miraculous changes from the Lord that can happen in our lives in such a way that the miracle of our moral rebirth will become a kind of objective reality for us. Therefore, we must realize the significance of the spiritual aspects when miraculous manifestations of Divine grace occur in our lives. And do not pay attention to external miracles, some effects that the world offers us, including for the purpose of seducing us.

The Holy Fathers emphasized: a true miracle is the acquisition of faith by non-believers

And the holy fathers emphasized: a true miracle is not to raise the dead, a true miracle is not to heal a sick person, a true miracle is when an unbeliever becomes a believer, when a pagan becomes a Christian, when a heretic becomes Orthodox. It is this miracle of faith that we must seek for ourselves and for others.

Of course, the world will always chase after external miracles. Father Seraphim (Rose) once wrote a book about the future religion of the Antichrist (“Unified Religion of the Future”), where he talks about these demonic miracles that are becoming a reality for many people in the modern world. Thus, he describes the effect of flying saucers, when the devil and demons create, as it were, their own religion from the back door. But Father Seraphim (Rose) draws attention to the meaninglessness of those contacts that people allegedly have with aliens. He gives an example of how a plate flew towards an American farmer, humanoids climbed out of it and began to teach this American farmer how... to feed his chickens. It's hard to imagine that aliens flew so many light years to teach a farmer how to feed chickens. Most likely, this is a devilish mockery of a person in order to amaze him with something miraculous, not related to moral conclusions and spiritual rebirth.

Therefore, a true miracle is one that changes us, and a false miracle is one that leaves us in the state we were in before, and even plunges us into a state of superstitions and complexes.