Subject: ‘Miracle’

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The best pictures of the miraculous draught of fishes

Posted in Best pictures, Bible, Boats, Fish, Miracle, Sea on Sunday, 4 October 2015

The best pictures of Jesus fishing are striking images of the miraculous catch.
The first picture shows Jesus fishing.

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Jesus fishing by John Lawson

The second picture shows Peter hauling in the miraculous draught of fishes.

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A Great Draught of Fishes

The third picture shows a general view of the scene.

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A great multitude of fishes by William Hole

Many more pictures of the Bible can be found at the Look and Learn picture library.

The best pictures of the miracle of the loaves and fishes

Posted in Best pictures, Bible, Fish, Miracle on Sunday, 4 October 2015

The best pictures of the miracle of the loaves and fishes are vivid images of Jesus Christ feeding the multitude.
The first picture of the miracle shows Christ blessing the loaves and fishes.

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Jesus blessing the loaves and fishes by Clive Uptton

The second picture shows the boy bringing the food to Jesus.

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A boy brings the loaves and fishes to Jesus by Harold Copping

The third picture shows Christ among the multitude.

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Feeding the multitude by William Hole

Many more pictures of the Bible can be found at the Look and Learn picture library.

The best pictures of pilgrims at Lourdes

Posted in Best pictures, Famous landmarks, Historical articles, History, Medicine, Miracle, Religion, Saints on Friday, 21 August 2015

The best pictures of pilgrims at Lourdes show the pilgrimage and crowds at the shrine and sacred waters of Lourdes.
The first picture shows the procession of pilgrims at Lourdes.

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The Procession at Lourdes by Henri Lanos

The second picture shows the Grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes.

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The Grotto at Notre Dame, Lourdes

The third picture shows the immersion ceremony at Lourdes.

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The Ceremony of Immersion in the Holy Well at Lourdes by Henri Lanos

Many more pictures of pilgrims can be found at the Look and Learn picture library.

The best pictures of friars of the Dominican Order

Posted in Best pictures, Historical articles, History, Miracle, Religion, Saints on Thursday, 20 August 2015

The best pictures of Dominican friars are vivid and unusual images of St Dominic himself and his devoted followers.
The first picture is of St Dominic levitating, a miracle witnessed by strangers as he prayed in a chapel at Castres in 1211.

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Father Dominic flies before the King of Spain

The second picture shows Dominican friars among the community.

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People often brought food for the Dominican friars, who had no money of their own by Peter Jackson

The third picture is of the martyrdom of St Peter Martyr, the Dominican friar assassinated in 1252.

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Martyrdom of St Peter the Dominican by Giorgione

Many more pictures of friars and monks can be found at the Look and Learn picture library.

The best pictures of Jesus Christ

Posted in Best pictures, Bible, Miracle on Tuesday, 7 July 2015

The best pictures of Jesus Christ depict the Saviour at several archetypal moments during His life.
The first picture of Jesus shows Him walking on the Sea of Galille.

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Christ walking on the Sea of Galilee

The second picture of Jesus shows Him teaching on a hillside.

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Jesus teaching his followers

The third picture of Jesus shows Him among children.

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Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.Picture by Harry Seabright

Many more pictures of Jesus Christ can be found at the Look and Learn picture library.

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston was founded by Mary Baker Eddy

Posted in America, Bible, Historical articles, History, Miracle, Religion on Monday, 1 July 2013

This edited article about Mary Baker Eddy originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 308 published on 9 December 1967.

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First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston. Inset, Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy

On the evening of 1st February, 1866, Mary Baker Eddy slipped on an ice-covered pavement near her home and was carried unconscious into a neighbour’s house. As a result of this accident, there was formed in the U.S.A. a new Christian denomination which today has 3,200 branches in 46 countries.

When a doctor examined Mary Baker Eddy, he found that she had suffered serious internal injuries. It was unlikely, he said, that she would recover. On the third day after her accident, the patient asked weakly for her Bible. Opening it at the ninth chapter of Matthew, she read of a sick man being cured of palsy. It inspired her so much that she rose from her sick bed and walked into the next room, where her astonished friends had been waiting to hear of her death.

Following her accident and remarkable recovery, Mary Baker Eddy spent three years studying the Bible. She then wrote a book called Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. In it she presented the beliefs which have become the faith known today as ‘Christian Science’. Much of this faith is concerned with spiritual healing.

In 1879, Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, later reorganised as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. Soon converts were flocking to hear her speak, and new Christian Science churches were opened in other parts of America.

In her 88th year (she had been born in 1821 in New Hampshire, U.S.A.), Mary Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science Monitor, which has grown into one of the world’s major newspapers. She died on 3rd December, 1910.

The miracle of the Blind Beggar

Posted in Bible, Miracle, Religion on Thursday, 24 January 2013

This edited article about Bartimaeus originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 108 published on 8 February 1964.

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Christ sees Bartimaeus and restores the blind beggar’s sight by Clive Uptton

Bartimaeus edged his way carefully along the road which led out of Jericho. It was a good road for anyone like himself to be seen on, and for about three miles from the outskirts of the town Bartimaeus knew every turn of it, almost every rut in it, and certainly every shady spot along its border.

Yet he only knew these places by what he could touch and hear, for since childhood Bartimaeus had been blind.

The only occupation which Bartimaeus ever had was that of begging. As a small child he had been placed by his parents at a point from which he could not easily be missed by the pilgrims as they left Jericho to attend the various feasts at Jerusalem. Other beggars also stationed themselves on this well-travelled road, but none was so well known as Bartimaeus.

As the years passed he became almost a landmark, and people nearing Jericho would say: “Look! There’s blind Bartimaeus! We’re nearly home!” Then perhaps they would give him alms as a sign of their thankfulness for having reached Jericho safely on that ever-dangerous road from Jerusalem.

Yet Bartimaeus was far from happy. He had no wish to be a beggar; he would rather have worked for a living. Most of all, he longed to see for himself the things about which people had talked to him all his life, the sunrise, the mountains across the valley, the flowers after the spring rains.

To see such things! That would be really living!

Sometimes blind people did get their sight back, and lately he had heard of quite a few cases. There was a man from Nazareth called Jesus. He had the gift of healing, and all sorts of people had been cured by Him. Even beggars like Bartimaeus himself, whether blind or lame or whatever was wrong with them.

No wonder that when someone told Bartimaeus that Jesus was coming up the road by which he sat at that very hour, he became excited. As soon as he heard the tread of sandalled feet and the noise of men talking, Bartimaeus began to cry out: “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.”

Some of the bystanders tried to hustle Bartimaeus away, or at least to silence him, but the blind beggar was determined to be heard, and shouted more loudly than ever.

Suddenly the footsteps halted, and a kindly voice was heard saying: “Who is calling my name? Bring him to me.”

Scarcely knowing what was happening, Bartimaeus found himself led into the presence of Jesus Himself.

“What is it you want from me?” said Jesus, in the same kindly voice.

Bartimaeus answered, half in hope, half in despair: “Lord, that I might receive my sight!”

“Go your way,” answered Jesus quietly. “Your faith has given you your sight.”

It was a trembling, astonished Bartimaeus, who not only saw Jesus smile, and resume His journey, but who followed Him confidently down the road he knew so well, yet had never seen before.

Did St Joan really burn at the stake?

Posted in Heroes and Heroines, Historical articles, History, Miracle, Mystery, Religion, Saints, War on Wednesday, 23 January 2013

This edited article about Joan of Arc originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 106 published on 25 January 1964.

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Joan of Arc burns at the stake

The trouble with searching out the truth of what really happened in some of the world’s great mysteries is made many times worse when we have to deal with someone whose position in the world’s story has been deliberately altered to suit the crafty convenience of the people who have come afterwards.

For instance, Joan of Arc.

It would, indeed, have been hard enough for us to get at the truth of Joan’s story if we had lived in her own time – so carefully, it seems, was the truth veiled even then. But in the five hundred years since her time it is doubtful whether any single story in the whole of history has been more twisted, stretched, pummelled, distorted, taken apart and rebuilt than Joan’s story.

Somewhere you have probably read that she was a shepherd girl from Lorraine, devout but illiterate.

Well, two highly skilled researchers and writers, of whom more in a moment, have recently made out an excellent case for her being the daughter of the Duke of Orleans – and therefore the aunt of King Henry VI of England – and the tool of the scheming, divided noble houses of the French states that existed in her lifetime.

You probably learned somewhere that the English burned Joan of Arc at the stake.

The same writers have re-examined the strong body of opinion which believes that Joan was never burned at the stake at all – that someone else was burned in her place at the last moment and that she was set free, married, re-appeared in French society and lived happily ever after.

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Jesus heals the paralytic man – a miracle

Posted in Bible, Miracle, Religion on Tuesday, 12 July 2011

One day in Capernaum Jesus is teaching a large throng of people, many of whom have travelled from afar to hear this remarkable figure whose reputation is now the subject of daily conversation across Galilee and Judea.

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Friends lower the paralytic man through the roof in Capernaum, by William Hole

Many others have come with ailments and illnesses hoping to be cured by this performer of miracles. A group of men comes to the town and brings an old friend who is a paralytic and quite unable to walk. On arriving at the house where Jesus is speaking the friends realise that it is impossible to enter on account of the crowds, so they decide to take their friend up on the roof, and after removing some thatch and tiles, lower him down into the very room where Jesus is standing. When Jesus sees this happening He praises the faith of all concerned and forgives the paralytic man his sins. After mutterings among listeners about only God being able to forgive sins, Jesus points out that forgiveness achieves exactly the same result as telling this man to get up and walk. He then tells the man to do just that, and the paralytic man is miraculously able to walk.

Many more pictures relating to the Bible can be found at the Look and Learn picture library.

The Miracle of Fatima

Posted in Miracle, Mystery, Religion on Monday, 13 June 2011

This edited article about miraculous visions originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 967 published on 20 September 1980.

The morning of 13th May, 1917, was peaceful and sunny and the three children quietly herding sheep enjoyed their task. Suddenly, however, the plateau near the village of Fatima, in central Portugal, was struck by two brilliant flashes of light. The startled youngsters gazed around them in alarm.

The illumination came from a gnarled oak tree a short distance away. In the centre of a great ball of light, stood the figure of a calm and beautiful woman. The frightened children – ten-year-old Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Fransisco, aged nine, and Jacito, seven – cowered back.

But the woman, a halo over her head, held out her arms and spoke gently but firmly. “Do not be afraid,” she said. “I will not harm you. You know who I am. Come to this place on the 13th of each month until October. Then I shall reveal a terrible secret to you.”

The vision began to fade and soon there was no sphere of light and no beautiful stranger. Lucia and her cousins hurried down to the village and told their parents of their weird experience. “We saw the Virgin Mary and she spoke to us as if we were her children,” said Lucia. “She is coming to talk to us again.”

Lucia’s story split the village into two conflicting groups. The first group thought that the three children were telling blasphemous lies. The shocked villagers advised the youngsters’ parents to punish them for taking the Holy Mother’s name in vain.

But the second group – which consisted of 50 equally pious men and women – believed the children’s seemingly incredible story. Exactly four weeks later, at noon on 13th June, they accompanied the three cousins up to the plateau and waited to see if the vision would return.

The children knelt and said their rosaries and, as they did so, the Virgin Mary appeared to them. “She came from the east like a glowing messenger from God,” Lucia said afterwards. “Only Fransisco, Jacito and myself could see her, for she had chosen us to reveal her secrets of the future.”

But this time the message was a gloomy one. According to Lucia, the Virgin Mary said that the First World War – then in its fourth year – was only the first of several disasters which were going to afflict humanity in the 20th century.

Soon after the war ended, forecast the Virgin, a terrible illness would rage through Europe and thousands of people would lose their lives. Among them would be Fransisco and Jacito. The two boys later became victims of the influenza epidemic which swept Europe in the winter of 1918-1919,

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