Posted on 08/15/2013 7:53:55 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
A growing number of Catholics have been flocking to the St. John's Cathedral in Fresno, Calif., to worship under a Crape Myrtle tree said to be weeping a miraculous healing liquid from God, but scientists say those "tears" are just a steady stream of bug poop.
Despite what the scientists say, however, the faithful maintain the liquid is a touch from God for believers.
"They can say it's this theory, that theory, the tree does this every year, it's odd when it happens when there is bunch of people praying. When you are asking the Holy Spirit to reveal itself and then it happens all of a sudden and it's still here," said Janine Esquivel-Oji told My Fox Philly.
"When you say 'glory be to God in Jesus' name' the tree starts throwing out more water," explained Maria Ybarra to KGPE-TV.
Ybarra was the first person to experience the miracle of the droplets coming from the tree while she was praying with a sick woman under it. The tree released water unto the sick woman and she said she felt better.
"Then she said 'oh my gosh, I hadn't feel good, and then when the water was hitting me it changed me I feel peace.' I said the Lord be with you. The Lord said peace be with you, peace I give you, " Ybarra told My Fox Philly.
"I said my prayer and asked the Lord to give me a miracle cause I'm really, really sick," Rosemarie Navarro told KGPE.
A number of the faithful flocking to the tree even brought their children along to see the miracle in motion.
"I'm like let's go, you guys can take a look for yourselves and then you can decide. When you get there you can decide if it was a tree that got wet," Jenny Estevez noted to My Fox Philly.
Entomologist Richard Covelo, however, explained that the tears coming from the tree are simply honey dew – "a sweet liquid emitted from the anus of aphids and some other sap sucking bugs" according to an online definition.
"Crape Myrtle trees as a generality can get really high populations of Crape Myrtle aphids and at times it can look so bad that it looks like the tree is raining out of it with all the honey dew dripping down," said Covelo.
Ybarra, however, maintains that the liquid isn't coming for the bugs' anus.
"I know it's coming from God, and ye of little faith will not reach the kingdom of God," she said.
Granted, this is not my cup o’ tea, but these folks were not “demanding” signs.
Ya’ll both are gaga over things.
Catholics: Bug poo
Pentacostals: Gold dust
You have more in common than any Roman Catholic would care too admit.
A couple uneducated barely literate Hispanics seeking after signs does not equal “Catholics are gaga over Bug Poo” any more than a couple Protestant Pentecostals displaying signs of demonic possession equals all Protestants are possessed.
But you knew that before you posted.
I thought Church was for sinners.
Ever hear of so called “holy laughter”?
No.
“Oh yeah, you’re weird too” isn’t much of a rebuttal.
Hate to burst your bubble, but Pentecostals are clearly part of the Protestant constellation of sects.
Much in the same way splinter orders of lesbian militant communist nuns are part of the Catholic Church?
When you paint with a broad brush you tend to get some on yourself.
I’m Catholic, and all I can say is “There are weirdo’s in every group.” Enuff said.
Best Post!
In Catholicism, its clear that lesbian militant communist nuns are dissenters who disagree with their Church's teachings. The Vatican appoints overseers to their representative bodies to make sure they change their beliefs to return to full communion. Fortunately these obvious dissenters represent a tiny fraction of Catholics.
Pentecostalism, on the other hand, is one of the largest and fastest growing bodies of Protestantism, and mainstream Protestantism has no mechanism to check and correct their errors.
Well, that's probably because I wasn't "rebutting" anything. I was simply saying there are weirdos everywhere.
How dare you attempt to ridicule the Monumental Intellectual Tradition that built Western Civilization, you brain-dead Bibliolator??? You're just mad 'cause you ain't smart enough to be Catholic! (Unlike the geniuses in this article.)[/sarcasm]
Stepping out of my sarcastic persona for a moment, the parashat man in Exodus 16 makes a big point of the presence of quails that cover the ground before the manna is gathered. There must be some connection, or the Torah would not note this (everything in the Torah is there for a reason).
That's not the attitude Catholics take when simple people interpret Genesis 1-11 as literal history.
Hah! I'll bet every single one of these "simple faithful chrstians" is an evolutionist and a higher critic.
You need to get out more, or maybe just cut yourself off from the world -- including the Internet.
I doubt these good people haven't thought much about the first or heard about the second.
Also, I doubt most Catholics are really up for putting your "simple people" down -- or for talking that much about Protestantism or Fundamentalism.
Do you get that evolution and higher criticism are more your obsessions than those of poor Latinos in Fresno?
Well, I not Catholic and I beleive there are modern day miracles.
Don’t worry, the Catholics are getting in on the “holylaughter” too with the Charismatic Catholics recently endorsed by “Papa” Francis.
I don’t think scriptural manna appearing for the Jews in the wilderness, which they ate for 40 years and provided for all their needs, can be compared to some Catholics taking a bath in bug poo around a tree that looks like it’s in somebody’s parking lot.
“Amazing that folks here believe manna was supernatural (as do I) but that that which it prefigured, the True Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, is only symbolic, in contradiction of the plain clear sense of scription of John 6.”
Here is Augustine on the plain clear sense of scripture on John 6:
“They said therefore unto Him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? For He had said to them, Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that which endures unto eternal life. What shall we do? they ask; by observing what, shall we be able to fulfill this precept? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. This is then to eat the meat, not that which perishes, but that which endures unto eternal life. To what purpose do you make ready teeth and stomach? Believe, and you have eaten already.” (Augustine, Tractate 25 on John 6:15-44)
Christ was carried in His Own hands when, referring to His Own body, He said, “This is My body.” For He carried that body in His hands (Explanations of the Psalms 33, 1, 10).
[Jesus] received earth from earth; because flesh is from the earth, and He took flesh from the flesh of Mary. He walked here in the same flesh, and gave us the same flesh to be eaten unto salvation. But no one eats that flesh unless he first adores it... and not only do we not sin by adoring [His flesh], we do sin by not adoring (Explanations of the Psalms 98, 9). I promised you [new Christians], who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the sacrament of the Lord’s Table, which you now look upon and of which last night were made participants. You ought to know what you have received, what you are going to receive, and what you ought to receive daily. That bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the Word of God, is the body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the Word of God, is the blood of Christ.... What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the body of Christ and the chalice is the blood of Christ (Sermons 227).
The faithful know what I am saying. They know Christ in the breaking of the bread. For not all bread, but only that which receives the blessing of Christ, becomes Christ’s body (Sermons 234, 2).4
Fortunately us Catholics aren’t too concerned about the opinion of retread anti-Catholic trolls on FR.
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