Descent of the blessed fire. Holy Fire in Jerusalem Show the descent of the Holy Fire in the year
In the footsteps of the conversation in the blog topic, I decided to look a little for information from different sources, but what do they promise if the blessed fire does not come down?
First, about the origin of the event.
“There are references to the descent of the heavenly fire in the Old Testament. There are described several cases when the Lord sent fire from heaven as a sign that he pleases the sacrifice made, that He accepts it. In the days of the New Testament, the very first information about the descent of the Holy Fire is found in the works of Gregory of Nyssa, Eusebius and Sylvia of Aquitaine. They date back to the 4th century. Although there are earlier references. According to the testimony of the Apostles and holy fathers, the uncreated Light illuminated the Holy Sepulcher soon after the Resurrection of Christ. This was seen by one of the apostles - Peter. However, it is impossible to name any specific date. We can only say that the Fire began to descend from the time of the first Christians, and this is already more than two thousand years ago.
With this miracle, the Lord, as it were, confirms the benevolence, the grace of God to people. This is when God takes pleasure in us, in our prayers, in our repentance.
It is extremely important whether the blessed fire will descend or not, because its descent is a symbol of the fact that life will continue, that God has blessed humanity. "
There were three cases of fire not converging.
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In 1101, on Holy Saturday, the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire in Kuvuklia did not take place, until Eastern Christians were invited to participate in this rite. Then King Baldwin I took care of restoring their rights to local Christians.
- On Holy Saturday 1579 Orthodox Patriarch Sophronius IV and the priests were not allowed into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They stood in front of the closed doors of the Temple from the outside. The Armenian priests entered the Kuvuklia and started prayer calls to the Lord about the descent of Fire. But their prayers were not answered.
Orthodox priests standing at the closed doors of the Temple also turned to the Lord with prayers. Suddenly a noise was heard, the column to the left of the closed doors of the Temple cracked, Fire came out of it and lit candles in the hands of the Jerusalem Patriarch. With great joy the Orthodox priesthood entered the Temple and glorified the Lord. The traces of the convergence of Fire can still be seen on one of the columns located to the left of the entrance.
According to traditions rooted in 2000 years, the abbot, monks of the Lavra of St. Sava the Sanctified and local Orthodox Arabs are obligatory participants in the sacrament of the descent of the Holy Fire.
On Holy Saturday, half an hour after the sealing of the Cuvuklia, Arab Orthodox youth, with shouting, stamping, drumming, sitting astride each other, rushes into the Temple and begins songs and dances. There is no evidence of the time when this ritual was established. The exclamations and songs of the Arab youth are ancient prayers in Arabic to Christ and Mother of God Who is asked to beg the Son for the sending of Fire to George the Victorious, especially revered in the Orthodox East.
According to oral tradition, during the years of British rule over Jerusalem (1918-1947), the English governor once tried to ban "wild" dances. The Patriarch of Jerusalem prayed for two hours: The fire did not come down. Then the Patriarch ordered his will to let the Arab youth in. After they performed the ritual, the Fire descended ...
So what will happen if the blessed fire does not descend? There are many legends and beliefs about what will happen if the Holy Fire does not come down.
Christian tradition says that when the Holy Light does not appear in the Cuvuklia, the end of the world will come.
The fire did not go down (above the testimony), and the prophecy did not come true, why?
It turns out that the fire alone is not enough, there must be three foreshadowing events to fulfill the prophecy.
1. The exact location of Noah's Ark will be revealed.
2. The 5000-year-old Mamre oak will dry up (there Abraham met the Holy Trinity).
3. The Holy Fire will not descend.
Along the Ark
... Presumably on Mount Ararat in Turkey, traces of it were found. 
Mamvri oak
... Judging by the photos, it has dried up. Although they write that there is something green from the root, but there are no close ones, which leaves are not visible, but it does not look like an oak.
About oak.
Mamri, or, in the Russian religious tradition, the Mamre oak (aka Abraham's Oak, aka Palestinian oak, aka Russian oak (as it belongs to the Orthodox Russian mission), he is the oak grove of Mamre.), is considered the most ancient tree, under which, according to the Bible, Abraham received God: “ the Lord appeared to him at the oak grove of Mamre, when he was sitting at the entrance to the tent, during the heat of the day"(Gen. 18: 1). The Mamre oak is marked with the glory of the Epiphany. It is believed that the age of this tree is about five thousand years. Moreover, religious texts report that Mamvrian oak has been growing since the creation of the world... Perhaps this oak is a symbol of the World Tree.
This is if with t. physical phenomena. And I think that "physics" is secondary. Yes, and allegories are quite a place here to be.
I remembered the legend of Prometheus (by the way, there is an opinion that he is one of the prototypes of Christ). 
So what kind of fire did Prometheus bring to people? You can think exaltedly and say - inner, spiritual, light of reason, enlightenment. It is perfectly acceptable. Moreover, he kidnapped him from the Gods.
One can reason pragmatically and say that yes, he gave fire, but not the fire itself, but gave the secret of its extraction. But which one? I don’t think he taught people how to use improvised objects to spark a spark. And if you remember that fire divine, then most likely it was about some kind of magical action that "breaks the veil" and sensitively feeds souls from within with light divine Reason, but as a proof that the action took place, in the space of the performance of the magical rite, the physical fire was concentrated and descended (manifested), which immediately upon manifestation was not so sensitive, but “cold” ...
So ... What kind of ritual is this magical? A question of questions. Most likely, the Messenger gave people a Word (spell, sound, “vibration”) that resonates with other conditions. Only the execution of the rite in all the subtleties and within a certain period of the spatio-temporal corridor could one count on success.
Now about “what will happen if the blessed fire does not descend”.
Everything is IMHO. Since this fire is the Light of divine reason, given to people for salvation, then its convergence will not entail cataclysms and global collapse, but it will be exactly that people, having lost their annual “nourishment”, will begin to degrade mentally, and on an increasing basis. And this alone will lead to grave consequences, for “ sleep of reason will give birth to monsters“… Wars, strife, greed and other negative aspects… And yes… there will be something else, as it was said:“ to everyone who has it will be given and will increase, but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away
”(Matthew 25:29) - this is a speech about the Spirit (Mind). Therefore, there will be a gathering and a reaping ... of the Spirit.
But it won't touch the bodies... humanity will live as it did, eat, drink and enjoy. What will the degradation affect? Yes, on the fact that there will be a replacement of values, there will be a moral and ethical decline, disbelief and darkness in souls, etc.
MOSCOW, April 15 - RIA Novosti. The delegation of the Fund of St. Andrew the First-Called (FAP), who received the Holy Fire in the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, delivered the shrine to Moscow.
Hundreds of believers met the plane with the Holy Fire at the Vnukovo-1 international airport. They were able to receive particles of the Holy Fire to bring it to their homes and temples. The shrine was brought by a special flight in special lamps.
The blessed fire is sent to thousands of churches in Russia, near and far abroad. During Bright Week (the first week after Easter), those who wish will be able to receive the Holy Fire in the office of the St. Andrew Foundation in Moscow. To do this, you need to come with your lamp to the address: Pokrovka Street, house 42, building 5 (from 9.00 to 18.00).
The blessed fire symbolizes the miraculous light of the Resurrection of Christ. Every year on the eve of Easter, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, other representatives of the Orthodox clergy and tens of thousands of pilgrims pray for his descent in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
Annual miracle
The appearance of the shrine, which annually lights up on the eve of Orthodox Easter in Kuvukliya - the chapel above the Holy Sepulcher in the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ, despite the regularity, is called "the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire." According to legend, if the fire does not come down, it will become a sign that the end of the world is approaching, and the people who are in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher will perish.
Pilgrims come to the Old City early in the morning. Believers go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with lamps and "Easter eggs" - bundles of 33 candles, according to the number of years of the life of Jesus Christ. The main church of Christians is divided between several denominations, so everyone is trying to take a place in accordance with this order. The first to enter the temple are usually Greeks and Copts. A special moment of the ceremony is the entrance to the temple of Orthodox Arabs. They walk through the temple with drums and loud exclamations praising Christ. It is believed that the Holy Fire will not come down without this rite.
The elders of the Orthodox Arab youth, sitting on each other's shoulders, animatedly gesticulate and chant: "There is no faith but the Orthodox faith! Christ is the true God!" They ask the Lord to grant the believers the blessed fire.
Inside the temple, solemn processions of the clergy, including the Armenian, Coptic, and Syrian, take place. They are traditionally accompanied by kavvas - guards in Turkish uniforms, who have been hired since ancient times to guard Christian celebrations. Moving through the crowd, the kavvas knock with their staffs on the stone slabs of the temple.
At noon, from the Jerusalem Patriarchate, a procession with the cross begins to the Holy Sepulcher, which ends before the entrance to the Kuvuklia. A large lamp is brought into it, in which a fire is to be kindled, and 33 candles.
The Jerusalem patriarch traditionally enters the Cuvuklia in one linen cassock so that it can be seen that he is not carrying matches or anything else into the cave with which to make fire. Then the entrance to the chapel is sealed
In 2017, a litany - a prayer ceremony - of the Holy Fire was performed in the renewed Kuvuklia. The chapel was restored for about a year. For the first time in 500 years, the marble slab covering Christ's burial bed was removed and studied. The opening of the tomb angered some believers, worried that after this the blessed fire might not come down. However, their fears did not materialize.
After the descent of the Holy Fire, Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem handed it over to those gathered in the temple. The believers in the front ranks lit their candles, the fire was transmitted with lightning speed from one person to another. Many washed themselves with the Holy Fire, which in the first minutes after the descent has an amazing property - it does not burn.
The descent of the Holy Fire is a wonderful and so far unexplained by scientists phenomenon that occurs annually on the eve of Easter. The flame that appears by itself, the first which the Apostle Peter saw over two thousand years ago, today is a visible evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Where and how is the Holy Fire lit? When will the descent of the Holy Fire be in 2018? What should humanity prepare for in the event that the fire does not come down?
Where and when does the Holy Fire descend?
The blessed fire is the harbinger of the Bright Resurrection of Christ. Traditionally, it descends on Easter Eve at the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem, built in 335 AD. In 2018, the Sacred Fire will have to descend on Saturday April 7th. It appears by itself, through the prayer of the Greek Patriarch near the memorial plate of the Savior.
As for the time when the Holy Fire descends, it traditionally takes place at noon, within 12:55 - 15:00 pm. At the same time, no one knows when the fire will appear. At one time he descends after ten minutes, and at another - after a 2-hour prayer of the patriarch.
The centuries-old traditions of the ritual
The ceremony of descent of the Holy Fire, which has existed for more than a thousand years, is strictly regulated and spelled out to the smallest detail.
| 10:15 | Bypassing the Kuvuklia (chapel) procession led by the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem |
| 11:00 | Closing and sealing of the marble chapel of the Holy Sepulcher |
| 11:30 | The Emergence of Emotional Arab Christian Youth |
| 12:00 | Arrival at the Temple of the Greek Patriarch |
| 12:10 | Appeal of representatives of the Armenian clergy, as well as the Coptic and Syrian Orthodox Churches to the Patriarch |
| 12:20 | A closed lamp is brought into the Holy Sepulcher, in which the fire is supposed to kindle |
| 12:30 | Procession of the Greek clergy with three rounds of Cuvuklia |
| 12:50 | Entrance to the Holy Sepulcher of the Patriarch and the Armenian Archimandrite |
| 12:55 – 15:00 | The exit of the Patriarch with the Sacred Fire |
Traditionally, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem is filled with pilgrims from different parts of the world. They are the first to know if the Sacred Fire has been lit and are the first to have the opportunity to touch the flame that does not burn.
The temple itself can accommodate no more than 8 thousand people, but those who want to contemplate the miracle can number up to 70 thousand people. For the rest, the territory adjacent to the temple is allocated. Each of the parishioners holds in their hands a bunch of 33 candles, which denote the earthly age of Jesus Christ.
The Patriarch of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church goes to the chapel of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ - Kuvukliya in one cassock. Before this, this room is carefully checked by Israeli policemen for matches, lighters or other items that can give fire.
While waiting for the descent of the Holy Fire in the temple:
- all light sources are extinguished,
- there is deathly silence.
Pilgrims at this time should pray and sincerely repent of their sins before the Lord.
The Patriarch emerging from the chapel, first of all, lights the candles of representatives of each of the religious confessions. After that, the fire spreads between the crowd of thousands of pilgrims. It is often difficult for the police to restrain all those who want to get a piece of the flame faster than others, because according to legend, all worldly sins are released first.
Some interesting facts about the Holy Fire:
- The convergence of fire symbolizes flashes in the form of blue fireballs at the dome of the temple.
- Fire for some time does not burn either the body or the hair of a person.
- The holy flame has never been the cause of a fire.
- The wax of candles that were lit from the Holy Fire cannot be removed from clothing.
- The miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire is still a mystery.
How and where can you see the descent of the Holy Fire?
You can contemplate the descent of the Holy Fire not only while in the Jerusalem temple. So amazing and unexplained phenomenon actively cover the mass media from all over the world.
In Russia, in 2017, a live broadcast of the descent of the Holy Fire was conducted by the NTV channel. It is still unknown who will cover the upcoming event this year, but in any case, how the Holy Fire appears can be watched online via the Internet.
Video recordings of such an unusual and rare phenomenon of past years, as well as photos of eyewitnesses from the scene, can be easily found on the Internet. Also, fragments of the video about the miraculous appearance of the Holy Light, as the Holy Fire is also called, will be shown on the same day in the evening news of all television channels without exception.
The spread of the Holy Fire around the world
Immediately after representatives of all churches and confessions have lit their lamps from the Holy Fire, they go to their countries in order to transmit a piece of the flame to all cities and villages of the state.
The fire is transported by charter flight in a special capsule. Trying to be in time by ten in the evening, when evening services begin in the main churches of the capital, representatives of confessions are trying to deliver the sacred flame to the place of service as soon as possible.
They say that if the fire did not come down, then it would be a terrible omen for all of humanity. The Apocalypse and the Last Judgment will begin from which no one will hide. Then the temple of the Holy Sepulcher will be destroyed, and people living on Earth will perish. Despite the fact that the Holy Fire appears from year to year, there is always a possibility that one day it will not come down ...
The descent of the Holy Fire is a miracle that occurs every year on the eve of Orthodox Easter in the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In 2017, the entire Christian world will celebrate the Bright Resurrection of Christ on one day - April 16.
On Great Saturday, tens of thousands of pilgrims flock to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher from all over the world to wash with its grace-filled light and receive God's blessing.
The Holy Fire was delivered to Georgia from Jerusalem The greatest miracle is anxiously awaited not only by Orthodox Christians, but also by representatives of various confessions.
For many hundreds of years, people have been trying to understand where the Holy Fire comes from. Believers are sure that this is a real miracle - God's gift to people. Scientists do not agree with this statement and try to find an explanation for this phenomenon from a scientific point of view.
Blessed fire
According to many testimonies, both ancient and modern, the appearance of the Holy Light can be observed in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher throughout the year, but the most famous and impressive is the miraculous descent of the Holy Fire on Great Saturday, on the eve of the Bright Resurrection of Christ.
Throughout almost the entire time of the existence of Christianity, this wonderful phenomenon is annually observed by both Orthodox Christians and representatives of other Christian faiths (Catholics, Armenians, Copts and others), as well as representatives of other non-Christian religions.
Distribution of the blessed fire during the Easter service The miracle of the descent of the blessed fire on the Holy Sepulcher has been known since ancient times that the descended fire possesses unique property- it does not burn the first minutes.
The first witness of the descent of the fire was the Apostle Peter - having learned about the Resurrection of the Savior, he hurried to the tomb and saw, where the body had previously been, an amazing light. For two thousand years this light has descended on the Holy Sepulcher with the Holy Fire every year.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was erected by Emperor Constantine and his mother, Queen Helena, in the 4th century. And the earliest written records of the descent of the Holy Fire on the eve of the Resurrection of Christ date back to the 4th century.
The temple with its huge roof covers both Golgotha, and the cave in which the Lord who was taken down from the cross was laid, and the garden where Mary Magdalene was the first of the people to meet His risen.
Convergence
At about noon, a religious procession led by the Patriarch leaves the courtyard of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. The procession enters the Church of the Resurrection, goes to the chapel, erected over the Holy Sepulcher, and, going around it three times, stops in front of its gates.
All the lights in the temple are extinguished. Tens of thousands of people: Arabs, Greeks, Russians, Romanians, Jews, Germans, English - pilgrims from all over the world - watch the Patriarch in tense silence.
The patriarch is exposed, the police carefully search him and the Holy Sepulcher itself, looking for at least something that can produce fire (during the Turkish rule over Jerusalem, this was done by Turkish gendarmes), and in one long, falling chiton, the primate of the Church enters inside.
Kneeling before the Sepulcher, he prays to God for the sending down of the Holy Fire. Sometimes his prayer lasts a long time, but there is an interesting feature - the Holy Fire descends only through the prayers of the Orthodox Patriarch.
And suddenly, on the marble slab of the coffin, a kind of fiery dew appears in the form of bluish balls. The Holy One touches them with a cotton swab, and it ignites. With this cool fire, the Patriarch lights up a lamp and candles, which he then brings to the temple and hands them over to the Armenian Patriarch, and then to the people. At the same moment, tens and hundreds of bluish lights flash in the air under the dome of the temple.
It is difficult to imagine what kind of jubilation a crowd of thousands of people can see. People are shouting, singing, fire is transferred from one bunch of candles to another, and a minute later the whole temple is on fire.
Miracle or trick
This wonderful phenomenon at different times had many critics who tried to expose and prove the artificial origin of fire. Among those who disagreed were the Catholic Church. In particular, Pope Gregory IX in 1238 disagreed about the miraculousness of the Holy Fire.
Not understanding the true origin of the Holy Fire, some Arabs tried to prove that the Fire is allegedly obtained using any means, substances and devices, but they have no direct evidence. Moreover, they did not even witness this miracle.
Modern researchers have also tried to study the nature of this phenomenon. In their opinion, it is possible to produce fire artificially. Spontaneous combustion of chemical mixtures and substances is also possible.
Christian Orthodox worshipers light candles from the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem. But none of them is similar to the appearance of the Holy Fire, especially with its amazing property - not to burn in the first minutes of its appearance.
Scientists-theologians, representatives of various confessions, including the Orthodox Church, have repeatedly stated that the lighting of candles and lamps in the Temple from the alleged "sacred fire" is a falsification.
The most famous statements in the middle of the last century by the professor of the Leningrad Theological Academy Nikolai Uspensky, who believed that in the Kuvuklia fire is lit from a secret hidden lamp, the light of which does not penetrate into the open space of the Temple, where all candles and lamps are extinguished at that time.
At the same time, Ouspensky argued that "the fire lit on the Holy Sepulcher from a hidden lamp is still a sacred fire, received from a sacred place."
Russian physicist Andrei Volkov, as they say, several years ago managed to take some measurements at the ceremony of the descent of the Holy Fire. According to Volkov, a few minutes before the removal of the Holy Fire from Kuvuklia, a device recording the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation detected a strange long-wave impulse in the temple, which no longer manifested itself. That is, an electrical discharge has occurred.
In the meantime, scientists are trying to find scientific confirmation of this phenomenon, and in contrast to the complete unsubstantiation of the statements of skeptics, the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire is an annually observed fact.
The miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire is available to everyone. It can be seen not only by tourists and pilgrims - it takes place in front of the whole world and is regularly broadcast on television and the Internet, on the website of the Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarchate.
Holy Fire from Jerusalem Every year, several thousand people present in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher see: the Patriarch entered the Kuvuklia, which was checked and sealed, with a bunch of candles, whose clothes were specially examined. He came out of it with a burning torch of 33 candles and this is an indisputable fact.
Therefore, the answer to the question of where the Holy Fire comes from can be only one answer - this is a miracle, and everything else is just unconfirmed speculation.
And in conclusion, the Holy Fire confirms the promise of the Risen Christ to the apostles: "I am with you all the days until the end of the age."
It is believed that when the Heavenly Fire does not descend on the Holy Sepulcher, it will be a sign of the onset of the power of the Antichrist and the imminent end of the world.
The material was prepared on the basis of open sources.
When the Holy Fire descends in Jerusalem in 2018 directly depends on the date of Orthodox Easter. In 2018, Easter will be on April 8, which means that thousands of believers around the world will await the descent of the Holy Fire on the 7th. They say that if in some year the fire does not come down, then it will be a symbol of the imminent end of the world. So, I would like to hope that this year in Jerusalem, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the fire will surely appear.
If we return to history, then it should be noted that the first evidence of the appearance of this fire precisely on the territory of the city of Jerusalem, the holy land, appeared in the fourth century. This has always happened since then in one place - in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. According to legend, it was in this cave that the body of Jesus Christ was located after the crucifixion and until the moment of his resurrection. So, this is exactly what happened, on Great Saturday, believers are waiting for the descent of the Holy Fire. If it was not possible to get into the temple itself, it is difficult to do, because there are more and more people willing every year, then the process of the convergence of the fire can be watched online on the Internet or on television.
About the ceremony
The descent of the Holy Fire is a whole ceremony that includes many rules and rituals. The ceremony begins about a day before Easter. This ceremony is called a litany. At lunchtime, the patriarchs perform a procession of the cross to the chapel, which is located in the very center of the temple. During the procession, a lamp is carried. It does not burn yet, and it is there, then the fire appears. Around the lamp there are 33 candles, which are a symbol of the years of Jesus Christ's life on earth until the moment of the crucifixion.
The patriarch already enters the chapel alone. He is wearing a minimum of clothes, and representatives of the Israeli police check and search the patriarch so that he does not have any items with him that would allow him to get fire. At the same time, in the church itself, on the eve of Great Saturday, all lamps, candles and other sources of fire are extinguished.
The lamp is installed by the patriarch right in the center of the coffin bed. There is also cotton wool around the perimeter, and there is a tape around the edges. After that, the police once again inspect the chapel, and then the chief priest, who is already inside and searched, is sealed. No one knows exactly where the fire comes from. This secret has been preserved for more than one millennium. On the festive table at Easter can be done.
Obligatory rituals
An obligatory ritual that must be observed in order for the fire to appear is the presence in the temple of young people who ask the Mother of God and the Lord to grant fire. Eyewitnesses who were in the temple when the fire went down, all as one say that out of nowhere there are flashes of bright light right above the Holy Sepulcher.
It is impossible to determine the exact time when the Holy Fire 2018 appears in Jerusalem. But it is known for sure that this always happens on the eve of Orthodox Easter. Not only Orthodox Christians, but also other representatives of Christianity, Buddhists, and representatives of other world religions come to see the Holy Fire.
So, it is impossible to determine the exact time when the Holy Fire 2018 descends in Jerusalem. The event begins to be expected on the morning of Holy Saturday, this year it falls on April 7th. Then on April 8, believers will celebrate Easter, which is the main holiday in Christianity and tells how and why Christ is Risen.
