Pages

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Tree Blessed By Pope Blossoms

An unusual story:

Tel Aviv- A tree blessed eight years ago by Pope John Paul II during his visit to the Holy Land was the only one in its plot of land to produce olives this year, a Jewish National Fund official said. "It is a miracle," Yossi Karni from the JNF, which maintains the plot, told local media. During a visit to northern Israel, near the Sea of Galilee, John Paul blessed a tree that was planted on the Mount of Beatitudes, where according to Christian beliefs Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount.

Karni noted that all the trees on the plot were treated equally, but the ones that did not receive the blessing have not given fruit this year. "They get treated the same, watered the same," he said, adding that some trees had even started to wither, which he could not explain.



AddThis Social Bookmark Button

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"blessings for profit"?

Actually doesn't sound like a very good thing to be promoting.

The organization that would be selling "holy oil" for profit is the one that buys up land to lease to Jews - so that the land is occupied by Jews, but also makes it a reality that individual Jews don't own their own property.

AND they can make a profit doing it.

If there is a miracle, so be it. But selling of the share of the miracle...not so much.

Kelly said...

I had that thought, too. Let's market the miracle, what a modern idea!

Still a neat story, even if the ending isn't quite as happy as it could be.

Anonymous said...

(IMO) The ending spoils the story...that is what readers will walk away with. That is unfortunate.

Kelly said...

I cut out the last line, but the link is still there, if anyone wants to read the full story with last line.

Ta-da! No more distractions at the end. ;)