by Michael H. Brown

         There it was, like something out of Luke 21:25, the sun twitching and pulsing and moving in ways that were clearly impossible. I was in the rain forests of Venezuela outside of Caracas at the Church-sanctioned apparition site of Betania and I had never seen anything quite like this. I stared for minutes at a time, then wandered into the trees, the sun following me, pulsing in an extraordinary way through small gaps in the canopy of vegetation.

          All of a sudden, in a moment of fleeting wonder, in a way that still seems unreal, the sun's rays shot down, formed a perfect statue-like image of the Virgin Mary (as seen on the Miraculous Medal, arms outstretched, radiating), and then drew back up into the sun. 

         A deception? An hallucination? A lying wonder? 

         Or are we living in a special time indicated by what Jesus called "signs in the sun"? 

         Your discernment is as good as mine. All I know is that I have seen similar manifestations in other parts of the world (it's one of the reasons I have devoted myself to a website like this) and so have literally millions of others.

       They're called "sun miracles," and they have been with us at least since the great miracle in 1917 at Fatima, Portugal. When I first visited the other famous apparition site, Medjugorje, in 1989, I was baffled on returning from the church one early evening (around the time the seers experienced their daily apparition) to see the sun acting in a way that was not remotely similar to anything I had previously seen. 

        As I crossed a vineyard on the west side of St. James Church I looked up to see the sun swathed in huge auras of pink that not only stretched impossibly far from the sun, but also flowed down and encompassed the mountains in a way that went beyond stereoscopic vision. 

         To my endless astonishment the sun pulsed and spun and whirled in hues of blue and purple, hues unlike any form of normal sunset -- green, turquoise, without hurting the eyes, a disc moving to blot out the hot solar center, leaving not a single sunspot even after I stared for five or maybe even ten minutes. 

         The feeling of peace and communication with forces unseen can't be described and left me scurrying toward a man and woman who were walking ahead of me. I wanted to see if they were seeing what I was seeing. It was Don Shula, the devout football couch, and his wife. They too were pilgrims, and she was seeing the same thing.

         I witnessed the "miracle of the sun" or some variant every day the rest of that trip, and during four subsequent trips to Medjugorje. In August of 1990, I watched one morning as a ray shot clear down to the vineyards and formed a perfect cross. 

         No wonder even non-Catholics like David du Plessis, father of modern Pentecostalism, came away from Medjugorje convinced the Holy Spirit was manifesting. 

          In the subsequent years I have seen the sun "miracle" at dozens of locations and I do not believe they were optical or atmospheric effects. When I consulted Dr. Joseph Patterson, an astronomer at Columbia University, he told me that staring at the sun for ten seconds is enough to begin a burn into the retina -- yet I and countless others were able to stare at a midday sun for as long as 15 minutes! 

         Many have seen the sun spin and move or turn into a column of light recalling the one that led the Israelites out of Egypt.

         Obviously, the sun is not actually doing this; if it were, there would be worldwide panic. It's more a personal event. And when it happens, there is a feeling of peace, a feeling of communication with heaven, and often the disc appears, resembling a Communion host.

      What is God saying by this? What is He trying to tell us?

         He's showing us Who is in charge. He's indicating that He can shift the sky. He's changing our very perception. He may also be indicating changes in the sun that are about to affect us (many believe increased solar activity accounts for recent storms and shifts in climate). In Revelation 11:9 we see the sanctuary of God "opening" -- followed (as is beginning to happen in our own time) by great natural disturbances. 

         Is it a warning? Or simply the Virgin "adorned by the sun" (Revelation 12:1)?

         All I know is that these miracles have been reported in Rwanda, Italy, Argentina, Canada, the United States, Ecuador, Ukraine, France, Ireland, and many other countries. In the coming years, authorities can debate the legitimacy of these events, and I'll abide by Church decisions. But in the meantime I know with a profound kind of certainty what I myself have witnessed.

Church ruling on apparition of Betania