With Carlo Acutis, the first Milennial saint, to be canonized, we asked LI clergy: What is a modern miracle?

Pope Francis recently recognized a second miracle linked to Carlo Acutis, the Millennial teen known as “God’s influencer,” who died in 2006. This week’s clergy discuss the power, purpose and prevalence of miracles from biblical times to the present day.

The Rev. Walter F. Kedjierski

Administrator, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church, Centerport, and St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, Northport; Director of Seminarians, Diocese of Rockville Centre

What is a modern-day miracle? Like all miracles, they are moments in which God hears the cries of His children and responds in an extraordinary way. Catholics believe that all genuine miracles have a purpose beyond themselves. The miracles of Jesus in the New Testament display his power as the Son of God. The Gospel of John never uses the word miracle, but “signs.” The healings and miracles Jesus performs point to Him as the “Word made flesh.” Catholics believe that miracles are meant by God to be a blessing for the whole Church, not just for the individual recipient. They help us, communally, to build up faith and trust in God. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gave the apostles the gift of speaking many languages they did not understand so that they could bring the Gospel to all nations. In the 19th century, when the Blessed Mother appeared in a vision to the young St. Bernadette, thousands of pilgrims would find their faith strengthened by visits to Lourdes, France. When St. Jean Marie Vianney knew people’s sins before they confessed them, people understood he was blessed by God. Recently God worked through soon-to-be canonized Saint Carlo Acutis to heal a seriously injured child from Costa Rica. This modern-day miracle reminds us that God still hears his children today.

The Rev. Kate Salisbury

Canon for Christian Education, Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City

More than one word in the Bible can be translated “miracle” in English. My favorite is the ancient Greek “dunamis,” which means force (think dynamite). It suggests our world is wired with a power that we rarely experience, and often dismiss. In Scripture, miracles are variously described as “powers, signs, portents, strange things . . .” Whatever their particulars, miracles demonstrate that life is irrepressible. This message is not confined to sacred texts. Scientific journals and newspapers often reward the modern miracle hunter. A biologist in Tanzania, for instance, refers to the Turritopsis dohrnii as an immortal jellyfish because it indefinitely regenerates by sinking and rising from the ocean floor. Researchers in Massachusetts recently resurrected the scent of the extinct Hawaiian wildflower Hibiscadelphus Wilderianus using just a single, century-old specimen. And news organizations around the globe have documented cases of seafarers who, like the Biblical Jonah, have been sucked up, and spit out, by whales. These stories inspire awe and wonder. In this way, they meet the most basic definition of miracle. To people of faith, they can also point beyond the world as we know it toward a power and hope that surpasses all understanding.

Rabbi Art Vernon

Congregation Shaaray Shalom, West Hempstead

The longer I live, the more I appreciate the miraculous nature of obvious things. Life as we know it is a constant struggle between order and chaos. This applies to individuals, to groups and to nature itself. At times, it appears that chaos is winning — wars, climate and weather, politics — but so far in human experience and history, order prevails. Often we become so overwhelmed by the chaos that we fail to see the fundamental order of things. The miracle that we often overlook is our ability to maintain order in our daily lives despite the chaos that swirls around us. Each of us has the capability of adding to the chaos or contributing to the orderliness of life. Most of us, most of the time, actually contribute to order through the daily, mundane activities of our lives. That is the miracle! Without much intention or purpose, the sum total of what we do every day actually makes order out of chaos! Imagine how much better life would be if we acted with greater intention and purpose.