www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Honey - truly a miracle healing tool from God

I use honey a lot for many diffent things including helping with the pain and inflamation in my legs. So I thought someone might be interested in the uses of honey for healing.

http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2001/november/Molan/honey-as-topical-agent.html

My wife calls me honey and it's amazing how helpful I am. I notice the reverse is also true. When I call her honey and I mean it she is very kind and helpful to me.

I do endorse "honey" as well.

Dan Lauffer

Very funny Dan, very funny!

Dear Prof. Dan:

One of these days, you should try the "other" honey and experience the exquisite taste of this heavenly nectar!

Just don't be a smart-aleck and insist upon your wife that it's sweeter than her!

Since becoming diabetic, I have substituted sugar, natural or artificial, with "honey" in all things!

Amado

Dear Friends,

As the son of a beekeeper and as someone who spent most of his younger years being just a hive of activity, I can attest that honey is truly a wonderful gift from God!

Even as a diabetic, I find that honey, once in a while, can be well processed by my system (better than sugar, any way).

Bee pollen is also excellent as a means of getting rid of allergies. My father (+memory eternal!) used to make all sorts of ugly-smelling concoctions with bee products (and vinegar) that were very good for colds et al.

Dad developed his own honey jar label and mom sold the business last year.

I was walking downtown a few weeks back and went into a health food store.

As I looked at the shelves, I spotted a few old jars of dad's honey with the familiar label that I hadn't seen for a few years.

I couldn't believe they still had them after all this time. It was like touching one's past . . .

Dad also called me "Alex" after St Alexius the Man of God on whose feast-day in March Eastern European beekeepers begin the honey season.

Sniff . . .

A stinging indictment . . .

Alex

Dear Alex:

It might please you to know that it has been medically proven that honey IS always better than table sugar (raw, brown, whitened, or artificial) for T2 diabetics like us due to its fructose component!

It has been determined that fructose has the highest concentration (38%) among the at least 5 "sugar" forms in honey!

This is a more "stinging indictment!"

Amado

Dear Amado,

Sweet!

Alex

I do prefer honey but not with peanut butter because then the peanut butter doesn't stick so well to the roof of my mouth where it can linger for hours. :p

As far an human honeys go, does anyone have a honey dew list like me?

Honey do list for Thursday: (located on the refrigerator)

Honey do....take out the garbage for pick up.

Honey do...the dishes after breakfast.

Honey do...clean the pine cones off the porch.

Honey do...go to the post office to pick up the mail.

Honey do...empty honey kitties' litter boxes.

Honey do...go all the way around the deck getting spider webs cleaned up.

Honey do...give the other honey a foot massage.



Porter aka Mary Jo

I love the milk with honey. Especially honey from lime tree flowers, sunflower, acacia or wild flowers.
Also I use to take royal jelly (from bees), propolis or seldom polen.
Honey is a gift from God and very good for our health. All with measure.

Marian

There is a marvelous book (been around since 2002)titled "The Secret Life of Bees," by Sue Monk Kidd (paperback available at Amazon.com and in the libraries) in which beekeping AND an icon of the Mother of God play important parts. What more could you ask? In addition to the story line, I found the prose to be exquisite.

Dear Lory,

I once volunteered to work with 120 hives in a Studite Monastery up here!

It was the most beautiful apiary/bee-yard I've ever seen, with a gate etc. and its own outdoor icon-corner.

I once wrote an article for our beekeeping journal on the patron saints of bees and they are:

St John the Baptist

Sts Savvaty and Zosimas Solovetsky (why, I don't know, but they are!)

In Romania, it is St Job the Much-Suffering since he suffered from biting itches like bee-stings!

In Italy, it is St Ambrose (as a child, his parents saw bees go in and out of his mouth)

Among the Celts, it is St Gobnet of Ballyvourney (bees still lodge in her shrine and have attacked shrine-robbers!) and St Modomnoc who first brought a swarm of bees from Britain to Ireland.

St Basil the Great and the Cappadocian Fathers are called "Bees of the Lord" in the liturgical services and so are invoked as patrons of beekeepers.

Also, St Nicholas and it is traditional to give gifts of honey on his feast-day to children - a tradition that candy has replaced.

St Peter the Apostle is the patron of summer in Eastern Europe and also a protector of the bees.

My father had bees in the area that the North American Jesuit Martyrs preached and so their image has always adorned our bee-icon corners.

Also, St Bernard of Clairvaux is invoked as a patron of bees in Western Europe, especially among the Benedictines.

St Francis of Assisi is likewise considered a patron of bees and of nature - whenever he uttered the Divine Name of "Jesus" he would stop, put out his tongue and lick his lips to "collect all the sweetness that bursts to overflowing in one's mouth whenever we pronouce, with reverence and devotion, the Name of our Lord Jesus."

The symbol of the Honey-bee in Christian art represents the Mother of God herself Who gave us the Divine Sweetness of OLGS Jesus Christ, Her Son!

The Feast of August 1st, the first "feast of the Honey Saviour" in August is the feast of beekeepers as honey is blessed in church at that time, as well as on the Feast of the Transfiguration.

That is the Administrator's birthday - no wonder he is such a sweet fellow!!

Alex

Thank you, Alex for all that info. On the feast of St. Nicholas, it was (is) a tradition to make St. Nicholas cookies using a honey and spice dough (medovniki or mezeskalacs) and either stamping an imprint of St. Nicholas or sticking a paper image of him on the cookie. One dear lady at my parish still makes the cookies for the kids (small and big!)at our parish St. Nicholas pot-luck dinner.

Since you worked with bees, do read the book; you should enjoy it!

Lory

There is also a honey miracle story associated with Mariapocs in Hungary, where the icon of the Mother of God wept. A beekeeper on his way to Mariapoch in pilgrimage to ask for curing of his gout (I think) promised the Theotokos his best hive of bees if he were cured. He got there, was cured, and on his way home began to wonder what the Theotokos would want with his bees, so he decided not to keep his promise.

As he approached his home, he saw his bees in flight away from his land and on to Mariapocs where they attached to the opposite side of the wall than the side that bees normally do (an act against nature).

Thats cool Lory.

Alex thanks for all the cool info.

My husband makes a 'heart wine' that has honey in it, it is wonderful. It uses red wine, parsley, red wine vinegar, and honey.

Dear Lory,

How wonderful - our icon corner in the "honey house" in the woods where dad had his HQ had the icon of Mariapochs in it!

Also, for a number of years, the Jesuit Fathers at the Martyrs' shrine in Midland, Ontario used to call on us to try and remove a swarm of bees that lodged in the upper steeple - directly above the altar!

When dad came to inspect the situation and saw that honey from the nest dripped directly onto the altar, he advised the Jesuits to leave it alone as this was clearly the work of God!

I was back at the Shrine this summer, and I understand the bees STILL make their nest there!

Alex