Today I saw a presentation about the Shroud of Turin at a local church. The shroud has long been thought to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. It is a 14-foot-long cloth that bears the image of a man – front and back – as it was wrapped lengthwise over a person lying down. The shroud is housed in a glass and wooden case and is kept away in the Turin Cathedral in France. It is rarely displayed to the public. The gentleman doing the presentation was John Jackson from the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado; a physicist who was part of a team that was given permission to physically study the shroud in 1978. They were given 5 days to do their testing with some restrictions ensuring the shroud would not be destroyed in any way. The scientist showed photos of him and the team arriving at Turin with a truck full of top-of-the-line scientific equipment. He shared photos of them examining the cloth and doing various experiments. He was very passionate about his work and talked extensively about the different methods he and his team used and the conclusions they found. The image as we see it is actually a negative of an actual photograph of a person. The team did many tests using x-rays and light and photography, among other methods. They discovered that the colors on the cloth do not penetrate through but are only on the top layer. They concluded that there were blood stains on the cloth that were made before the image of the rest of the body. And he talked about the energy level that likely “burned” the image into the cloth. He also talked about the connection between science and faith. There was more information, and Mr. Jackson could have talked all day. His presentation and first hand account of working with the Shroud of Turin was so intriguing and really gave reason to ponder.

I Found God today contemplating the Crucifixion of Jesus and learning about the Shroud of Turin.