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CHAPTER THREE - THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN | CHAPTER FOUR - ANALYZING THE MESSAGES | CHAPTER FIVE-HISTORY OF DIVISIONS CHAPTER 2 Testing the Spirits The Unknown Miracle By the divine providence of God, I found myself on my way to the oldest continuously occupied city in the world, Damascus, Syria. It was not my desire to go there. My company had me scheduled at first for Ireland, and I was looking forward to it. At the last minute it was changed to Oman and then at the last second to Damascus. I had little time to prepare my mind for all this. The only thing I knew about Damascus was in Acts. In the plane I thought about Paul. He was the greatest salesman in the world. In all truth Christianity spread throughout the world from Damascus. Paul went to Damascus to persecute those who followed Christ's WAY. He found himself blinded by the light of truth, and led by the hand through the old gates of the city. Ananias found him in the house of Judas near the street called "Straight." He took away his blindness, taught him The Way, and baptized him into Christ's Kingdom. It was the three years he spent in Damascus that prepared him to bring the light to the world. I looked forward to finding the House of Ananias. I wanted to sit where Paul sat, pray where he prayed, learn from the Holy Spirit where he learned. The Daughters of Saint Paul, a religious order of nuns devoted to spreading the Gospel through books and films were very special to me. I resolved to pray to St. Paul for them, at the House of Ananias. The city of Damascus totally surprised me. The old part of the city is probably just as it was two thousand years ago. The seven gates are still there. Much of the original walls are still standing. The street called Straight is probably much like it was then. Cars are mostly kept out of the old section. The streets are too narrow anyway. You can walk from one wall to the next in thirty minutes. The new section of Damascus is different. It is like most other large cities of the world, tall buildings, some good hotels, too many cars and trucks, too much noise, too many people in too small a space. There are things that will shock you at first. On almost every corner you will find a policeman with a machine gun in his hands. In time you find this has some advantages. There is almost no crime in Damascus. It is probably one of the safest cities in the world to walk around in. There are some other things difficult to get used to. Every block has a Mosque and every Mosque has loudspeakers that blare out the chanting of Mohammed five times daily. At 5:00 A.M. in the morning that is challenging. Cars have no brakes (only horns), and no one stops for stop signs or pedestrians. It is an all day job to find enough food to put a meal together. But the restaurants are good, and you can take a taxi anywhere in the city for under 50 cents. The people are very friendly, clean, and polite. I found the Moslem people extremely good, holy, and honest. The women are very moral and the men are very respectful. There are no juvenile problems. No sooner had I arrived than I was walking the street called Straight. I found the East Gate called Bab Sharki. A few feet away to the north is a very narrow road (about eight feet wide). Two minutes down this street is the House of Ananias. The house is underground with vaulted ceilings of stone. Over the top the Franciscans have built a monastery. Inside is very small and only two rooms. One room has been set up like a small church with pews and an altar. I sat in there for hours praying and feeling the peace of Christ, the presence of Paul, and the history of it all. I prayed hard for the Daughters of Saint Paul. I had to leave Syria almost as soon as I arrived. I worked for the American Embassy, and when they said leave, I left. I guess it was for security reasons. I never asked. I decided to go to Rome. I had been trying to get Church approval from my bishop for two books and nine booklets for over two years without so much as an answer from him. I was also trying to publish a book written by my friend called, "FROM GOD OR FROM SATAN." It was the best book I had ever read on the subject of discernment, and this was my avocation and the main subject of all my writings. My friend was in Rome studying to be a priest and working for his Ecumenical License in "Cults and New Religious Movements" at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome. By the grace of Divine Providence I arrived at the seminary at exactly the hour and day when their order was being split in two. One of the members of their order is a charismatic mystic, and supposedly has the stigmata. Five years earlier I had the opportunity to test him face to face for four days. From all that I knew of discernment, this man WAS NOT OF GOD. I wrote against him. No one believed me. Now it was too late for many souls. He had become all truth, all god to them. No matter what he did, no matter how unholy, no matter how stupid, he had become to them the last word. He was 'God.' Bishops, priests and brothers were losing their faith in everything except what this man said. Worldwide, he has a following of eight million. In time they will divide the Church one more time. I gave my assistance to the community. I testified all that I knew. I encouraged all who would listen. Fate had also brought me to the office of one of the top Cardinals of the Church. To him I presented my problems of publishing the vast information I had on false apparitions. He gave me the solution and the sword I needed. I stayed two weeks at the community of priests and headed back to Damascus. The first thing I did in Damascus was to look for a way to attend daily Mass; not so easy in that part of the world. Daily Mass is not so common as in the West. I found an Italian hospital with a group of Italian nuns who had Mass every morning at 6:15 A.M. The priest was from Ireland and had been kicked out of Iran because of the war. He was a beautiful and holy man, and I love him dearly. In order to attend the daily mass, I had to become his altar-boy. I soon found out he was an avid follower of EVERY so-called "message from Heaven" in the world. I thought I was an expert on these things. I know the details of at least 200 of them since Fatima, 90% of which I have determined to be false or satanic. This good priest, however, knew of at least twenty more that I had never heard of. He believed in every single one of them. When I tried to point out that some of these apparitions contradicted others and, in fact, say exactly the opposite things, he couldn't comprehend. I should say he refused to see. These things are done in such a beautiful way as to blind you to rational thinking. It's sort of seduction not unlike a beautiful woman. If you knew what the inside of her looked like, you could never be fooled by the outward appearance. The same is true of these apparitions. Satan wants to lead astray even the elect like the good priest. He couldn't do that unless he dressed his lies in a veil of truth. The Irish Father had become blind to truth, blinded by an unrealistic desire to know the mind of God from God, Himself. He now had a very special knowledge of God, for he was learning directly from Heaven and not through the teachings of the Church, a very dangerous thing, so dangerous that Paul had to warn us against just such a thing. "If an angel from Heaven teaches a doctrine different from ours do not believe it." Christ, Himself, stated that the Church and only the Church would be His teaching authority. "He who hears you, hears Me." True miracles of God do not create doctrine. They are sent by God only to support and edify the Church, in some cases to support the teaching of the Church. However, this priest was now learning his faith from seers and mystics from all over the world without the guiding hand of the Church. I had to put up with five days of "messages" from all over the world before he just "happened to bring up the fact" , that there was even a miracle in Damascus where a lady was seeing the Virgin Mary and Christ. Of course, you can guess what my reaction was. The Gate of Thomas On Friday I stayed after Mass and had breakfast with him. Without warning he said, "I have to go and see the Sisters of Mother of Teresa of Calcutta. After, we will go and see the miracle. It is only five minutes from there." I dearly loved the Sisters and wanted to see them. I also wanted to see what this so-called miracle was all about, so I agreed to go. Anyway, it wasn't easy to say, "no" to him. I didn't expect much from this miracle. I had never heard of it, and he spoke of it in a rather matter-of-fact way. In Damascus it is called, "Our Lady of Soufanieh." Soufanieh is a Christian district of Damascus, and its meaning is "the place of the man who prays all the time." We saw the Sisters and, as expected, I was in love with them. They were always smiling and happy. They lived in total poverty. They never stopped working, praying, loving, and with a complete joy. "This is what the Church is all about," I told father, "or at least what it should be." We then walked down a narrow street called "Bab Touma." I would later learn that the entire area was called Bab Touma, which means "Thomas' gate." Five minutes from the Sisters' home we passed through the "Thomas gate" in the old wall of Damascus. It stands between Bab As-Salaam (gate of peace) and Bab Sharki (east gate). "Between the East and Peace was Thomas;' I thought. Peace between the East and West was only a dream. I said a prayer to St. Thomas and went on. It is only a four-minute walk from there to the House of Ananias and only a ten-minute walk to Bab Kisan, where Paul was lowered over the wall in a basket. Passing the gate, we crossed a bridge over the Barada River. We then walked down the left side of the river a few hundred yards. On one side of the river was a large park. There was a circus in the park. People were busy taking it down and preparing to move on to another location. The park had some trees and grass in it, but on the other side of the river was a continuous row of three to five story old buildings. In front of the buildings was a paved road and the stone wall to the river. The road was about twenty feet above the water. One of the houses was older and smaller than the rest. It was only one-and-a-half stories in the front with an upper deck that was covered with a tin roof The back part was two stories. It was an old stone building with long, narrow windows. The first floor was partially underground. On the left side was a tall, thin door. By American standards, it was the slums. By Syrian standards, it was middle class. The House of Soufanieh It was 9:00 A.M. We went through the door without knocking. Through the door was a thin stairway up five feet to the second floor. We had to be careful because there was a young girl mopping the stairs, and they were wet. We went past her and into the patio room. I could tell that at one time it was a central patio, but it was now covered with a corrugated fiberglass roof In the center of the room was a water fountain. My priest guide walked me right into the room without knocking or talking to anyone and took me to the far wall. On the wall were many religious pictures, flowers, and candles. In the center there was a marble box that looked like a little church. It had a pointed top, four marble columns, and glass on three sides. There was a large padlock on the right side. Inside the box (or tabernacle) there was a marble dish half full of some kind of oil. Over the dish was a small, inexpensive picture of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child (post-card quality). It was an old Eastern style of painting, similar to "Our Lady of Perpetual Help." The picture was in a broken plastic frame. It was no more than three inches tall and two inches wide. Its value was probably less than one dollar. Considering the frame was cracked on the lower left side and the picture was torn on the upper right side, it was most likely worthless. "This is the Miracle of Damascus", Father said. "This picture pours out oil." I looked into the glass. There were oil drops clinging to the bottom of the picture frame, but they were not falling, just clinging there. I waited for him to tell me the rest of this story. Instead he said, "Let's pray the Rosary." He pulled out his beads and started praying. I was not mentally prepared to pray the Rosary, but other people came in and were saying some prayers before the little Icon, so I went along with him. As we prayed, the same mop-woman moved into the room and mopped the floor on her hands and knees. I was very uncomfortable saying (not praying) the Rosary. Fortunately, I was saved. A man with a mustache came over and spoke good English. "Father, my name is Nicolas. Have you been here before?" "Yes, I've been here, but my friend is from America, and he has never heard of Our Lady of Soufanieh. This is Rick." I shook his hand and was glad to have the Rosary stopped. I hadn't come to pray but to see. Besides I was not sure what "Mary" I was praying to. "You never heard about Soufanieh?" "No! Father just told me about it yesterday." "It started right after my wife and I were married. Oil started pouring out of her hands. .." "Oh, so you are the husband?" Even the priest didn't know we were talking to Mirna's husband. "Yes, I am her husband. Anyway. .." and he went on with the story. He talked to us for over thirty minutes giving a good outline of the entire phenomenon. As he talked, the girl kept mopping the floor with a rag and bucket. Father indicated that he had to leave, but I was becoming more and more interested. I asked if I might come back that evening. Nicolas said he would be happy to tell me all I wanted to know. As we started to leave, I said, "Where is your wife, Mirna, now?" "That's Mirna." He pointed to the woman mopping the floor and called her over in Arabic. She stood up and wiped the water off her hands with her apron. She came and shook my hand without saying a word and then went back to her work. I have to admit I thought she was a servant. Her clothes were very plain. She wore no makeup, and servants were very common and very cheap in Syria. I was shocked. I had personally seen seven so-called seers and mystics. This one was very different. As we left, more people came in to pray. No one knocked on the door. This was their home? This was where they ate and drank and slept? But the door was always open! That night I went back to their home by myself It was about 4:00 P.M. There was a group of people praying before the Icon. Before I left, there were more than sixty people crowded in the little patio praying the Rosary and singing songs to Our Lady. Nicolas spotted me and invited me into his living room, which was in the front of the house and two steps higher than the central patio. In the living room was a small iron stove with a pipe that ran up about ten feet and then off to the right and through the wall. There were another ten people in the living room which had five old couches in it. There were two coffee tables. Four of the people on the couches were priests. I could tell by their dress one was Greek Orthodox and the rest were Roman Catholic. They were talking in Arabic. Nicolas sat me down and we talked. Mirna came and went into the patio without talking to anyone. She passed out prayer cards, took care of her children, changed the diapers of her youngest boy, served tea to the priests, sang songs with the crowd of people, but never led in the prayers or in the songs. In fact, no one seemed to pay any attention to her. She didn't give anyone any special attention. If I hadn't known who she was, I would never have guessed it was she. . Nicole (we were getting more personal) continued to tell me the story. I told him for the first time that I was a writer. I started to ask some very difficult questions. I had decided I was going to write this story whether this was from God, from Satan, or simply fraud. There was a lot more to this apparition than any I had written about so far, and the others were known allover the world. This one was almost unknown in the Western world. The story became more and more interesting. My questions became more difficult. Nicole had never had anyone ask these kind of questions. He confessed that he and Mirna almost knew nothing of theology. He was Greek Orthodox. She was Catholic. He had some religious education. She had almost none. The priests in the room couldn't speak English. Nicole phoned Father Elias Zawaoui. He had witnessed the miracle from almost the very first day. He was also very well educated in theology. Nicole asked him to meet with me. Father E. Zawaoui spoke some English but not very well, so Nicole recommended that he bring along a translator. Really, I didn't understand why I was getting all this special attention. Many other people came and went in this house without even meeting the family. I had already met the aunts, sisters, brothers, grandmothers, everyone. Although, at this point I hadn't heard Mirna say one word. She seemed like a Martha to me (re: Martha and Mary story in the Bible). Seven Years of Documents I went to Father E. Zahlaoui's church, Our Lady of Damascus. Waiting for me in the street was my interpreter. "Are you Rick?" he asked. "I'm Jack. Father E. Zahlaoui asked me to meet you out here and show you in." Jack turned out to be invaluable to me. First of all, he was better in the English language than I was. Jack Sarkis Toumajyan had ABA, MSC, and Ph.D. He was Professor of the Department of English at the University of Damascus. He had a strong Catholic faith but was not caught up in miracles. He was a good friend of Father E. Zahlaoui, but he had been too busy to check into this miracle himself He was preparing for marriage, building a new house, teaching, and he lived outside of town without a car. The fact that he had no opinion about the miracle was beneficial. Father E. Zahlaoui was a rather large man with a very gentle, loving way about him. He was soft spoken. He never rushed an answer. He was well educated but didn't show off his knowledge. I couldn't help but like him. However, I couldn't afford to let that sway me. I jumped in with both feet. "Father, I am a writer. I primarily write about the dangers of false apparitions and cults. I have been doing this for over twenty years. I am going to write this story. If it is of God, of Satan, or simply fraud, I am still going to write the story. To give you an example of the apparitions I don't believe in and have written against, first of all, I have written against-! (and I rattled off ten well known apparitions and mystics). "I will help you in any way I can," Father began. "What would you like to know first?" "Right now I'm not interested in the miracles. That will come later. The first tests of all miracles are OBEDIENCE, FIDELITY, AND HUMILITY. Let's start with Obedience. Has Mirna ever been disobedient to her bishop, her confessor, her husband, her mother and father, or even to the government?" "No! She is a very passive girl. She is easily guided and doesn't seem to ever want to make decisions. She isn't at all a leader. She is a follower. The only one who could be accused of disobedience is me. "After the first few months of the miracle, my bishop told me to stay away from the house. I had been going every day. I was her spiritual director. I stopped going for ten months. After all that time I figured the bishop had forgotten his order, so I tested him by going to a very big happening. It was televised. He saw me there and said nothing. So I have assumed he has rescinded his order. Probably wrong on my part. I don't know...? "But all of this was probably good. Father Malouli took over for me. He is very meticulous in detail. He has gone every day for seven years and has taken notes of everything, even the exact time of the day. Every miracle that took place he has documented. He has requested testimonials and doctors' reports. All of this he has filed and preserved in stacks and stacks of documents. I could never have done that. I have a parish to run. Father Malouli is older. He is sort of retired and is the chaplain to the French hospital a few blocks from Mirna's house. He also has his superior's permission to report all that happens. He sends copies of everything to his superior and to the Vatican. So, it was good that my bishop stopped me and Malouli took over. He has done an excellent job." "Do you think I can get copies of all these documents? I will pay for all the costs." "I'm sure you can, and you will not have to worry about the costs. Father wouldn't ever accept your money. The messages don't allow acceptance of money." "Okay. I'll get into all that later. I'll have to talk to the bishop and the other priests around town. Let's have a look at Fidelity." Up to now I had not heard much about the messages. My priest at the Italian hospital was busy translating them from Arabic to English, but he wasn't finished yet. It was surprising to me that after seven years there was not one English translation. "What are the messages all about?" Father E. Zahlaoui thought for a second. In Arabic he said, "There are many, but the main message seems to be this. .." After Jack translated for him, he gave the message in English all by himself and very slowly.
"The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is the Church. Suddenly, this statement shocked me. My mind raced back over the past five years. I had mastered the Bible and the Dogma of Faith. I was well read in the History of the Church. I taught adult religious classes. There were only two questions I felt I didn't know. I would ask every new priest I met the same question over and over for five years. It had been only a few months prior to this day that I discovered the answer in the writings of St. Augustine. The passage I could not understand was this: "Amen I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is greater than he. But from the days of John the Baptist until now the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN has been enduring violent assault, and the violent have been seizing it by force." (Matt. 11:11-12). John was not in Heaven. In fact, the Gates of Heaven were still closed. "And no one has ascended into Heaven except Him who has descended from Heaven. .." John 3:13). How could Heaven be assaulted? From Augustine I learned that the City of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, the Body of Christ, and the heavenly Jerusalem were all the same thing. They were the Communion of the Saints: the Church Militant (on earth), the Church Suffering (in Purgatory) and the Church Triumphant (in Heaven). It was one universal, spiritual Kingdom. It had been only the month before that I asked the brothers at a monastery at Rocca Di Papa, Rome, the meaning of the words "world without end" in the prayer in the Rosary. We know that the world will end. I learned that the word "world" was a bad English translation and that the word should have been "kingdom." I was being prepared by God for this message, but I didn't know it. I told Father E. Zahlaoui that there was no way this little girl, Mirna, could have known that the Kingdom of Heaven was the Church. Not one in a thousand Christians could give the proper answer. "Yes!" he said. "She is not well educated at all. In one of the messages the word 'Emmanuel' was given. She had to ask me what the word meant. She had never heard it before." Father made an appointment for me with Father Malouli. In the meantime I picked up the English translations from the Italian hospital. The translations were not good. Father's Arabic was poor. The messages had many things in them that bothered me. Father Malouli and I met at Nicole's house. Mirna was mopping the floor again. Father couldn't speak English. Nicole translated. Testing For Fidelity I wanted to know what the words "My mission is over" meant. His answer didn't satisfy me. He said that it was the last time Mirna saw the Virgin in an apparition. However, she saw and heard Her many more times in ecstasy. It was not a good answer. I would find the answer months later on my own, but for now I wasn't satisfied. Also the words, "my generation" were not explained. It seemed to me more and more that the miracles and cures were the only things people were concentrating on and not the messages. If this was from God or from Satan, the messages held the key. The most disturbing words of the apparitions were "found a Church." If I interpreted it the way I was reading it, it would create a new cult, a new division of the Church. Father pointed out that the rest of the passage explained the first sentence, but I was not happy with that choice of words coming from the Virgin Mary. It was true that the rest of the message said, "I did not say, 'build a Church.' The Church which Jesus established is one Church, because Jesus is one. The Church is God's Kingdom on earth, etc." But this could be interpreted to mean a brand new church. I had to be sure. Father was not happy with my reluctance to accept his answers. Of course, we didn't speak directly to each other. Nicole was translating the best he could. I asked him to explain the words, "Those who distribute their money to the churches and the poor, but do not have love are nothing:' He couldn't explain it. I was disturbing him. He was surprised, however, that I had not asked the question most people ask regarding the passage, "Pray for the inhabitants of the heavens (upper sky) and Earth." "Yes!" I said. "That passage amazed me, insofar as it came from Mirna, but it is theologically correct. Purgatory is part of the Kingdom of Heaven, and so, praying for those in the heavens (upper sky) means Purgatory." I also knew that the eastern tradition was that Purgatory was near Heaven (in the sky) and not near Hell. Anna Catherine Emmerich (who I have great loyalty to) saw Purgatory as a place in the sky. Within the week Father Malouli had the documents ready for me. He handed me a stack of paper six inches thick. But all the documents were in Arabic and French. I couldn't read any of them. At the American Embassy I found a Moslem woman who could translate them all for me. The cost of translating all of them was very high, but I liked the idea of a Moslem doing it. If there were any discrepancies or other problems, she would jump for joy to point them out. The messages, themselves, I had translated by three different people. There were also over thirty hours of video films of her ecstasies, her stigmata, the oil from her hands and the Icon, testimonials of cures, etc. I went to a video studio near the house and ordered three films in American style and three in the European style. The voltage and hertz style films I gave to Jack, along with a tape recorder and asked him to translate everything. Looking For Satan I knew one thing for sure. If this miracle was of God, Satan wouldn't be leaving it alone. He would have to be around . Somewhere in Lourdes, after Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary, over 55 other children saw what they thought was the Virgin. Mimicking God is one of Satan's tricks to diffuse God's ' work. Another trick is to claim God said things that He did not. I saw this first-hand in New Orleans when the Official Statue of Our Lady of Fatima cried real tears. A false mystic came following the Statue and made all kinds of claims as to what the tears meant. A great priest, Father Romagosa, was not fooled. He performed exorcism on this mystic and she ran away screaming obscenities. To this day she still has believers, even priests, within the Church. I went to the house again, but this time I did not go inside. I wandered around the streets, the park, the window, but didn't ask any questions. Up the street there was a group of Lazarist priests dedicated to the Miraculous Medal. There were Salesian priests following the Rule of Don Bosco. There was Father Paul working with the handicapped. This was a Christian area, and everything looked so perfect-too perfect, I thought. I couldn't find anyone who was against this miracle, not even the Moslems, at least not the ones who had bothered to come around. There was one man in the town who had tried to draw attention to himself by faking his picture of the Madonna with a tube through his wall, but he was quickly discovered. Some Orthodox priests had been fighting against Nicole and Mirna because of the many different kinds of religious people who entered the house. But this seemed more like greed and pride than the more clever way that Satan works. Besides, most of the Orthodox people and most of the Orthodox priests were great supporters of the miracle. The Patriarch gave written approval. Eventually, I found Satan working against the miracle in two ways. The first was to put meaning into the miracle that was not there. The second would take a book to explain. It was late at night. Nicole and I had talked a long time. Mirna worked with the children changing diapers, rocking them to sleep, and at the same time, taking care of the many guests. Once in awhile she would come over to show me some new words she knew in English, but she never got into the conversations. That night some men came in from Jordan. One man was a very well dressed Greek Orthodox priest. He had a very large, solid gold cross and chain over his chest. The other men seemed to be his followers and let him do all the talking. He had come all the way to see and hear about the miracle. Nicole invited me to sit in on the conversation, but the priest claimed he couldn't speak English. Nicole told him the story of the apparitions and showed him pictures of the stigmata. He told him about the call for unity. Periodically he explained to me what they were talking about There was something about the man I didn't like. It was an arrogance. The priest said that in Jordan they already had a unity of all the churches. He said that the people had become tired of the many different holidays and picketed the churches. They didn't allow anyone to attend Mass until the bishops agreed to make the calendars the same. They now all celebrated Easter on the same day. He talked about returning to the teachings of Christ. I began to suspect he was deciding himself what the teachings of Christ were. I asked him, since he was still an Orthodox priest, if this "returning to the teaching of Christ" meant something different from his church, and if it did, was he violating his oath of obedience. He wouldn't answer me except to say how many degrees he had and in how many universities. I asked again for an answer. This time he spoke in perfect American style English. He got up and left with his followers. Nicole didn't understand why I was asking him these questions. Later I checked into the churches of Jordan. Yes, they did have the same Easter, and the people did strike against the churches. In fact, they prevented others from attending Mass in both the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. But there is no unity. The lesson of the French Revolution is that when respect for authority is lost, unity and peace is impossible. I wondered how a man (who claimed he couldn't speak English) could speak such perfect American English when he had to. The next place I found Satan was way off in France. There were three publications done on the Miracle of Soufanieh. A magazine did a five-page spread on it, a television station did a half-hour show, and a book was written. In all three cases Soufanieh was compared and mixed up with apparitions in other parts of the world. Because her messages were not left pure, little attention was paid to them by the readers. Just another of the many apparitions of Our Lady. They were diffused. It is what I call, "truth through association." In order to make something that is not true (the false apparition) seem true, you simply hide it in the truth (the true apparition). This also causes the faithful to mix the messages up in their minds, and Satan has diffused the work of God. The Bishop and Only the Bishop One thing I learned from twenty years of study on apparitions is that the local bishop and ONLY the local bishop has the right to make a final decision in these matters. Never in the history of the Church has a local bishop condemned an apparition and it later found to be a true apparition of God. Never in the history of the Church has Rome ever changed the ruling of a local bishop in such matters, although they could if it were of universal importance rather than local. This is true in the Orthodox Faith as well. It comes from one of the earliest bishops of Antioch, St. Ignatius in 80 AD "From now onwards the sensible thing would be to get I back to our right minds while there is still time to repent, and turn to God. You have only to acknowledge God and I the bishop, and all is well; for a man who honors his bishop is himself honored by God, but to go behind the bishop's back is to be a servant of the devil." Catholics also have the Dogma of the Faith. "By virtue of Divine right, the bishops possess an ordinary power of government over their dioceses." (De Fide). This means that bishops (even bad bishops) are the successors of the Apostles and have total pastoral jurisdiction over their people in the given geographical location. They must be obeyed in all 'things except sin, just as you must obey your father and mother in all things except sin. Every saint in history has written on the subject, but my favorite quote is from Padre Pio: "Without obedience there is no virtue." People belittle the power of God when they think He can send the Holy Spirit to a mystic and then not be able to do the same thing to His Shepherd. In fact, the opposite is true. Satan can do many things that seem supernatural, but one thing he cannot do (because of his pride) is obey one of God's pastors. The problem of bishops in Damascus seemed insurmountable. Mirna, who was having the apparitions and miracles, was under the jurisdiction of one bishop. Nicole (the head of the household) was Greek Orthodox. His bishop claimed jurisdiction. The priest, who recorded all documents, had even another bishop. The Vatican Nuncio, Cardinal Luigi Accogli, did his own investigations but remained neutral. To make matters worse, one of the messages reads, "Do not be fragmented like the elders." In spite of all these difficulties, the Catholic bishop of Mirna gave his blessing, keeps pictures of the Icon in his church and sends his secretary to the little house almost every night. Nicole's Greek Orthodox Patriarch gave a written approval which has been placed in their house in large letters. This seemed so improbable after the Icon gave no oil in his church, and since Nicole wouldn't agree to keep out all other Christians. The third bishop, Father Malouli's bishop, gave the Nihil Obstat to all the messages from 1982 to 1987. Not only have these bishops given passive approval, but thirteen others have come to the house to pray, and four others have witnessed the oil coming from Mirna's hands and the Icon in other parts of the world, including America. I met with the Vatican Ambassador, the Pro Nuncio, Archbishop Luigi Cardinal Accogli, and we talked for over an hour. The stand of the Vatican is to stay neutral. However, he had conducted a chemical test on the oil and found it to be 100% pure olive oil. He told me that his chemist claimed it was not possible to obtain 100% purity by any known means. He asked me to see him before I left and to report my findings to him. Unfortunately, I was not able to do so due to my sudden departure. For now, I was more than satisfied with the reaction of the bishops. Why Damascus? God is the architect of history. If He picked Mirna, He also picked her husband, the priests around her (especially Father Malouli), the bishops, and even the city. I could see why He would pick Nicolas. He was gentle and very patient (considering all the commotion in the house everyday). He claims to have not been that way in the beginning. He is also extremely useful in that he speaks four languages very well. Whereas Nicole is a great communicator, Mirna doesn't like a lot of talking. If I were God, I couldn't have picked a better man. The many priests are also perfect. The bishops speak for themselves. But why Damascus? I put the question to Nicole. He wasn't sure, but I had an idea. I didn't read Arabic but couldn't believe the amount of churches within walking distance of this house. I asked him if he would walk me around and show me all the churches. We left at 9:00 A.M. and went to the farthermost one first. This was Our Lady of Damascus-Greek Catholic. We then went two minutes away to Our Lady of Fatima-Syrian Catholic. This is the church where the Statue of Our Lady of Fatima weeped real tears on July 20, 1977, five years before Soufanieh. We had a long talk with the pastor. Father Elias Jarjour was a beautiful man. We took pictures together in front of the statue. He and Nicole were good friends. He had thought a great deal about the messages of Soufanieh. He was the same priest who was at the church when the statue cried. I asked him how this unity could possibly take place considering the many difficulties. He was a gentle man of great prayer, so I expected a good answer. I got one. Apparently, he had thought about the problem of unity. He reached into his desk and pulled out a map of the United States of America. He said, "See this, there are 50 different governments, each with different laws adopted to their way of life, and they are all bound together with one head." I never forgot that priest. There were a lot of very holy priests in Damascus, but he was at the top of the list. Right behind his church (back to back) was the only real Protestant church in the city. We went inside and met the pastor. He was a very nice man. We talked about unity of the churches. He told of his past experience of trying to get cooperation with the other Protestant churches in other countries. He had never been to the House of Soufanieh. We then walked to a Greek Orthodox Church, then to a Greek Catholic Church, then an Armenian Catholic, then a Maronite, then a Franciscan, then a Greek Orthodox, then a Russian Orthodox, then Latin Catholic, then a Lazarist, a Syrian Orthodox, a Syrian Catholic, an Armenian Orthodox and another Greek Catholic, not to count the retreat houses, the orphanages, the old folks' homes, and the schools. We saw nineteen churches within walking distance of Nicole's house. Why Damascus? I already knew why. We arrived at the House of Ananias. Nicole and I said some prayers in the house, and then just sat there feeling the presence of the Great Saint Paul. "It all started here," I told him. "Feel how peaceful and quiet it is," said Nicole. "Right here Paul received his sight back after three days of blindness. He was baptized here. He was infused with the Holy Spirit here. He was taught here. From here he became the light of Christianity to the world." I look at Nicole. I started thinking about what I had just said. I guess he thought about it too. "Mirna was blind for three days and nights," he said. "It was a beautiful peaceful time, just like the feeling here." I knew the story. I also knew that Pope John XXIII had predicted: "Once more the light of Christianity will come out of Damascus." A Message For Rick On the night of February 13, 1989, I was back asking difficult questions again. I wasn't happy with the theological answers Father Malouli was giving me. Finally, as he answered and Jack interpreted, I stopped him right in the middle of his answer. "I don't want answers from theology. Let me hear from Mirna, herself" I called her over. I had never talked directly to her before. She sat next to me. I looked her right in the eyes. "Mirna, I know what you say, that you do not know religion like these priests, but answer me anyway, not from knowledge, but from your heart. Just tell me what you think and how you feel about these questions." I started putting questions to her. Jack interpreted for me and for her. Her answers were simple, humble, and beautiful. All this time I was asking the wrong people. Later that evening all the priests were gone. Jack, his future wife and I were saying good-bye to Nicole and Mirna. "I'm sorry for all the difficult questions," I told her. "But tomorrow I will have even harder ones for you." Jack interpreted and Nicole spoke up without thinking what he was saying. "Maybe God will answer you." Jack and I stepped down to the lower patio and went over to look at the Icon. I just wanted to see if the three oil drops were still hanging onto the picture. They had been there for three months now. There was a light inside the marble box, and I found it incredible that those three drops had hung on there in that heat for so long a time without dropping off Nothing has that much viscosity. I said a prayer to Our Lady. Mirna and Jack's fiancée came and stood next to me. I turned to leave and noticed that Mirna's eyes were all wet, and tears were starting to show. I didn't know what was wrong. As I looked at her, she opened her hands and turned the palms up. They were covered with oil. I placed my hands on top of hers and pulled the oil off My hands were filled with oil. The oil continued to come out. She went over to the Icon and placed her head against the glass and started to pray out loud. I didn't understand the words, but I understood the emotion. She began to sing her prayer. I felt she should be left alone, so I whispered to Nicole that I was going to leave. I went outside. In the street Nicole, Jack, his friend, and I talked softly for a few minutes. My hands were still wet from the oil. Mirna came outside and started to say something to me. Then she remembered that I didn't understand Arabic. I spoke for her. "Yes, I know. That was meant for me." When I got home that night the oil was still on my hands. I had seen another miracle, but I couldn't let that stop my investigation. Only logic and the proven methods .of discernment must be used. I could not let emotions get ill my way. Why Greek Orthodox Nicole and I sat on the upper patio where the first apparitions took place and enjoyed the cool spring weather. Everything was peaceful. I had really grown to like him as a friend. If there had never been a miracle, I still think we would have become close friends. I felt he was a man who wasn't afraid of the truth. Some people only want the truth that feels good to them, the truth that fits their lifestyle. But Nicole seemed to be unafraid of the total truth, no matter what the results. Jack Toumajyan was that way also. The day was too nice to do anymore testing, and so I didn't. We were joined by Michael Farah. He was a large man and a Greek Orthodox priest with a long, black beard. You couldn't help but love him. Happiness seemed to pour out of him. It turned out that he was the father of Nicole's sister-in-law, and the father of seven children. It didn't surprise me that he was married. I knew that married men could become priests in the Orthodox Church. What surprised me was that he became a priest after getting involved in the miracle. The miracle started in 1982. He became a priest in 1985. "Did you have previous religious education?" "Oh! Heavens no! I was a playboy. I made good money and loved to follow after the sports games. If our team went to Europe, I went to Europe. I never thought about God until Mirna. No, for the first time I am genuinely happy." I could tell he was truthful. He seemed to be filled with joy of the Holy Spirit. Of this I have little doubt, even to this day. I realized that I knew little about the Greek Orthodox except that we Catholics recognized their priesthood and bishops as legitimate and therefore, their Sacraments and Mass were valid. Nicole admitted that he knew little about his own religion before the Miracle. "But now I look. One thing I have noticed is that people like Father Malouli and Father Zahlaoui are far more educated than the priests of my church. Although I like the Mass better in the Greek Orthodox Church, and I think our churches are more beautiful, we have more art and our altars give more honor to God. But the Catholics have unquestionably been the friends of this miracle. All our difficulties have come from the Greek Orthodox. "Since the miracles started on the feast of the Miraculous Medal, I asked my bishop why we don't honor this feast. He said that we don't celebrate any feast or miracle that comes from the Western Church. I knew about Fatima, Lourdes, etc. I began to wonder why all the miracles are in the Western Church and not in mine." "Why do you remain a Greek Orthodox then?" I asked. "Why not join Mirna's Church?" "I thought of that, but Father Zahlaoui recommended that I stay as I am. If I left my church, none of the Greek Orthodox people would come here and pray anymore. As it is now, we all pray together. We are setting an example to the world. Besides, I don't want to take sides in this battle for unity. Who is right or wrong is not important. The important thing is that we not continue in the mistakes of our fathers. We, the people at the bottom, don't care who is right or wrong. '. We want (and should demand) of those on top that we have unity. If we can love each other at this level, why can't they?" I loved his answer. It was time to stop placing the blame on each other. It was time those on top realized that the average Christian didn't care about their petty prejudices. Truthfully, very few know what the dogmatic differences are, nor care. I'm not saying they don't matter, truth always matters, but that's for those on top. The people just want to be one, and to love each other. To Give Without Love Nicole took me to see Father Paul Slaeman of the Lazarists. His little center for the handicapped was just beyond the water from the house of Soufanieh, a two-minute walk, just behind the gate of Bab Touma. Father Paul is famous all over the world. He has six centers for handicapped children in Syria and one in Lebanon. Thousands of children are treated every year. He refuses to discriminate between Christians and Moslems; between democrats and communists. His motto is: "Who are you? I don't care. You suffer, it is enough for me." Like most of the priests in Damascus, Father Paul lives in almost total poverty. He wears secondhand clothes, hand-me-down shoes, and lives in his center. To take care of all the poor, many thousands of dollars pass through his hands, but he never keeps any for himself. I was deeply impressed with him. I could feel his saintliness. He seemed always tired but always ready to give of his time. You look into his eyes and you think you are seeing Christ. Nicole had told me of the times when he cried like a baby because he couldn't help someone. How beautiful the church was in Syria. I have always thought the true church was most like Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She loves everyone without Distinction. This love she has is for the Christ that she sees in all His creatures. Because of this love, thousands are baptized each year through her. Here in Damascus, a Moslem country, it seems all the Church is that way. Father Felix, of the same Lazarist Order, takes unselfish care of the education of young kids, and is like a father to the other priests. The sisters at the Italian hospital work day and night with kindness and joy. My own priest (the one without discernment, but nonetheless I love him dearly) never rests in his quest to help everyone. I remembered the two days I was too sick to attend Mass. He came to me with communion on his bicycle in the freezing cold. That would never happen in America. I never felt so much love as in Damascus. But what did the messages mean? "He who pretends to be pure and charitable before men is impure before God. ..I do not ask for money that is given to the churches, nor for that which is distributed to the poor. I ask for love. Those, who distribute their money to the churches and poor but do not have love, are nothing." I could see the answer here with Father Paul. He wasn't helping these people so that God would think better of him. He wasn't loving God and people and then expecting anything from God or the people. He loved because he loved. Prostitutes love for a price. Some love to be loved, which is also a price (even the thieves do that). Father Paul loves because he loves, and this love comes from Christ. Where Does the Icon Come From? One of the constant questions I kept asking everyone I met in Damascus was the origin of the Icon. Absolutely no one seemed to know. It's only a photographic copy of an original picture. Nicolas bought it in 1979 in front of the Church of Sophia in Bulgaria, two years before his marriage. He doesn't remember any significance to it. He bought several copies in cheap plastic frames as gifts for his family. The damaged frames probably made them less expensive. In Damascus I found no answers. It seemed to me there had to be an original painting somewhere, and this painting had to have some relationship to either the splits in the Church or the unity of the Church. Three months later in Rome I would discover for the first time that the split between the East and West started in Bulgaria. Damascus played an important role at the time also. In 726 AD Emperor Leo III of Constantinople decided he had the right to make Church law and prohibited the use of images in the churches. St. John Damascene of Damascus defended the Church in his famous letter, "Apology For The Veneration Of Images." This set the stage for Bulgaria. The barbarian tribes in Bulgaria were being converted in a surprisingly fast way by the Christians. The King of Bulgaria sent letters to Pope Nicholas asking for diocese to be set up. This angered Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople. Bulgaria was the separation ground between East and West. It was the gateway. Photius wrote an Encyclical Letter to the Archiepiscopal Sees of the East in 866 AD accusing Pope Nicholas of spreading false doctrines among the Bulgarians. The split began in Bulgaria, and now we have an Icon from Bulgaria pouring out oil. Why? I don't know. I do know that one of the doctrines of dispute was whether a priest (or only a bishop) had the right to confirm Confirmation is the receiving of the Holy Spirit, and it is done by anointing with oil. I have thought about all these things and the similarities between them and the Miracle of Damascus: an Icon (Iconoclasm) from Bulgaria, (the gateway between East and West) in Damascus, (John Damascene) bought by a man named Nicholas (Pope Nicholas), pouring out oil (the symbol of the Holy Spirit). So far, though, I don't know anything about the original painting except rumors that it too poured out oil at some distant past. The True Fruits of the Holy Spirit In researching the piles of documents, I became impressed with the total number of documented cures. In the first years of Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima, and the Miraculous Medal, there were a lot of documented cures. This miracle seemed to equal them. Only those of Padre Pio, of all the miracles I had studied, surpassed this one. I read the doctors' reports. I met the people involved both in Damascus and in California. On a street called "Straight" you can find a man who was in a coma. The doctors said he was brain-dead and wouldn't recover. They were going to remove the machine that kept his heart beating. His wife refused to believe and ran after Mirna. Mirna prayed with her over the body. He came back to life, walked from the hospital to a flower shop, and from there he walked to the House of Soufanieh (he refused all offers to ride). A large crowd followed him. At the little house he knelt down before the Icon of the Madonna and Child t and gave thanks with tears of joy. He cried again as he told me this story. In California you can meet a boy, Samer Sayegh, 2684 Waite Avenue, Apartment 1, Chico, California 95926. In 1982 he was totally crippled from birth with twisted legs. In 1982 he was cured and still testifies to the miracle today. Or speak to Jabra Tawil. He had so many things wrong with his body he had given up on life, God, and everything. Now, he cannot stop praying and praising the Madonna and sister Mirna. Before Mirna, Jabra managed to go to church once a year and had not been to communion in twenty years. He had never prayed a Rosary. Now he prays Rosaries everyday with other prayers. In fact, his entire life is the Virgin Mary and Christ. These cures are so numerous that they would constitute a book in themselves (a book that will be put together soon and will be over 800 pages). The oil seems to be the medium, for people have been cured thousands of miles away from Mirna, using either the oil obtained from her or oil that came out of their own copies of the Icon. All of these I am sure the reader wants to hear about, but the true cures are the cures of faith. Armen Hovsepian of Glendale, California, had a life of alcohol and women. His conversion back to religion came from Mirna. Now he can talk of nothing else, prays everyday, and works constantly for the unity of the churches. He sends flowers to Damascus every month. His brother, Vatche, shows films of Mirna at his business. He works for unity everyday, prints tens of thousands of pictures of the Icon and gives them away. No one, absolutely no one, has worked harder for Our Lady than he has. In Damascus at this little house I have never seen such continuous prayer anywhere in the world. Watching a large group praying the Rosary one night, I voiced my joy in seeing Greek Orthodox priests alongside Catholic priests and nuns praying the Rosary together. Nicole told me something at that point I didn't know. "You know, of course, that the Greek Orthodox doesn't pray the Rosary." There they were, Orthodox and Catholic priests, with beads in hand praying together as one. And when the Orthodox pray the Tiipermakho or the Tinoreotita (Rosary type prayers to Our Lady), there are the Catholics praying with them. All you have to do (to see this grace) is meet Joseph, a three-foot tall dwarf Joseph worked the circus in front of Nicolas' house. He never prayed, and his life was far from holy. To see him pray with tears of joy coming down his face is to see the joy of Heaven. When he had to leave Damascus, he cried constantly, for the House of Soufanieh had become his home. The true fruits of the Holy Spirit are best expressed in the story of a baptism. Many Baptisms are performed in this little house and usually by priests from many different kinds of churches, who pour the water and anoint with the oil all together to express their desire for unity. The father of one of these children watched as his son was being baptized. Oil starting pouring out of Mirna's hands. He began to cry, a cry of repentance. For many years he had a sin on his soul that he refused to confess in the confessional. At the sight of this baptism and the oil, he ran to Father Malouli and confessed. I see the happiness in him to this day and it is real. It is the joy of the Holy Spirit. Never in my life have I seen this joy so prominent as in Mirna's cousin, who lives in the House of Soufanieh. Her father died as she prayed at his bedside. When you see her, though, all your depressions will go away. Her smile, her laughter, her constant charity will so impress you that you will imagine you are looking at the Mother of God as a little child. She is only ten years old. Her mother and her two brothers have the same happy charity, a giving of themselves with joy. There was a dangerous epidemic in Damascus when I was there. The government did not have enough vaccine for the people. I was in the House of Soufanieh twice watching hundreds of children being vaccinated by a doctor. Mirna had been given the vaccine free (once from France and once from a government official). To see the happiness of these parents receiving and the joy of giving on Mirna's face is to see true love. If you watched the little ten-year-old girl running around consoling the little children with her big smile and hugs, it would have brought tears of joy to your eyes. Two things expressed the unity of the Holy Spirit the most. One was the baptism of Nicole and Mirna's first child, Myriam. But first I must tell a story about the name "Myriam". Nicole and I were walking through a religious bookstore in Los Angeles, California. I saw a book called "Myriam." I pointed it out to him. "Look! There is the name of your daughter. Who is Myriam? Is she some saint?" "I don't know," said Nicolas. "We just named her that because it was close to Mirna's name, but we didn't want the same name." I picked up the book and looked at the first chapter. Myriam was the actual name of Mary, the Mother of God, when she was on earth. It is Hebrew for "Mary." Anyway, back to her baptism. At Myriam's baptism six priests from every different kind of religion baptized her at the same time. As they poured water over her and as they anointed her, oil poured out of Mirna's hands. Perhaps this baptism was the first step towards the unity of all the churches, for when a child is baptized, it enters the Kingdom of Heaven for the first time. In this baptism, the churches hold hands together in love and said in one voice, "Enter the Kingdom. Enter into the Body of Christ." On Good Friday, Joseph (the little giant) and I were going to take Mirna to Father E. Zahlaoui's church, Our Lady of Damascus. She wanted me to see the Mass and the candlelight procession. At the last minute she couldn't go. Someone was in desperate need of her type of blood at the Italian hospital. She begged Nicole to let her go. She said this was the day Christ gave his blood, and this was a year she didn't have to. He couldn't refuse the argument. I had to laugh at him, though, because she left him home alone to baby-sit the children on this great holiday. Joseph and I left him with our sympathy and playful jokes. When we arrived at the church, I realized why Mirna wanted me to go. We went very early, but the large church was filled, the aisles were filled, the streets were filled. People were even on the roof and the tall steeple. No one called this church "Our Lady of Damascus." They called it "Father Zahlaoui's Church." He saw Joseph and me and led us to the loft. There were hundreds of singers in the loft all dressed in gowns. They made room for us, but I wanted pictures of all this. I took pictures during the Mass and then ran outside. Father Zahlaoui brought over a man who spoke English and told him to take care of us. I told him I wanted to climb the tower to take pictures. He was afraid because the spiral stairs were old and very narrow. But I went to the top anyway and climbed out on the roof. At the top, the tower was about seven feet wide. I looked down at the crowd. There were over ten thousand people. The "coffin of Christ" was brought out of the church and everyone lit candles. They marched down the street around the block past several other churches. The procession went around in a circle of many blocks and back to the church. But from where I was I could see everything. There were so many people that the tail met the head in the march. Why was I so impressed with this sight? Because those people were not only Catholics. Those people down there were Catholics, and Greek Orthodox, and Moslems, and Jews, and communists, and Palestinians, and Syrians, and Lebanese. They were all singing and praying together. They were honoring God in perfect unity, a unity of love and a unity of prayer. The FOCOLARE movement is another example of unity. They have members from many different Churches. Focolare (family fireside) has been praying for unity for many years. Anyway, to get back to the baptism of Myriam and Father E. Zahlaoui's Mass, these are the true gifts of the Holy Spirit. "I pray that they may be one as You and I are one." Eyes But Refuse To See While I tested the phenomenon of Soufanieh, I continued my work at the American Embassy, After work, I took a taxi to Bab Touma. It cost 15 pounds (about 30 cents). Then I walked to the house next to the river, which took about three minutes. I had already seen the oil from Mirna's hands, the Icon, and many miracles. Everyday I told the people at the Embassy to come with me and see for themselves. Everyday I told them what I saw. There were over a hundred people working at the Embassy. Only one man went there in the six months I worked in Damascus, and he went because he heard some girls were going, and he wanted to meet them. In the Embassy there was one man, who preached his Christ every day. Day after day I asked him to go to Soufanieh with me and see for himself He never did. Day after day I pointed out Bible passages that showed the errors of his preaching. Before large groups of workers, over and over I would prove him wrong on point after point, but never would he give in. I asked him, "Even if you do not believe there are any miracles in Soufanieh, and even if you do not believe in anything about my Church, why are you afraid to go and see?" The truth will always shine brighter than a lie. If you have the truth, you are never afraid of freedom of religion. True freedom of religion is freedom of information. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. To be afraid to know is a sin against the Holy Spirit. In talking to my fellow Americans at the Embassy, I couldn't help but think about Luke 16 in the Bible. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man found himself in Hell, whereas Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham. The richman pleaded with Abraham to send Lazarus to the earth to see his brothers so that they would not end up in Hell like him. But Abraham knew that when men are blind they will not even believe in miracles. A common attitude among those who don't go to any church at all is that if God wants them to do something special, He will have to tell them. But they will not cross the street to see for themselves. This really came home to me in Damascus. Those who wouldn't take a five-minute (30 cent) taxi drive, will have no excuse before their Judge when they say, "I didn't believe, but You should have showed me the way." There were other people besides those at the Embassy. One Syrian I met said he didn't believe in Soufanieh. But, when I questioned him, he had never gone there. The Final Test I had tested the phenomenon of Soufanieh in every way I knew. I tested it for Obedience and it passed. I tested it for Fidelity to Doctrine and Tradition and it passed. I tested it for Humility and Simplicity and it passed. I tested it for Fraud and it passed. I had determined that it was not fraud and was not from Satan. It had to be a miracle of God. But this was not enough. There was still the possibility that it could develop into a cult or a new religion without the proper guidance. Mirna wasn't a leader and that was good. But there were others around who didn't have a strong religious education. There were some that were caught up in the feeling of God's presence but had not yet seen the road (the door) God was opening to them. They could possibly lead her and the whole thing in the wrong direction. I wrote my final question down and had it translated into Arabic. I asked her to give me an answer in writing. My reason was two-fold. One was to see if a cult could develop; and two, was to see if one of the messages would result in a mass disobedience. The message is, "Do not be fragmented like the elders." This was my question: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mirna, What I am about to ask is very important, and your answer will be included in the book about "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." After your answer, I will elaborate on this question, but first I will keep it very simple. As you know, I have been investigating this miracle to see if it is from God, from Satan, or simply fraud. I have determined that it cannot be fraud, and it is not from Satan. However, just because Heaven has visited you does not guarantee your salvation, and it does not guarantee that other people (perhaps influenced by Satan) could not make something wrong out of God's plan for unity. So, I ask this crucial but enlightening question "God is asking for unity and unity from the bottom (the people) up to the top (the clergy and the bishops). What are some of the ways this request might be realized?" The Publican ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nicole said that when she read it she laughed because at first she thought it was easy to answer. She showed it to Father Malouli and Father E. Zahlaoui. They didn't take it lightly, but they refused to help her with it. After a week, I asked her for the answer. She had not given it yet. Another week went by and she had not answered it. Finally, I talked to her. She said that she didn't know the answer: "It should be up to other people HOW to have unity." Actually, that was a great answer, but I didn't tell her that. "Mirna, let me tell you a story. [Jack repeated it in Arabic.] Once I was forced to go before a large group of people to teach the Rosary. When I got in front of the microphone, I just stood there and stared at the audience. I told God that if He wanted me to talk, he would have to do it for me. I was not going to say a word. In time I started talking, and I was enjoying what my mouth was saying. So, put a pen in your hand and start writing. Let the Holy Spirit write it for you." The next day I received her answer. Jack read the Arabic answer back to her and asked her if she really wanted to use the word "stupid." In good English she said: "Yes, Yes, I want to use it." She laughed. Before writing the English translation, Jack wanted to change the wording "God has no time" to "is timeless or eternal." She had no objection, but I said, "No! What she is saying is theologically correct, even if she doesn't know it." Once he felt he had a good understanding of the words in Arabic, Jack sat down and wrote out the English. He gave it to me. As I read I felt as if she were still looking for an answer in the beginning, but as I read on I felt as if someone else was answering for her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, Amen. To brother Richard, To the one whom God has chosen to spread the good news in His name. Do you think you want to realize anything yourself? No, It is all by HIS Will. I am a simple girl. My mission is to pass God's message to the people. It doesn't concern me whether they believe [or not], because their faith reflects on themselves, but I feel happy because, with God's power, I remove the dust from the eyes of stupid people who don't appreciate God's power except when they need it. I used to be stupid like them. I knew that God existed, but I didn't know the extent of His power on people. I used to fear Him because people made me fear Him. After this experience, I am no longer afraid of God, because God is merciful and full of charity. I fear people because they distance me from God with their demands. I am afraid of losing my humility and simplicity because of them, and if I lose my humility, then I have lost my life, and my life is Christ. I would like to clarify something about this phenomenon. Until now, I know nothing. Only God alone knows everything. Why He chose me, I don't know. Why a married woman living with her husband and her children, also I don't know. Why in this house and not in church [the place worthy of Christ], also I don't know. But if I knew all this, my power would have been so great as to equal God's power, but this is impossible because God's mystery is deep. No matter how strong our knowledge is, we cannot get to know God truly, as He knows us. If this phenomenon is false and of people's doing, why should I get involved rashly and destroy my own house? At the beginning of the phenomenon I was a new bride, and life offered me big opportunities to enjoy myself because my husband, Nicolas, loves life and enjoys it, and so do I. Life is beautiful without Christ because you don't have to give an account of your actions to anyone. This is in this life, but not in the life to come. But with our knowledge of Christ, our life has changed. It became clear that life with Christ is more beautiful, although there are difficulties because God's way is difficult. But with God's power we can bear our daily cross and with real happiness. Our happiness was false. It was acting and pretence. Now it has become an inner joy. Christ has moved into us and into our hearts. Our joy is God's love for us, our love for Him and our truthfulness to Him. If this phenomenon is, however, of Satan, then I welcome him. This means Satan has repented, since he allows us to pray in the name of God for seven years untiringly and without boredom. As to those who say that I am married, and this is a shame because God chooses unmarried girls and often nuns, I say that if my marriage is a shame, then our faith is false. As my husband and I are one body in marriage, attuned together, so we are all one body in Christ, but not all attuned together. As for unity, it can only be achieved through prayer. What God is asking of us is difficult. It won't come about unless the big ones give up their seats, their haughtiness, and their greed. God is able to unify us in His own way, but He wants this from us to discover the extent of our love for Him. He sacrificed His life on the cross for our sake, while we only love Him when He gives us what we ask of Him. As I said above, I was stupid to love the many feasts of Christ recurring a number of times, but now I have some awareness. I know that Christ is one in all of us, as we should be one in Him. As Jesus said to Peter, "You are the rock on which I shall build my Church," here He comes again to tell us that we are His Church. "You are my Church, and your heart is mine." We have to understand what He wants and do it. With faith and prayer, people must become aware of the truth and know that whoever divided us has been punished by God, and we should put right this immense wrongdoing against Christ. We should not continue in it. Would unity fulfill what Jesus Christ has asked of us? From my point of view, unity will not be achieved unless we unify our hearts and plant peace, love and faith in them. This peace can only be through the one Christ. We must, therefore, pray to God with insistence to put peace in our hearts and to remove hatred and selfishness from the hearts of His children, who are only His when in need and who sell Him off when He needs them. But if we love each other as Christ has asked us to do, then His Will will be done, and we shall gather all the churches in one Church, called God's one house, and we shall all meet under one roof-God willing. When will this be accomplished? I don't know, because I live in time, and God has no time. But to go on in our sin [division] is horrible and unjust to us and to Christ. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Judge her answer for yourself. As for me, I can think of no greater gift to give to my Church than to work for the prayer of Christ at the last supper: "that they may be one even as We are one." John introduced Christ by saying, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Christ began His preaching with the same words. He taught us to pray for this Kingdom in the Lord's prayer. Now, let us work, pray, and even demand that the Kingdom of Heaven on earth be again united. Yes, if this miracle is of Satan, he is a fool, because unity can only tighten his chains. He wants to divide and conquer.
A united Church will be a beacon to the world. |