INTRODUCTION

Firstly, I thank God for our gathering today.
I also thank the most Pure and Holy, the Mother of all, the Holy Theotokos:  the Virgin Mary, whom I always ask for Her love and protection.
I also want to thank the people who gave me this opportunity to pray with you;

Portugal: Especially the Christian Family Renewal Movement.
Boston: Fr. Michael Haddad, Superior of the Monastary
Rome: Especially Archbishop Luigi Accogli; Nuncio Apostolico.
 

I hope the purpose of our gathering today is prayer; because if you came to see Myrna only,
you will see that Myrna is an ordinary person just like anyone of you.
If you came to see a miracle, the biggest miracle is the presence of Jesus Christ in His Holy Mysteries under the forms of Bread and Wine.
If you came to see Christ our Lord, look at each other's face and you will be seeing Him.
If you came to meet Christ our Lord so that you may love Him, love one another and you will be loving Him.
If you came to serve Christ our Lord, serve each other and you will be serving Him and His Church.

The phenomenon of Our Lady of Soufanieh began in a simple suburb of Damascus in Syria,
where extraordinary events have been occurring since 1982.

Soufanieh is known of its fruits.
That is why I ask you to remember me in your prayers so that my testimony be truthful, honest and fruitful.
I was born on May 3rd, 1964.
I married Nicolas Nazzour in 1982.
I am Melkite Catholic and my husband is Greek-Orthodox.
Six months after our marriage, strange things started happening to us.
We did not understand them in the beginning, only later did we understand that they were Heavenly Messages that must be shared with everyone.
On November 22^nd , 1982, as we were praying at my ailing sister-in-law's house, oil appeared on my hands for the first time.
An internal struggle started in me.
I would ask myself:
Lord what is this oil ?
Why did you choose me ?
I am a weak person, while there are thousands who are more worthy than I am for this blessing.
However, let Your Will be done.
From this day, I offer You all my deeds, my sorrows and my joys.
Let everything in me honor You.
I place in You my hope for I am ashamed of my weakness.
Take my will O Lord.
Let Your Will be done in me.
Keep me away from any act that You do not want, so that I may stay at Your service.
Give me a pure, humble, faithful, loving heart that does not ask for anything but the glory of Jesus Christ.

On the morning of November 27th, 1982, oil started oozing from a small icon of Our Lady.
I carried the icon and took it to my husband Nicolas who was in our bedroom getting dressed.
He took it and put cotton underneath it on a wooden plate, on the desk in our bedroom.
We knelt and cried.
That sight was so beautiful, that I wish the whole world could have been in my eyes to see what I have seen.
From that moment on, my husband changed from a non-pious non-believing person to someone who surrenders to the Will of God.
Nicolas asked me not to tell anyone about what was going on.
He said he would go and inform his family.
I was afraid then.
I did not know how to pray.
Suddenly I heard a voice saying to me:
Mary, My daughter, do not be afraid, I am with you.
Open the doors and do not deprive anyone from My sight.
Light Me a candle.

That is how the door was opened and our house became a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
People come to our house from everywhere and we do not ask anyone for his identity nor religion.

VISIONS

On December 15th, 1982, I saw the Virgin Mary standing on the terrace of the house.
In a state of panic, I ran away from the unexpected vision.
That night, father Elias Zahlaoui suggested to me that I should pray more, and that I should prepare myself for another apparition.
He told me to say to the Virgin Mary: "Prepare me O Virgin to receive You."
On the evening of December 18th, 1982, I saw the Virgin Mary for the second time, and She gave me the following message:
My children,
Remember God, because God is with us.
You know all things and yet you know nothing.
Your knowledge is an incomplete knowledge.
But the day will come when you will know all things the way God knows Me.
Do good to those who do evil.
And do not harm anyone.
I have given you oil more than you have asked for,
but I shall give you something much more powerful than oil.
Repent and have faith, and remember Me in your joy.
Announce My Son the Emmanuel.
He who announces Him is saved, and he who does not announce Him, his faith is vain.
Love one another.
I am not asking for money to give to churches,
nor for money to distribute to the poor.
I am asking for love.
Those who distribute their money to the poor and to churches,
but have no love, those are nothing.
I shall visit homes more often, because those who go to church, sometimes, do not go there to pray.
I am not asking you to build Me a church, but a shrine.
Give. Do not turn away anyone who asks for help.

The last apparition of the Virgin Mary was on March 24th, 1983, the eve of the Annunciation.
The Virgin Mary asked very clearly for Church Unity.
She said:

My children,
My mission has ended.
That night, the Angel told Me:
"Blessed are thou amongst women."
And I was only able to tell Him that
"I am the Servant of the Lord."
I am happy.
I Myself do not deserve to tell you:
"Your sins are forgiven."
But My God has said it.
Establish a church.
I did not say: "Build a church."
The Church that Jesus adopted is One Church, because Jesus is One.
The Church is the kingdom of Heaven on earth.
He who has divided it has sinned.
And he who has rejoiced from its division has also sinned.
Jesus built it. It was small.
And when it grew, it became divided.
He who divided it has no love in him.
Gather!
I tell you: "Pray, pray, and pray again!"
How beautiful are My children when they kneel down, imploring.
Do not fear, I am with you.
Do not be divided as the great ones are.
You, yourselves will teach the generations THE WORD of unity, love and faith.
Pray for the inhabitants of earth and Heaven.

ECSTASIES

The apparitions were followed by a new stage: the ecstasies.
There, I become unaware of the material world and I become transported into the Heavenly world.
I would see the Virgin Mary.
Or I would see Christ our Lord as a strong light in the shape of a Person.
Each time I was given a message to be shared with everyone.
The messages of the Virgin Mary and Christ our Lord can be summarised by: love, prayer, forgiveness and penance.
The most important request from Christ our Lord and the Virgin Mary is the unity of the Church, beginning with the unity of the Feast of Easter.
Through Her presence in Soufanieh, the Virgin Mary revealed to us Her great love and Her joy in our loving each other.

STIGMATAS

Through His presence in Soufanieh, Christ our Lord revealed to us, that He is still suffering, and that His joy is in our unity.
It is because of His love for me that He gave me a very special blessing: to participate with Him in His Passion.
So He reproduced His wounds in my body.
The wounds appeared on my hands, my feet, my side and my forehead every time the Feast of Easter for the Eastern and Western Churches has coincided according to their respective religious calendars.
This happened in 1984, 1987, and 1990.
This shows the desire of Christ our Lord for Church Unity.

CHURCH UNITY

Jesus said to me in one of the ecstasies: Go and preach to the whole world and tell them without fear to work for unity.
That's how I was invited for the first time in 1987 to the United States, where I spent some time going from one Church to the other spreading the messages of Soufanieh.
Then, I was invited to European and Arabic countries, to Australia, Canada, the United States several times,
Portugal twice, and Rome once.
In all the places that I visited, the thirst of believers for Church Unity was great.
That thirst created in every country a group which spreads the messages of Soufanieh and works for Unity.
To put it simply, the drop of oil is spreading in the whole world day after day, in order to fulfil the wish of Christ our Lord when He said: All I want is for you all to gather in Me as I am in each one of you.

There is no doubt, I encounter great difficulties in my life and probably the greatest is related to what Saint John says:
Christ came to His own, and His own did not recognise Him.
Everything would be easy without this obstacle.

The position of the Church regarding the Soufanieh phenomenon, both in Syria and the whole world, is one characterised by great respect, watchfulness, and comfort in the truthfulness of the episodes, the unceasing prayers and the complete gratuitousness in the house of Soufanieh from the very first day of the phenomenon until today.
However, this position differs from one Church to another.
Church Unity is the perfection of our unity with the Lord, within ourselves and with others.
Unity is a way of life, and a continuous task at discovering the other person through love and openness.
Unity is coming, there is no doubt about it, because Jesus is One and the Church must be One: Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.
Probably the Church must be poor so that it may feel the need of others, and then its only treasure would become the unity of its children.
Our haste towards this goal is achieved through humility, love and openness to the work of the Holy Spirit, and the belief that the will of God will be achieved only if we learn how to live this Unity.
Unity is achieved by lighting the fire of love.
For whenever our love weakens, unity weakens, and this is how our Church lives today in the world.
If we believe that our faith is common among the different churches, and if we are all called to one faith, one hope and one baptism; then Love is the problem !
Difficulty with Love appears when we try to love the way we want, and not as God loves us.
If the problem started from a weakening Love, then the solution is an increase in Love.
Love will give us new eyes, a new heart, a new mind, a new life.
The success of my mission is to live Unity in faith in the one Church of Jesus;
to be a witness to the Gospel by becoming an apostle of Christ our Lord and by serving the Church.
The success of my mission is to live in harmony within my family at home and in the church;
the same as Our Lord Jesus has lived with His disciples in love and piety.

HEALINGS

Healings are numerous in Soufanieh.
The most important ones are spiritual.
These healings converted many Christians in name only to be committed by word, deed, love and giving.
The physical healings were numerous also.
To name only a few: Raquiya Qilta was healed from polio and Alice Benlian was healed from a bone disease in 1983.
Several people were also healed from paralysis, blindness and cancer.

CONCLUSION

Woe to me if I do not preach.
The good news that I carry is to establish love by the Might of God, within the Heart of the Church;
and with this love, all humanity becomes one family, one body, the Body of Christ, in which the Spirit of the all-Holy God dwells.
It is only then that the invitation of Christ our Lord becomes true:
"You are My Church and your hearts belong to Me".
Help me, O Virgin Mother so that I may respond to God's call in my life and make my will melt in His.
Help me to always keep You as an example before my eyes.
An example of humility, patience and obedience.
Grant me O Lord to become a living icon of Your Pure Mother for my family and for every family.
Teach me O Lord to pray for the small church which is the family, and especially for the troubled ones, so that You may bestow upon them, through Your pastoral care,
the ties of Love and unity.
Please sustain me with your prayers, dear brothers and sisters, so that I may be faithful to my mission,
so that I may say the word that speaks in the name of Christ our Lord, and to join my heart to His, for in our union, I can overcome all obstacles.

Thank you very much.

(this is a literal and not a litterary translation from the original arabic testimonial - March 2000)