The Soufanieh events began in a small Christian suburb of Damascus on Saturday, November 27, 1982, the night before the first Sunday of Advent, when a small image of the Holy Virgin, in the house of newlyweds Nicolas and Myrna Nazzour, started exuding oil. After that, oil started oozing from Myrna's hands and several parts of her body. Finally, since December 15, 1982, Myrna received messages from the Holy Virgin and Jesus Christ, during apparitions and ecstasies.

It is through the messages given at Soufanieh that we can really understand why the Lord is multiplying the signs. It is necessary to read the messages entirely, to ponder them carefully, in order to understand, to the extent that our little minds can, the full significance of these events.

It is not up to us to try to determine the meaning of these messages, because this meaning is in the heart of the One who has instigated them. And this is the heart of God Himself. When the people saw the oil, their immediate reaction was to pray. Of course, some people criticized, some refused to believe, some thought themselves intelligent. And some people continue to act in this way, although fewer and fewer. But we do not discover the deep meaning of the messages because God is revealing it to us.

First, we saw the oil and immediately prayed. Then, slowly, we noticed new aspects of the phenomenon through the messages given by the Holy Virgin and Jesus Christ to Myrna, during apparitions and ecstasies.

And it is through these messages that we can receive the word of the Lord and understand the real significance of the Soufanieh phenomenon.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

References to the Messages in this book are in italics. To emphasize a point, we used bold characters. References to books/magazines are underlined. The terms 'Greek-orthodox' referred to in this book refers to Orthodox Christians from the Antiochian Patriarchate in Damascus, Syria; while 'Greek-catholic' refers to Catholic Christians from the Greek-Melkite Patriarchate in Damascus, Syria.

THE APPARITIONS
Second apparition, First message
Saturday, December 18, 1982

The real meaning of the Soufanieh phenomenon appears already from the first message given by the Holy Virgin, during the second apparition. I say the first message and the second apparition because during the first apparition, Myrna was so frightened that she ran away. Her sister-in-law, Helen, who thought that Myrna had gone mad, slapped her in the face. And the Holy Virgin, of course, did not say anything to Myrna.

But three days later, on the eve of December 18, 1982, the Holy Virgin appeared again to Myrna. Myrna had been prepared by prayer to greet Her. And it is then that the Holy Virgin gave Myrna a message, whose content, I would say, constitutes the program, or one of the many aspects of this program, that can be considered as the meaning of the events at Soufanieh. It is enough to read it entirely, by highlighting the main points, to see that, in fact, this message is quite a program.

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.

This is quite a program. God. God with us. Return to God, He is with us. Whether we want it or not, He is with us. He is the Emmanuel.

Secondly, what makes men distinctive is their knowledge. And Men, in the name of knowledge and science, very often thought they could manage without God. And the Holy Virgin has told us that, in fact, we have knowledge. We know, as we believe, everything. But, in fact, we know nothing. We know a lot about earthly matters, and yet there is a lot we do not know about it. But we know nothing about the other world, except what God unveils to us, as was said by Saint John. And this is why the Holy Virgin repeated a sentence that has already been said two thousand years ago: But the day will come when you will know all things the way God knows Me. This is what Saint Paul said (see 1 Cor. 13:12). Therefore, we will reach complete knowledge in the other world.

A third thing: What is the purpose of our presence on Earth? Do good to those who do evil. Evil is everywhere in this world. If there is anything that singles out the Christian, it is that, as was said by Saint Paul, he overcomes evil with good (see Rom. 12:21). And the Holy Virgin told us: Do good to those who do evil. And do not harm anyone. We can find a thousand reasons to do evil. The Holy Virgin told us: "No more. No more evil." I have given you oil [...], but I shall give you something much more powerful than oil. In fact, as we discovered later, the oil served only as a bait, as one throws a hook to catch a fish. And the Lord has taken us, to lead us slowly to something much more beautiful. Beyond the oil, was He. He is love. His presence with us. And the consequence of this love and presence, is the love that we must show each other.

And immediately, the Holy Virgin stressed repentance: Repent and have faith. Before God, we must repent. Have faith, and remember Me in your joy. This is very significant. Usually, we only ask for God's help when we are in pain or anguish. When we are joyous, we do not think about Him much. But: Remember Me in your joy. If we truly remember God in our joy, this joy will be quite different from the world's joy. It will be purer, more wholesome, more liberating, more loving. Therefore, the Holy Virgin does not simply want us to remember God. In Arabic, to remember God, means, before thinking of Him, to praise Him. It means to recognize His magnitude, His love. Therefore, it means to live in His presence. This is the Arabic word "zekroullah."

Then, the Holy Virgin, after this request to return to God, to our humility as humbleness as human beings who know, after this compelling call to do good, to abstain from doing evil, after this call to repent, to have faith, to remember God in our joy, the Holy Virgin reminds us of one essential thing, especially in the Arab world: Announce. Announce My Son the Emmanuel. In the Middle East, the Church has long rested on established positions, which it is slowly losing. Simply in terms of the faithful. And the Church has ceased to think about the possibility of evangelizing non-Christian groups. The Church is already having trouble Christianizing the small number of Christians in the Middle East. How could it accomplish a mission beyond that? But the Holy Virgin told us: Announce My Son the Emmanuel. He who announces Him is saved, and he who does not announce Him, his faith is vain. This brings us back to what Jesus said two thousand years ago: "Go forth!" Our mission as Christians is to spread the message.

Immediately after, the Holy Virgin calls us to love. To reciprocal, mutual love: Love one another. She did not specify: "Christians." She simply said: Love one another.

Then, immediately, She addressed an issue that has troubled the Church for two thousand years: money. The Holy Virgin said in Her first message: I am not asking for money [...]. I am asking for love. How many times have we used money as an excuse or a kind of escape far away from God, wherein we give the Church money and continue to lead our own lives. The Holy Virgin said: "No. Set money aside." And this is where we truly see how Nicolas and Myrna, in their very simple sense of freedom from the material, a spontaneous sense at the beginning of the phenomenon, we see how well they were already meeting the demand of the Holy Virgin. And they continue until now to refuse any money, with absolute intransigence. I am asking for love. God is Love. He does not need anything but love. The Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, the Mother of Jesus. She does not need anything but love. She told us so, right from the beginning of Her program, in Her first message.

Then, She said: I shall visit homes more often. He who loves goes forth to the other. The Incarnation is God's visit to humanity, because He has loved mankind. The Holy Virgin, who continues to love mankind because She is the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, will come to visit us. This sentence remained incomprehensible to us. How will the Holy Virgin come to visit us? But, from the day the oil started oozing from many images of the icon in Soufanieh, in the houses of Christians as well as Muslims, in Damascus and elsewhere, and when people started praying before the image that had given them this sign (oil), since that day, we realized that the Holy Virgin had truly started visiting us, in a tangible manner. The Lord does not make idle pronouncements.

Then the Holy Virgin deemed that it would be very risky to want to build a big church for Her, as happens everywhere, because then, we might focus on gathering money to build, and then forget man, who is the Temple of God and the most important thing in the sight of the Lord. And that is why She said: I am not asking you to build Me a church, but a shrine. She explained during a later ecstasy that, for this shrine or place of prayer, a stone from the arch of the house's front door should be removed, to leave room for an icon of the Holy Virgin, with a brief message of thanks and recognition to Jesus. And that is what was done. A pane of glass was placed over it, with a small lamp to illuminate the icon night and day. Frequently, passers-by stop to pray, or even kneel on the sidewalk and pray. I have often seen people, even youngsters, kneeling down on the sidewalk, having come in the evening and found the door of the house closed. They kneeled and prayed on the sidewalk. It is a place of prayer, and nothing more.

And the Holy Virgin ended Her message by saying: Give. Do not turn away anyone who asks for help. God is a gift. God is a gift, or He is nothing. And to truly be a child of God, we must give. Myrna and Nicolas understood that right from the beginning. They opened their door. And as yet, they have not refused a single request. Even at night, when someone arrives at their door, regardless of the hour, they open the door. They give what they can. First they greet people, with extraordinary patience and a magnificent smile. Then, they fade into the background. They become totally selfless, without any pretensions or vanity. They introduce people to the icon and then they fade into the background. And if no one asks them questions, they leave the people with the Holy Virgin. God comes first.

Therefore, you can see that even in this first message, there is a program of sort. For me, this is the meaning of the events at Soufanieh. Of course, afterwards, there were other messages that clarified this meaning even more. Jesus requested the unity of His Church, and the Holy Virgin requested the unity of the Body of Her Son. And these requests were made with moving words. Deeply moving. The Lord reminded us that He was crucified out of love for mankind, and that He wants those who believe in Him to bear His cross, willingly, with patience and love. He reminded us also that there is no salvation without crucifixion; that the Church is His kingdom on Earth. This Church, however it may be. With all its positive and negative sides. This is His kingdom on Earth. He accepts Man as he is. He has made him His receptacle, and with this human substance, He has built His Church. And He said to mankind: "Take Me to all Men, through all ages." And when the Lord said, first through the Holy Virgin's mouth, then twice through His own messages: 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; by saying that, He reminded us of one essential thing: The Church is the kingdom of God. It is God, Himself, present on Earth. This is one of the main messages of Soufanieh.

Before analyzing the second message, I would like to add something about the second sentence of the first message: You know all things and yet you know nothing. Your knowledge is an incomplete knowledge. I would like to say the following: The Holy Virgin recognizes that human beings do have some knowledge. She accepts the fact that we do have some knowledge. She also recognizes that knowledge is what makes man unique, and knowledge will finally lead mankind to God. But She told us in a very simple way: "Be humble in your knowledge. Whatever you know, in the end, you know nothing." And especially about the afterlife. What do we know about the afterlife? When people come to me with senseless ideas, quoting some theologians that the devil does not exist, that angels do not exist, and when youngsters say, "Father so-and-so told us such a thing," I reply, "Who has been to the other world to tell what exists there? Who, except Jesus?" For us, our reference point for knowledge is Jesus.

The Gospel says, and we know, that no one other than Jesus has been to the other world and come back to tell us about it. Jesus told us some things. Our little minds cannot determine anything conclusive. Let us accept that Jesus is revealing to us a part of this truth of which we are totally unaware but that one day we will know completely. The Holy Virgin promises us, as did Saint Paul, that one day we will have knowledge almost as complete as God's: You will know all things the way God knows Me. This is therefore a promise that man will be elevated to an absolutely unthinkable level. God promises that He will elevate us because He is great and He is capable of making us great. We are not capable of doing so. Not at all. Therefore, the Holy Virgin urges us to seek the truth, to increase our knowledge, but to be humble in this search and to recognize that only God has the complete truth. And only He is capable of giving us the truth. He will give it to us in totality when we will be in "the other world," if I can use this expression. But for the time we are here, He tells us: "Work hard. Accumulate knowledge. But recognize that your knowledge remains lesser than God's." Do you understand?

And this is particularly true for us people from the Middle East, especially for us, Arabs. We have suffered a terrible past, and we are suffering now from such a burden at all levels that we came to believe that only science could save us. And many continue to believe that. For them, nothing exists except science. Therefore, they say, let us accumulate scientific information, increase our knowledge, and we will solve all our problems. But, in fact, we will not solve all our problems like that. Not at all. We should not turn science into a new god. Science has its place. But only God is God. And that is why I particularly like the assertion of Muslims: "La ilaha illallah -- There is no God besides God." But we have created so many gods that we have ended up concluding, often with great unhappiness, that the real God does not exist. Or considering God to be one of many gods, including science and worldliness. No! This is why the Holy Virgin started by telling us: Remember God. To remember God does not just mean to remember that He exists. It means to glorify Him, to recognize Him, to recognize ourselves humbly in front of Him, to ask for His grace, to live in His presence.

Third apparition, Second message
Saturday, January 8, 1983

The second message given by the Virgin Mary, during the third apparition, is a message that might sound very bizarre. Here is a literal translation: The Virgin was crying. She told Myrna: "It's all right." The Holy Virgin said it in Arabic dialect: "Maa'leche. It's all right." "Maa'leche" is an expression that we hear every day, hundreds of times. Ask a man in difficulty: "How are things going?" He'll answer, "Maa'leche," which means "It's okay. I'll get through it." The Holy Virgin told Myrna, while she was crying: "Maa'leche." The text continues: Myrna was also crying, while shouting, "The Virgin is crying!" At last, the Virgin withdrew, but before disappearing, She smiled softly. That is what Myrna told us. She did not realize that while seeing the Virgin Mary, she was shouting, "The Virgin Mary is crying!" and she was crying also.

This message might seem surprising. Why did the Holy Virgin say, "It's all right," the night before the icon was moved to the church? ⁽¹⁾ Nevertheless, the transfer was ordered by the Antiochian Patriarch Ignatius Hazim IV, and was accepted by the family.

Nicolas had hoped that instead of the image being taken only to the neighboring Orthodox church, it would also be taken to different churches, in rotation. But, I convinced him to concede to the desire of the Patriarch, presenting him the following arguments: "Nicolas, the Church brings us closer to Jesus and Mary. The Church, for you, now, is the Orthodox Church. In the person of the Patriarch. Therefore, if the Patriarch tells you something, it is as if the Lord Himself is telling you. Beside what the Church says, we know nothing. The Church is responsible for the deposit of the Faith, the Gospel, the Sacraments, and even Jesus; the Church takes care of us. We cannot make our own reality in the name of Jesus. Therefore, you will do what the Patriarch asks, as if this request came directly from the Lord. And, as long as the Patriarch wants the icon to be placed in this church, you will say, 'Let it be."

I also presented him with the following arguments: "The simple fact that the icon is being taken solemnly to the church, and displayed, is already a recognition of the phenomenon. And this is a great thing in itself, especially for public opinion. A third point: This will give you a little break. It will allow you to rest. After your vigil of 45 days and nights without sleep, you have the right to rest. And fourthly, perhaps the presence of the Holy Virgin's icon in an Orthodox Church might lead to ecumenical prayers like the ones that started at your house."

After presenting these four arguments, Nicolas said, "Father, enough said. I agree totally." And the image was moved to the Church. But the night before the icon was moved, the Holy Virgin cried. Myrna and Nicolas did not tell me that until a few days later.

When they told me, I said to myself, "The Lord and the Holy Virgin know things that we do not know. What does the future hold for us? Trust the Lord and Mary, and wait patiently." What happened later, i.e. the return of the icon to the house of Nicolas and Myrna in the utmost secrecy, and the silence observed until now by the Antiochian Orthodox Patriarchate provided us, we thought, with a partial explanation. Ultimately, all is grace.

Fourth apparition, Third message
Monday, February 21, 1983

I am now at the third message, which expands on the second one. This third message was given a short while after the image was mysteriously returned to the house. Nicolas was shocked, and confronted the two priests who brought it back. He asked them, "What did the Holy Virgin do to be brought back like that? It's disgraceful." There was a violent dispute. Then, the two priests left the house. In the meantime, Father Joseph Malouli, a Lazarist priest, had arrived. Hearing loud voices coming from the living room, he remained outside, in the yard. When the two priests left, Nicolas told him what happened. He asked Nicolas if he could pray with Myrna before the image. They prayed a decade of the rosary. Then Father Malouli said this prayer to himself, which he revealed to us only afterwards: "Virgin Mary, enlighten us so that we will not do anything that might jeopardize your program." A little later, he saw Myrna leaving the room. He finished his prayer and left the room. He was told that she was on the rooftop terrace. He went upstairs and saw her kneeling. Members of her family were also there.

Suddenly, he heard Myrna pronouncing words as if she were hearing and repeating what was being said to her. The message was given in Arabic dialect, and consisted of two distinct parts. We kept the first part secret for at least two years because its content was very harsh. The message said this: My children. You see, always this word: My children. Let it be said between us. It sounded like a mother speaking to her children. I have come back here. Do not insult the haughty who are devoid of humility. The humble person craves for other people's remarks to correct his shortcomings, while the corrupt and haughty neglects, rebels, becomes hostile. Forgiveness is the best thing. As much as we were charitable, as much as we tried to be truly charitable and understanding, we could not fail to see in these words a bitter reproach. But also a very beautiful invitation from the Holy Virgin for us not to rebel, not to attack, not to accuse, but to forgive. He who pretends to be pure and loving before people, is impure before God. This is the first part of the message, that we kept secret for two years.

The second part is a whole set of rules for living, also received in Arabic dialect. I would like to request something from you. It is said in a simple Arabic that leaves the reader confused before the Holy Virgin. Because the Holy Virgin is imploring Her children to do something: I would like to request something from you. It sounded as if someone from lower rank were requesting something from someone higher up. A word that you will engrave in your memory, that you shall always repeat: God saves me, Jesus enlightens me, the Holy Spirit is my life, thus I fear nothing. Is it not so, My son Joseph?

There are two extraordinary things here. First, the manner in which the Virgin Mary asks Her children to realize that: It is God. Do not fear men. God is life, God is light. Do not fear anyone but Him: He is Salvation. Therefore, do not forget Him. And the second thing: Is it not so, My son Joseph? That same morning, an ecclesiastical superior told me personally that I was forbidden from going to Soufanieh. Rumors were circulating that the government would have used me to make a big deal of Soufanieh in order to divert people's attention from the country's problems! It surely took someone with quite an imagination to invent that! I accepted this order, but felt at the same time peaceful and hurt. And I informed Myrna, Nicolas and my colleague Father Malouli that I would no longer come to Soufanieh. However, that evening, when the Holy Virgin told Father Malouli: Is it not so, My son Joseph?, Father Malouli felt directly concerned in a way that kept him permanently involved in Soufanieh.

I believe that this message addressed to Father Malouli constituted a major turning point in the whole phenomenon. Because Father Malouli was a priest who had lived in Damascus since 1940. Beyond all suspicion. A man of such integrity and honesty as I had never seen before, frankly. And an old man. No one would have accused him of having a special affection for Myrna, as had been said about me. Moreover, given his personality and his educational background, Father Malouli had always been allergic to supernatural phenomena. He was known to have fought fiercely against numerous manifestations of "supernatural events" that had occurred in Damascus since 1940.

On the other hand, although I knew him before, I realized afterwards that Father Malouli was miles ahead of me in terms of his theological studies. Miles ahead. Finally, he had something that I don't have. Having a very good memory, I did not write anything down, because I kept everything in my mind -- or I thought I did, but in fact I didn't. But I did not realize that if I continued that way, after a while I would skip many details about the Soufanieh phenomenon. From the very beginning, Father Malouli recorded everything in writing. Everything. Almost second by second. To the extent that he succeeded in developing a file so detailed that a psychoanalysis professor who teaches in Belgium, Germany and the USA, said, "I have presented the file prepared by Father Malouli as being the best scientific file that I ever seen." This occurred because of the notes that Father Malouli took day by day, minute by minute, second by second, something I never would have thought of doing. Or perhaps I would have thought about it a few months later, but by then I would have forgotten a lot.

So my departure was beneficial for Soufanieh, because it allowed for the presence of Father Malouli, a really exceptional priest. And the Holy Virgin, there, asking Father Malouli through the message, Is it not so, My son Joseph? gave him an answer, something that we did not understand on the spot but that he explained to us afterward by revealing to us the prayer he said just before this message from Mary.

It is therefore the message of February 21, 1983, that has kept Father Malouli involved in Soufanieh. And his presence in Soufanieh has been an influential factor. Here is an example. In 1984, I went to Boston, USA, where I spent two days at the house of Antoine Horanieh, a friend from Damascus who is a doctor in pharmacology. The first evening, he entertained a group of Syrian friends. Emigrated young men, unfortunately, who live in the United States. They spent the whole evening, until two o'clock in the morning, listening to me talk about Soufanieh. They were listening like children. Then, while I was speaking, one of them, whom I had never seen before but who had been a pupil of Father Malouli, asked me, "Father, are there any priests other than you?" I understood. Listening to such statements, even if one had facts, even with the full confidence in a person, one might wonder, "Is he exaggerating? Is he going off the deep end? What is he telling us?" I understood, and I replied, "Yes, there is Father Malouli." He quickly exclaimed, "Good, if it's Father Malouli, that's it!" That is to say, there was no longer any doubt.

Forbear and forgive. Once again, forgiveness. Forbear much less than the Father has forborne. The word Father, in Arabic, "El Ab," means God the Father. At the time, we did not understand it. It was only later, through other messages, that we understood what the Holy Virgin had said, as in other apparitions like La Salette (France) and Medjugorje (former Yugoslavia): "The Father's arm has become too heavy, and I can no longer hold it back." That was said. However, in the message of August 18, 1989, the Holy Virgin said to Myrna: Tell everyone to pray more because they need prayer to please the Father.

And She gave us to understand, on February 21, 1983, that the Father forbears too much. No matter how much we forbear, it is nothing compared to what He forebears, because of us. This message is directly related to the messages of La Salette (France), Lourdes (France), Medjugorje (Former Yugoslavia) and those of other places: The Lord is urging us to pray. And, on November 26, 1985, without clarifying what was said by the Holy Virgin, or what was intimated and then clarified later, Jesus said to Myrna: Go to the land where corruption has prevailed, and remain in God's peace. The prevalence of corruption, therefore, gives us to understand clearly that God is unhappy.

Fifth apparition, Fourth message
Thursday, March 24, 1983

And now we get to the message of March 24, 1983. This message responds to a popular intuition that people frequently repeated. It is about unity of the Church, the call to unity of the Church. However, for a while, many people had been asking themselves, "But what is the Holy Virgin trying to do? Is She trying to unify us?" Their reasoning was very simple: Myrna was a Greek Catholic and Nicolas was a Greek Orthodox. People therefore thought, "Perhaps the Holy Virgin is trying to unite us." This is very simple. So logical that it becomes disconcerting. But this intuition corresponded exactly to the Lord's will.

I will cite the example of a friend from Damascus, Adib Mousleh, a respected intellectual, a businessman, a former seminarian who has great love for Jesus and the Holy Virgin. Because of that, he published many books, and he distributed them for free, saying, "The words of truth must reach people." He used to travel sometimes, especially to Europe. Once, he received a visit from some Italian friends who spoke French fluently. He told them about Soufanieh, and took them there. And they asked him to write an article. So he wrote a nine-page article in French, dated February 9th, 1983. Imagine: February 9, many days before the message of March 24. However, he ended his article by saying, "Given what is happening in Soufanieh, and all that might happen there, one wonders if the Holy Virgin is not seeking to unify Her children. This would certainly be Her greatest miracle, if She succeeded in unifying us!" In the previous messages, the request of unity had not yet been revealed. Not at all. But, there was a popular intuition, mentioned in this article written by a friend who felt, like others, that all these signs perhaps foretold a will to unify the Church. A divine will.

I was present for the message of March 24, in an amazing way that I will now recount. It was in a period during which I had promised not to go to Soufanieh. And I had kept my promise. On the evening of March 18, Nicolas phoned me saying, "Father, please come!" I went and saw the oil oozing from the icon, in large quantities! All the people there were praying. The next day I came back and told my bishop about it. The following day also the oil continued to ooze all day. And we wondered why. Myrna came and asked me, "Father, is there a feast today?" I replied, "No. Not to my knowledge." She said, "That's impossible." In fact, during the first two years, oil oozed regularly during certain religious feasts: first at the feasts of Jesus and Mary, then at the feasts of some saints, like Saint Luke, Saint Joseph, etc. But this March 19th, I had forgotten that it was the feast of Saint Joseph. And for the Byzantine Church, it was the feast of the Holy Virgin of the Acathist, a very beautiful celebration. I had completely forgotten about it, and I said to Myrna, "I don't think that there is a feast today." She left, and returned with a sheet that she had torn from a calendar, and said, "But Father, look. It is the feast of Saint Joseph, and it is the feast of the Holy Virgin today, the feast of the Acathist." I said, "Oh! It's Father Malouli's birthday!" He was there. So I went over to him and said, "Happy birthday! The Holy Virgin found a beautiful way to wish you a happy birthday!" Then, I left the house quickly to keep my promise to the Patriarch and my bishop.

The evening of March 24, I was attending a play at the church and I had promised the producer that I would watch the entire play since it was the last showing. I had experience in music and drama. I had written plays that were published in Damascus by the Ministry of Culture and performed in Syria and elsewhere. I loved the theater. And that's where I was that evening. During the intermission, while I was speaking to the producer, a friend came to tell me, "Father, the Nazzours want to see you." "The Nazzours" meant Nicolas and his family. I could have told my friend that I would go later. Especially because of my promise to the producer to watch the entire play. What made me leave? I quickly turned to the producer and said, "I'm going to leave for about fifteen minutes, but I'll be back." My friend drove me to the Nazzour's house.

Nicolas' older brother opened the door and said, "They're on the rooftop terrace." I went up immediately. In the shadows, I discerned some people kneeling. I found myself a spot and kneeled. I was just behind Myrna. I made the sign of the cross, and after a short while, I heard Myrna saying words that clearly were not coming from her. Here is what 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.

This was the fifth apparition and the fourth message of the Holy Virgin. Look how the Holy Virgin places Herself here as a servant. Always the same words: My children. We often tend to forget that we truly are the children of God and the Holy Virgin. My children, My mission has ended. The Holy Virgin is here to fulfil a mission and then withdraw. She remains the creature dependent upon the Creator. In spite of the greatness that the Lord has given Her, She knows Her limits. It is extraordinary to imagine.

This message worried us somehow. We thought that the Soufanieh phenomenon was perhaps going to end. My mission has ended. Maybe it was like Lourdes, where She appeared to Bernadette and then disappeared. Therefore... And this made us very sad, even though we were very happy to hear such a message. But we considered with great sadness the possibility that this atmosphere, this new life lived with God and with Mary, through Mary, was perhaps about to cease in a short time. We had trouble contemplating that it could end. Despite the fact that Father Malouli was saying that we were living in a dream state, that this was not the reality but a dream that we were living, in fact, we had trouble contemplating that this dream might soon cease. But the Holy Virgin reminded us that She was on a mission and that the mission was going to end. Of course, what ends in the eyes of God does not end in the same way for us. Mary had accomplished a mission, and She would accomplish other missions. This was later proven true.

That night, the Angel told Me: "Blessed are thou amongst women." In some Arabic translations of the Gospels, this sentence comes from the mouth of the angel. In other translations, it does not come from the mouth of the angel, but solely from the mouth of Elizabeth. This is why, when I heard this text, I rushed that same night to the church to look in the missal we use in mass celebrations, to see if this sentence was said by the angel or not. I said to myself that if we do not find this sentence to be said by the angel, in the Gospels we use today, many would profit from this gap to say: "You see? It's not true, it is not the angel who said that to the Holy Virgin. Therefore, it's not the Holy Virgin who is speaking." You can see why it was necessary to cover all the bases, to prevent all possible calculation, all possible accusations.

And I was only able to tell Him that "I am the Servant of the Lord." How humble is the Holy Virgin! What humility! What simplicity! Could She have said anything else? I was only able to... Do you see the structure of this sentence: only able to... She was so overjoyed that She was not able to say anything but: I am the Servant of the Lord.

I will not comment at length on this, but I would like to emphasize a point. Nowadays, it is in the best interest of the Church to imitate Mary by acting like a servant, and to cease wielding power. The Church should cease to wield power! The Church, wherever it is, will never really become a Church until it one day becomes a servant. Beginning by serving the smallest, the most deprived, the poorest people. As long as the Church wants to flirt with politics and power, it cannot be a servant! There will be servants in the Church because it is the kingdom. The Lord wants it to be that way. But the institution as such will putrefy, and rot, if the Church does not act as a servant.

Then the Holy Virgin said: I am happy. We are pleased to hear someone greater than us telling us: "I am happy." That reminds me of words attributed to Napoleon: "Soldiers, I am proud of you!" Did he say that or not? Anyway, when we studied the history of France, we were taught that Napoleon was able to motivate thousands of soldiers with small sentences of this type: "Soldiers, I am proud of you!" And the Holy Virgin said: I am happy! This is not just anybody. She is not a neighbor. She is not a nun. She is the Holy Virgin, who has told us: I am happy! This was a sort of recognition of our modest efforts at attempting to pray, to do what the Lord expects from us.

Very often, we did not know what to do. But now that we remembered some initiatives we had taken, some words pronounced, we said, "It was Him guiding us!" It was the Lord who had helped us to say such things, whereas in our stupidity, and perhaps our pride and our arrogance, we would have said or done just the contrary. It is He who prevented us from straying, from slipping, from being full of pride, and perhaps even from aborting the whole message. Once again, we deserve no credit. I am happy!

And after that, She had said something extraordinary: I Myself do not deserve to tell you: "Your sins are forgiven." But My God has said it. In fact, there were two extraordinary things. Before God, any lucid man recognizes his guilt. No matter how hard we try to hide, escape, justify, or seek human justification, deep inside our hearts, we always know we are guilty. We know we are guilty. And as we face this feeling of guilt, we need to know that we are forgiven. But not by just anyone. Men can forgive, but they do not know how deep is the wound, not from pride, but from the pain of sin. They can give the illusion of having forgiven. But man, although in a state of illusion, searching deep inside his heart, always finds the gaping wounds of his sins. Therefore, we were happy to know that we were forgiven, although if not through the sacrament of penance. This text might seem to be a breach of the sacrament of penance. The Lord is the One who forgives.

Within the Church, He wanted to forgive us through the sacrament of penance. But if He also wants, as in the Gospel, to say: "Your sins are forgiven," who can prevent Him from doing so? Therefore, to us, it was a consolation and a joy to know that we were forgiven, in spite of all our miseries, our weakness, and perhaps even our foolishness, committed because of Soufanieh or in relation to Soufanieh. And it is not Mary who forgives us, but Her God. The Virgin, who is the Mother of God, knows that She is always a creature, and that God is always God and that there is no other God than God. It is extraordinary to hear the Virgin Mary speaking so simply of truths that are so deep, total and dramatic.

And then, there was a sentence that clearly shook me: Establish a Church. I did not say: "Build a church." She certainly knows us, doesn't She. She knows us in all our miseries, our weakness and our temptations. Establish a Church. Initially, we reacted to this sentence, and we can always react, by saying, "But Jesus is the One who established the Church." He is the only one capable of doing so. Who are we to establish a Church? Moreover, the Church is already established. Jesus established it two thousand years ago. Why do we have to establish a Church now? And we can conclude, as others have concluded: "Therefore, it is not Mary, nor Jesus who has spoken; but someone else." And this someone else is the Devil. Therefore, there must be an error here, a diabolical interference. Some people have arrived at that conclusion.

But, looking closer into the truth, we realize how the Lord has a much more long-term view than we. In fact, we do not even see the tips of our own noses. But He sees everything. And when Mary said: Establish a Church, She did not deny the Church, because two minutes later she asserted: The Church is the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. And it is Jesus who built the Church. But the Church has become divided. And because it is divided, because of this division, it is incapable of bearing witness to Jesus as it should do. Therefore, "I give you the order to remake a Church that is One and that is the Church of Jesus. The Church of Jesus exists, but people are so scattered now, dispersed and divided, that they do not constitute a Church."

And even if, compared to Middle Eastern countries, the Western countries claim that their Church is One and that it is the Church of Jesus, to be frank and honest with ourselves, and with the Lord and Mary, the Church is not what it should be. Only a united Church can bear witness to Jesus. And this is why Jesus said in His prayer after the Last Supper: "That they may all be one that the world may believe" (John 17:21). Who should the world believe? The various Catholic Churches? The various Orthodox Churches? The various Protestant Churches? The thousands of sects who speak in the name of Jesus? Who should the world believe? And when the Holy Virgin said: Establish a Church. I did not say: "Build a Church," Her words were clear enough for us to understand that She did not want a building. She has said it before: "No, I am not asking you to build Me a Church. I want a place of prayer." Establish a Church, that means to gather, to regroup the faithful to constitute the Church.

And the Holy Virgin specified then: "The Church that Jesus adopted is One Church." He would have adopted another Church. Regarding the word adopted, we wondered, "Was this the exact word that the Holy Virgin used?" We listened to the audio cassette again because, starting on February 21, 1983, Father Malouli recorded all the messages on a portable cassette recorder. He thought, "If there are other apparitions and other messages, we will be able to record them." In fact, everything was recorded. And we listened again to the recording. It clearly said: "The Church that Jesus adopted is One Church." He would have adopted another Church. He is the Beginning and the End. And the Church is One, because Jesus is One.

Of course, when it is a question of establishing a Church, we should agree on the meaning of the words. When contemplating establishing a Church, we must examine everything that now bears the name of "Church." Not calling into question the existing Churches, because they are the Body of Jesus Christ. But they are not what they should be. They must unite in order to bear witness to the unity of Jesus.

And that is what the Holy Virgin said to Myrna, six-and-a-half years later, on Sunday, November 26, 1989: My children, Jesus told Peter: You are the rock, and on it, I shall build My Church. As for Me, I tell you now: You are the heart in which Jesus will build His UNICITY. Therefore, ultimately, the Church is not the rock. It is not the various Churches, one beside the other, the Catholic Church, the Orthodox, the Greek Catholic, the Greek Orthodox, the Syrian Catholic, the Syrian Orthodox... All of these are components of the Church that should be One. But the real Church is the heart of the faithful. It is the unity of all the believers, which, by the unity of their hearts, constitutes the unity of Jesus.

And this is why, in Her message of November 26, 1989, the Holy Virgin said: Jesus told Peter: You are the rock, and on it, I shall build My Church. As for Me, I tell you now: You are the heart in which Jesus will build His UNICITY. The Holy Virgin wants to lead us beyond the external institution. Without, however, denying the institution. But She is asking for a united institution, which expresses unity of hearts, -- this unity which must be the real Church that Jesus wants and that He wants in the world, -- in order that through this unity, people see Jesus, come to Him, and believe in Him. You can see how things are linked.

Jesus built it. This sentence is so simple, but at the same time so magnificent! 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.

That reminds me of an incident that happened to me in Paris. Around 1986, Father John Maksud, the current director of the Oeuvre d'Orient (France), invited me to meet the team of People of the World, where he was also the director, to tell them a little bit about Soufanieh. There were about thirteen or fourteen people. There were certainly priests among them, but in their secular dress, I could not recognize them. There were also two women and a young girl. I spoke to them about the phenomenon for 45 minutes. In my introduction, I had said, "Please put aside all your Cartesian criteria and try to listen to me as bearing witness to something that I have seen and heard, as I see you now. Afterwards, it is up to you to believe or not." I therefore presented the phenomenon and quoted them some messages, including: The Church is the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. He who has divided it has sinned. After having finished, one of the priests said, "This message is contrary to the theology of Vatican II, because the Church cannot be the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. In Heaven, the Church will be the accomplished kingdom of God. But on Earth, it cannot be."

There were also other disagreements and objections, particularly about the sentence of Jesus to Myrna: I want you to apply yourself to praying and to humble yourself, [because] he who humbles himself, God increases him in strength and in greatness. To the opponents, this sentence was unacceptable because God cannot ask us to condemn ourselves. I replied, "But all the spirituality of the Church, especially the Eastern spirituality and the spirituality of the Priests, calls us to show modesty compared to the magnitude of God." To the person who said that the message was contrary to Vatican II, I answered, "Listen, Father, I am not a theologian and I am not here to argue. But one of these days, I will have an answer for you." On my arrival in Damascus, I met Father Malouli. I briefed him on my trip, and I brought to his attention the objection of the French priest. He replied, "But this sentence can be found word for word in the works of Saint Augustine and Saint Basil!" I replied, "Give me the reference." He then said, "You will find it in the French book by Father de Lubac, Catholicism; I no longer remember the page; look for it!" I had the book by Father de Lubac. That same evening, I searched the book, page by page, and I actually found passages quoting Saint Augustine and Saint Basil, where I found this reference: "The Church is the kingdom of Heaven on Earth." Word for word. I made a photocopy of the page, and wrote a letter to Father Maksud, asking him to give the photocopy to the priest who had disagreed with me." Therefore, you see, we are given these sentences so simply, and they have been said by Priests as important as Saint Augustine and Saint Basil. And people say that this is not possible! But it is the Holy Virgin who said it...

The Church, in spite of all its miseries, and God alone knows how much there has been (we know part of it, but the Lord certainly knows more), in spite of all the Church's miseries, Jesus wanted it to be His presence on Earth. And the presence of God on Earth is the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. And through this presence, the Church, with all its defects, sanctifies mankind. We can see this sanctification to a marvelous degree, on the faces of the saints.

Therefore, the Church is the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. He who has divided it has sinned. He who has divided it. Numerous are those who have divided it. And we all continue to divide it, until now.

A while ago, a French priest came to see me, an orthodox priest, who had in fact converted to Orthodoxy. We spent two-and-a-half hours talking about Soufanieh. This was the first time we had met. While I was stating the messages, I saw his lips moving at times. At one point, I stopped and asked him, "Father, are you praying?" He replied, "Yes. Because these messages remind me of something. It is my life. And I thank the Lord for reminding us, with such simple words, of these great truths." And before leaving, he said,

"I thank you particularly, because through these messages, I realized that, I too have sinned by not praying enough... and by not praying at all for the unity of the Church. From now on, I will pray for the unity of the Church."

We are all responsible for the division of the Church. Therefore, he who has divided it has sinned. Not only in the past. Also he who continues to divide it now. And he who has rejoiced from its division has also sinned. Thus, I think that the Holy Virgin, who knows so well the hearts of men, reaches, by this word, all those who rejoice for or profit from the division of the Church, its destruction, or its annihilation. And I believe that She is reaching many different people, in the present, the past and the future.

There will always be people who will rejoice, -- even believing that they are doing the right thing --, in the division of the Church, people who might even work to deepen this division in the Church. Here, the Holy Virgin reminds everyone that we are all responsible. Finally, She said, you are responsible for the presence of God amongst you. The Church is the presence of the Lord amongst you. You are responsible for the life of God. Imagine where the Holy Virgin is leading us! I, the priest that I am, the man that I am, as lowly as I may be, I am responsible for the life of God on Earth! The Holy Virgin magnifies us greatly.

Nevertheless, we know how small and lowly we are. But therein, I discover how much the Lord wants to magnify us, in spite of our insistence at remaining small. He wants to magnify us beyond all magnitude. Ultimately, He made us His children. This is exactly what Saint John said in the Prologue of His Gospel: "God makes of men His children." That reminds me the words of the Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov to his friend Motovilov, who had a vision of Seraphim in a luminous apparition. Seraphim started by asking the question, "What is the purpose of life." Motovilov was not able to reply. Finally, Saint Seraphim said, "The true purpose of the Christian life is to become a receptacle of the Holy Spirit." Thus, ultimately, the purpose is to become children of God, a living temple of the Spirit, as said by Saint Paul (see Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 3:16). Whether we want it or not, whether we live in sin or we seek to become Saints, to God we are great, very great, even greater than we could imagine. And if we have something to learn from Soufanieh, it is to remember our inherent greatness. To remember our inherent greatness.

Then, the Holy Virgin told us something we may find disconcerting: Gather! But, Holy Virgin Mary, me, I cannot even gather myself. How do you expect me to gather with others? Even in one house, we can see divisions between the husband, the wife, the children. In society, there is a generalized breakdown, even in the Middle East. How can we gather? Holy Virgin Mary, how can we gather unless we seek refuge in the Lord? We know that when the Lord gives an ordinance, He also gives the means to carry out his ordinance. This is the prayer of Saint Augustine to the Lord: "Help us achieve what you ordain!"

It is an extraordinary sentence: "Help us achieve what you ordain!" The Lord does not ask us to do the impossible. It is impossible for us, but by ordaining it to be so, the Lord gives us the grace to accomplish his ordinance. This is splendid. Once again, He magnifies us.

And in the midst of the division of Churches, in the breakdown of the Churches, this invitation from the Holy Virgin tells us: Gather! This effort to unify the Church is also a great mission for ourselves and for others. Even if we do not see much of it for now.

That reminds me of a friend in Damascus who, in 1988, had insisted that we form a task force to implement some practical steps toward unity of the Church. I assure you that, frankly, I did not see that there was much that could be done other than praying. Especially based on my personal experience. I had noticed hundreds of times that there are human obstacles which are nearly -- if not totally -- insurmountable. However, when this group practically demanded that we work toward unification, toward what the Holy Virgin asks of us, we finally decided to try to meet and to ponder the question together. And then, on the sixth anniversary of Soufanieh, on November 26, 1988, Jesus gave a message to Myrna and to us through Myrna: My children, is everything you do out of love for Me? Do not say: "What shall I do, because this is My work." You must fast and pray, because through prayer you face My truth and you confront all enemies. And, I assure you, this was a kind of revelation for us. We believe we are capable of discovering what we are to do. And surely, there is a lot to do.

But other than praying to face the Lord, to face our lowliness, and to prepare ourselves fundamentally for this conversion to unite with the Lord, and to be a living part of the unified body of Jesus, other than such prayer consolidated by fasting, we wonder what we can do, given our situation in the Middle East... This has been a revelation for everyone. And it has inspired us to more sustained prayer and fasting. Some have been inspired to fast on bread and water, Wednesdays and Fridays, as requested by the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje. Things are linked.

Therefore, when the Holy Virgin said: Gather! I tell you: Pray, pray, and pray again! by the simple fact that after the word "Gather," She repeated three times the word "Pray," She seems to be telling us: "Do not seek anything but prayer. In prayer, you have God, and, with God, you can do everything." Otherwise, we can be deluded. Otherwise, we search for ways to escape. Perhaps even honestly, with the best of intentions. But we risk becoming corrupt, and not carrying out the Lord's will.

And this is why, after saying: Pray, pray, and pray again! the Virgin continued: How beautiful are My children when they kneel down, praying. She could have skipped this sentence. How many times, when I return home in the evening, exhausted, completely exhausted, do I have only one wish, to make the sign of the cross and to lay down, saying, "My Lord, I abandon myself to You." Then I immediately remember the sentence of the Holy Virgin, and I say to myself, "I am going to kneel down, even if it's only for a second, to please the Virgin Mary, even if it's only for this second." Of course, the second prolongs a bit because I start thinking, "There is so much sadness in the heart of the Holy Virgin, that we must try to bring Her some joy. And if She has confided to us that She is happy to see us kneeling in prayer, then let us grant Her this joy."

That is the way I see it, and I am sure that many of those who have read the messages remember this sentence of Mary's. And I am sure this sentence urges them, from time to time, to please Mary, by kneeling in prayer. And once we are kneeling before God, a lot of things disappear. Because, in fact, we kneel before so many human beings. We kneel before everything except God. It is time to kneel before God, and to stand firm against all odds, against everything, if necessary, but with God. He alone liberates us.

And that is why He said, Do not fear, I am with you. Do not fear! Nevertheless, there are problems. Believe me, there are problems. The phenomenon of Soufanieh occurred in Syria at a time when the political situation was critical. Certain religious feelings which were not widespread in Syria, and which had more or less disappeared for a time, started to resurface around 1958-1960. And since then, they have slowly been growing. The arrival of the Ayatollah Khomeiny in Iran stimulated the resurgence of Islamic Fundamentalism. And the war in Lebanon made things even worse. And lately, the Gulf War, or what was called the Gulf crisis and war, certainly did not diminish this religious fervor. And when there is fundamentalism on one side, there is often fundamentalism on the other side also. Ultimately, in this ugly game, peace, friendship and cooperation never win. On the contrary, people become compartmentalized and divided. This, unfortunately, is what we are seeing. But, the Holy Virgin told us, Do not fear, I am with you.

Sometimes, people who have a very influential friend feel secure and powerful, while this same influential friend might one day lose everything that gives security. So why not think of the Lord, because He alone can give real peace. It is in Him alone that we can have peace, true peace, in spite of all the conditioning that can be dangerous, serious, risky... He alone is capable of giving this peace.

The Holy Virgin told us, Do not fear, I am with you. And we really felt Her presence with us. She was with us in Soufanieh. And I believe that if each one of us looks deep inside ourselves to honestly look at life, we can only conclude, "The Lord was with me and I didn't even realize it." Jesus said it, in the message given to Myrna on November 26, 1988: Pray for those who have forgotten the promise they made Me because they will say: Why did I not feel Your presence, O Lord, even though You were with me? We have such a tendency to forget the Lord... But He does not forget us. That reminds me the words of the prophet: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you" (Isa. 49:15).

Therefore, the Holy Virgin told us: How beautiful are My children when they kneel down, praying. Do not fear, I am with you. She is not the first to come to tell us: Do not fear, I am with you. She is the Mother of the Lord. And She has been giving us tangible proof, for almost fifteen years now. Because at Soufanieh, She brought joy, faith, happiness and love. Therefore, Do not fear!

The Holy Virgin knew that we might be afraid. Afraid on a human level, of course. But God also is frightening. One cannot bargain with God. We learn this through the extraordinary people of the Old and New Testaments. We cannot see God and live. With God, we must die. Any separate sense of self must die. So that we can be reborn in Him. And death is frightening. Therefore, there is a real fear with God. And, with God, one must change. But we don't like to change, we are set in our ways. That is what makes me think sometimes that many of those who refuse Soufanieh, even after so many signs, refuse it because they fear the changes that God would ask from them the day they recognize His presence in the phenomenon of Soufanieh. I say that without judging people's intentions. God alone knows our consciences. God alone judges them. But there, I've said it, because it's a fact: Man is set in his ways. He does not want to change. And when the greatest change occurs, when God enfolds him, he is left with nothing.

And the Holy Virgin ended Her message with three sentences. The first one: Do not be divided as the great ones are. Who is great before God? The Holy Virgin uses our words. For us, great people are those who have certain responsibilities, they may be the rich, the powerful of this world. But before God, we are very small. But if the Mother of God considered Herself to be a Servant, then what are men, though they be rich, powerful, or educated? But, Mary uses our language. Therefore, Do not be divided as the great ones are. Divided because of what? Because of interests that have nothing to do with God.

Then, suddenly, the Holy Virgin told us something that Jesus repeated many times since: You will teach the generations THE WORD of unity, love and faith. The Holy Virgin did not say, "words" but "the word." You will teach: When I heard that and thought about it, I immediately thought of the words of Jesus: "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12) and "You are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14). I imagined the Apostles talking together: "We, the light of the world? But, who are we to be the light of the world?" So then, what about us? Who are we to teach the generations? We have barely been able to teach ourselves. Teaching the generations seems to be a mission way beyond our capabilities. But even this phrase suggests that the Lord is with us, and that He will teach the Nations through our smallness, our miseries, and our limited knowledge.

THE WORD: It is very important to notice that on three occasions, Mary and Jesus used this sentence: You will teach the generations THE WORD of unity, love and faith. When we try to understand things, we have a habit of analyzing them, separating words from ideas. Here, Mary and Jesus unite everything. And it is true, if we think about it, we realize that, if I may say so, They are absolutely right. Can there be unity that is not based on love? Only love can unify. And love is the trust in the one who loves us. That is to say, the faith in the one who loves us. When I know that the Lord loves me, When I really believe that He loves me, in the certainty of His love, I remain one with myself. I remain united within myself. It is therein that I see the perfect unity between these three words: unity, love and faith.

And in the Church, unity can be achieved only in love. And love can blossom only in the certainty of His love for us. It cannot derive from our miserable love for Him. We are capable of rejecting Him at any moment. And of justifying that rejection of God. In a thousand ways. But His love for us is solid, eternal! Saint Paul said, "God is faithful." That never changes. He never changes. But we waver. Knowing that God loves me, based on this certainty of His love, I can, with His grace, remain united within myself. And what applies to one person applies to small groups, and can also apply to the immense group that is the Church. That is why the Lord insists so much on THE WORD of unity, love and faith.

Then the Holy Virgin, once more, urges us to pray: Pray for the inhabitants of Earth and Heaven. The inhabitants of Earth and Heaven. We understand "the inhabitants of Earth." But "the inhabitants of Heaven?" The phrasing of the Arabic sentence could mean: "Pray for the inhabitants of Heaven," in the sense of "imploring their prayer." But we can also understand it in the sense of those who are on their way to Heaven, those who departed before us and who are on their way to Heaven, those who are in what we call Purgatory, that phase of preparation for the divine vision, that indispensable phase of purification.

From that perspective, I understand why the Holy Virgin tells us also: Pray for the inhabitants of [...] Heaven. That is to say, pray for those who are on their way to Heaven. For all our dead, finally. For those who have preceded us and for ourselves when we get there. Therefore, the prayer of the Holy Virgin cannot exclude anyone. The inhabitants of Earth and Heaven. She cannot exclude anybody. Ultimately, in prayer, man allows God to expand him to the very greatness of God Himself!

THE ECSTASIES

The ecstasies, First period
Friday, October 28, 1983 -- Tuesday, November 26, 1985

The ecstasies started on October 28, 1983. To avoid getting bogged down in too many details, I grouped the ecstasies into four periods. In each period, there are a few main ideas which are continuously repeated, explained and developed. Now I will examine the messages of the ecstasies.

First of all, there is the period from October 28, 1983 to November 26, 1985. Here, there is a very clear crescendo. The Holy Virgin starts with the person that She has chosen, and slowly makes us choose God over any Church. And, by taking into account the person called Myrna, She seeks to educate us too, by educating Myrna and by telling her: "You will educate, you will be the educator of My generations." How does the Virgin proceed?

The first word of the first message, during the first ecstasy, is: Do not fear. Before God, human beings are automatically afraid. Automatically. This is often seen in the Gospel. Angels who appeared to shepherds, tell them: "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people!" (Luke 2:10). The Virgin Mary said to Myrna, Do not fear. All this is happening to glorify the name of God. Do not fear anything. You are small, limited. But all that is done and all that shall be done to glorify God. One must always look at these two opposite realities. God chose Man, with all his misery, in order to glorify Him.

Now we are going to see how things develop along this continuum, all that the Lord tried to tell Myrna, and, through Myrna, all the people who will live the Soufanieh phenomenon. In fact, in the period from October 28, 1983 to the evening of August 14, 1985, this great idea of God (who chose a person to glorify His name) is developed. And He sent Mary, as His servant, to make this first move to glorify God: Do not fear. All this is happening to glorify the name of God. And, again: Do not fear. Since the first message, during the first ecstasy, on two occasions, the Holy Virgin told Myrna: Do not fear.Do not fear. All this is happening to glorify the name of God. Do not fear. In you I shall educate My generation. Thus, the Holy Virgin told Myrna: "The Lord has laid His hand upon you so that you will educate this generation which will be that of the Virgin and the Lord."

Myrna was afraid when she heard that. When she came out from the ecstasy, she asked us, "But what does it mean?" She asked the question because the Holy Virgin used an Arabic word that can mean "to educate" or "to punish so severely that one will not err again but will serve as an example to others." When one says in Arabic "Biddi Rabbik," this can mean "I am going to hit you and to punish you severely." Also, Myrna wondered, "What is the Holy Virgin going to do to me?" She thought she might be punished. We told her, "Definitely not! Surely the Lord is planning something of which we have no knowledge. He will use you, perhaps to teach people how to pray, to surrender to Him, to be patient, to live harmoniously in marriage, etc. But certainly, the Lord has chosen you to teach. Surrender to Him, and have no fear." That is why Jesus and the Holy Virgin said, Do not fear.

During the second ecstasy, on Friday, November 4, 1983, the Holy Virgin, noticing that Myrna's parents were crying, told her: Go down and tell them that you are My daughter before being theirs... Therefore, Myrna no longer belongs to herself. Although she is a married woman, she is the daughter of God and the Holy Virgin before being the daughter of human beings (her parents). And, through Myrna, of course, everything that is said to her is said to each one of us. And that is why the Holy Virgin, after saying, Go down and tell them that you are My daughter before being theirs, continued with an extraordinary sentence, in Arabic dialect: My heart has been consumed over My only Son ("has been consumed by fire," is the translation of this Arabic word), it will not be consumed over all My children. In literal translation, it seems to mean: "I was powerless; Now, I am not going to kill Myself for you." But, as said in this Arabic dialect that we understand, the Virgin means the contrary: "For My Son, I was incapable of doing anything, but now, I am ready to do anything to save you." And, in this sense, the Holy Virgin, by telling Myrna: Go down and tell them that you are My daughter..., and by saying this other sentence which means: "I am ready to do anything to save My children," She is explaining to us that we are all Her children. Therefore, the things said to Myrna do not concern solely Myrna. They concern all of us.

Myrna is a married woman. Also, the question was asked: Would she continue to live with her husband? Would she leave the family? Would she become a nun? On Friday, November 25, 1983, the Holy Virgin told her: "No." I have not come to separate. Your married life will remain as it is... This answer was quite a relief for Myrna and Nicolas, and provided an answer to all those who wondered why Myrna was still living with her husband. This, therefore, is one of the most fundamental aspects of Soufanieh, the reminder of the sanctity of marriage, at a time where marriage has been willingly and systematically devalued and disintegrated, to a frightening degree.

On May 31, 1984, the Ascension Day, there was a phase between the various messages of the first period, a phase where Jesus, intervening for the first time, reminded us that He is the Beginning and the End. He gave an astonishing message to Myrna: I am the Beginning and the End. I am Truth, Freedom and Peace. In the Gospel, Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), Here, He says: I am Truth, Freedom and Peace. He is practically saying, "Poor creatures! You are searching for the truth, but I am the truth. You seek freedom, but what kind of freedom? And you seek peace. But seek Me, I will give you freedom and peace. You are entitled to it but you do not know how to get to it."

Then He continued: My peace, I give you. This is a message of peace. And He said to Myrna, Pray for God's will to be done in you. Men are always incapable of doing things, compared to the Lord. And if they truly face their responsibilities, these responsibilities can appear so huge that they feel overwhelmed, completely overwhelmed. And it is then that the Lord said: "Trust Me. I am the Beginning and the End. Why are you worried? I have chosen you. I want to save you. Surrender to Me. But ask in your prayers [that] God's will to be done in you. You experience your miseries, your sins, your limits, your lack of power. Well, ask [that] God's will to be done in you. Only that. Make yourself available; ask humbly for this grace." And this grace will come and will help us do what we must do, for our purification and our salvation.

That is why Jesus, immediately after saying to Myrna, Pray for God's will to be done in you, continued, and say... And He taught her a very beautiful prayer. This prayer, we later discovered, is a compilation taken from various passages of the book entitled The Imitation of Jesus Christ. Each line is a pearl, and God has linked them together in a marvelous bracelet, so beautiful and so simple.

Father Malouli, who is much more educated than I, did not notice that the text was from The Imitation of Jesus Christ. I had read very little of this book. But since then, I have read from it frequently. I had not noticed that the text was there. Then one day, someone told us, "But I have seen this text..." Some people took advantage and said, "There you go. Myrna set it up!" or even "The priests fabricated the prayer, and communicated it to Myrna." We said, "Come, now! We were totally unaware of what was in The Imitation of Jesus Christ!"

Observe the manner in which Jesus chose all of these little sentences to remind us, "Finally, you seek peace and rest, but they are found in Me: "Grant that I rest in You above all things, above all creatures, above all Your angels, above all praise, above all rejoicing and exultation, above all glory and honor, above all Heavenly hosts. He covered everything: "Do not seek peace, nor rest in any creature, even if this creature is at the greatest of heights. Peace is in Me." And that reminds me of what Saint Augustine said: "Lord, You have made us for You, and our hearts abide only in You." And Jesus taught Myrna, at the end of this prayer, For You alone are the Most High, You alone are the Almighty and Good above all things. Above all things! It should not be forgotten that the message was given in Arabic and proclaimed in an Arab society, with a Muslim majority. The Virgin Mary went about it wisely. She is highly respected in Islam.

On Friday, September 7, 1984, the Holy Virgin appeared again to Myrna in an ecstasy, and urged her to live her life. Live your life. But let not life prevent you from continuing to pray. Pray always. Pray to truly be an instrument of good in the hands of the Lord. Live your married life, like any woman in the world, but do not cease praying. These are very simple but specific messages which prepare Myrna for this mission that surpasses her capacities and which surpasses all of us. Messages given day by day. The Holy Virgin, before making Myrna an educator of what She has called My generation, has Herself been the educator of Myrna. And, through Myrna, our educator also.

And on May 1, 1985, the Holy Virgin began an intense appeal calling all Christians to unity. She had already requested that through the apparitions. But here, for the first time, She said to Myrna, My heart is wounded. Do not allow My heart to break because of your divisions. She said it to us. And at the beginning of this message, She said, My children. She used the word "Awladi," which means "My small children." Usually, She used the word "Abnaï." The word "Iben," the singular of "Abnaï," can even refer to a fifty-year-old man or a sixty-year-old woman, as long as their parents are alive. But the word "Awladi" refers to youngsters. Is it bold of us to conclude that the Holy Virgin sees our divisions as childish things from which we must, at all costs, liberate ourselves in order to grow and to achieve unity? Personally, I think of it this way.

That day, the Holy Virgin held Myrna's hands and looked at her with much sadness, and said, My small children, "Awladi," assemble. My heart is wounded. Do not allow My heart to break because of your divisions. We began to see that one way to glorify the Lord is to unify the Church. And Jesus clearly said, "That they all may ONE; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be ONE in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me" (John 17:21). As long as the Church is divided, it is not bearing witness to the glory of God. And its works cannot be accepted as they would be if the Church were truly One. One in faith, structure and mission. The Holy Virgin continued, therefore, to open the new window, the one She had begun to open during Her apparitions. We must grow, become children of God instead of remaining children riddled with divisions.

Then the Holy Virgin surprised us by saying this to Myrna: I shall give you a gift for your hardships. The gift was Myrna's pregnancy and the birth of baby Myriam and then John-Emmanuel. How profound is this small sentence! Every child is a gift from Heaven. A child cannot be an object of pleasure or recreation. A child cannot be rejected or killed according to man's will. A child cannot be like a pet we obtain to fill our loneliness or a frightening void. What a timely message!

Therefore, the Holy Virgin seeks to glorify God through this small instrument called Myrna, and She is educating her. She is preparing her for motherhood. And through her, She sends us messages about our divine origin, about our divine heritage, our divine place, and therefore, about our human dignity.

On August 4, 1985, the Holy Virgin reminded us what She said during the apparition of March 24, 1983, and what Jesus said again during the ecstasy of August 14, 1988 in Los Angeles (USA). She said, 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. The ecstasy of August 4^th, 1985, happened at the end of a solemn mass celebrated in the Syrian Orthodox Cathedral in Hassaké, a city located in north-eastern Syria. That day, the Holy Virgin appeared to Myrna in a Syrian Orthodox Church, just as She had appeared elsewhere. Is She not trying to remind us that all Churches are the Churches of Her Son? And that She wants to assemble these churches to make One. Because the Church is the kingdom of God on Earth. Let us dispense with divisions.

And to appease Myrna, She told her, again, I am happy. Do not fear. I am with you. In you I shall educate My generation. Once again, this same theme: I am happy. Do not fear. I am with you. In you I shall educate My generation. The Holy Virgin is truly an educator, working and slowly preparing the woman who will one day bear the special mission of inviting all Christians to unite. This is a great message in which the Holy Virgin acts as a Mother, a Mother who cares for everyone, who does not exclude anyone. She is a mother who wants to assemble all Her children. As the Arabic proverb says, "Al-Oum Bitlem -- A mother likes to gather."

On August 14, 1985, before disappearing for four years from Myrna's ecstasies, the Virgin Mary gave us a message in Arabic dialect, a simple yet profound message: Happy anniversary. It is always a feast for Me whenever I see you all gathered together. And She repeated the words. This may seem repetitive. But She persisted: It is always a feast for Me whenever I see you all gathered together. Your prayer is My feast. Your faith is My feast. The union of your hearts is My feast. "My feast is not a big fuss or ceremonies. It is this unity of hearts, of prayer, and finally, of the Church. That is My feast. Therefore, give Me the joy of seeing you united." She gave this message and then disappeared for four years and four days.

From that day, we felt a kind of turning point in the phenomenon. This time, it was Jesus who spoke; Jesus, who had appeared to Myrna a little before, on May 31, 1984, and who, I would say, gave later messages with great insistence. The great message that He gave, on September 7, 1985, immediately after the message of the Holy Virgin about divine motherhood and the call to unity, is an intriguing and astonishing message that summarizes all Christian doctrine, all Christian theology: I am the Creator. I created Her, so that She could create Me. Rejoice from the joy of Heaven, because the Daughter of the Father and the Mother of God and the Spouse of the Spirit is born. Exult from the exultation of the Earth, because your salvation is fulfilled. Jesus summarized everything that He is and all that mankind is to Him. And all that He has done for mankind and all that He is going to do for the salvation of mankind. In a few lines, this message is an extraordinary summary. In the future, He will prove His word to be true. He will prove it abundantly. With beautiful results.

On November 26, 1985, He commenced a dialogue with Myrna, something unique that had not happened before and that has not happened since. At least not yet. My daughter, do you wish to be crucified or glorified? She replied: Glorified. And when Father Malouli asked her, "What does 'glorified' mean to you?" She replied, "Glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit." Myrna did not go further. Jesus smiled and said, Do you prefer to be glorified by the creature or the Creator? She replied, By the Creator. Then Jesus said, This is realized through crucifixion. Thus He began to teach Myrna, to educate Myrna in the truths of Christianity. Or rather, should I say, the great realities of Christianity. When we say "truths," it is as if we are speaking to the intelligence, but by using the word "reality," we are talking about what is real, factual, experienced.

Educating in the great Christian realities: God who loves, the cross. God, who bore the cross out of love for mankind, is asking us to bear our cross out of love for Him and out of love for ourselves, for our salvation. This is therefore a new perspective that Jesus is adopting now. He explained to Myrna that the cross means looking to the Creator, which means lowering ourselves, and that teaches us how to regard creatures, without being influenced by them. Then, He asked her to await His return with patience and love.

After that, He promised her a reward. He who participates in My suffering, I shall make him participate in My glory. That is quite a perspective. A total, all-encompassing perspective: God who loves, who died on the cross out of love for mankind, who asks people to love Him by bearing their cross, to pray to Him, to lower themselves for Him and to live out of love for Him. And all this will be rewarded. Because they will have suffered on Earth, He will reward them in eternity. And this is why He told Myrna to contemplate this frightening perspective: the cross, bear always the cross!

He told her, Do not fear. [...] I shall give you from My wounds enough to repay the debts of the sinners. Imagine this participation in the work of Redemption! He magnified Myrna to the level of a person participating in the Redemption. He alone is the Master. Whatever He wants, He does. We have no power. We have no glory either. None. And that is why Jesus said, From My wounds. His wounds are the source from which every soul drinks. That was Saint Paul's experience. And he was able to speak about it clearly, without self-glorification.

Now Jesus is educating her. He said to Myrna, and if my absence lasts, [...] do no fear. And in fact, Jesus disappeared for one year. After this message given on November 26, 1985, Jesus disappeared totally. The Holy Virgin also disappeared. Oil no longer oozed, neither from the image, nor from Myrna's body. Nothing at all. For a year, it was like a drought. But it was also a time of prayer. We continued to pray.

The ecstasies, Second period
Wednesday, November 26, 1986 -- Friday, August 14, 1987

One year after, to the day, on November 26, 1986, Jesus gave Myrna a new message, in which He repeated and expanded His former promise. How beautiful is this place. I shall build My kingdom and My peace in it. But this place is not outwardly beautiful. Therefore, it is not the house that is beautiful. It is this assembly of believers, this desire of believers to be with the Lord, this reply of believers or the converted to the call of the Lord, this love that they have for Him. All that is what is beautiful to the Lord. And He will use this tiny foundation to build His kingdom and His peace. It is He who builds, not us! With the materials He chooses. It is He that chooses, not us.

And Jesus said, I shall build My kingdom and My peace [...] so that I may obtain your heart(s). I give you My heart to (all of) you so that I may obtain your heart(s). "I want you to belong to Me. You cannot belong to anyone or anything else but Me." And He began, Your sins are forgiven, because you look towards Me. Therefore, we can tell Him, "Lord, you are going to build with me? But, who am I? I am lowly, a sinner!" And this is true. But He soothes and reassures us, by seeming to say, "Do not worry. I accept you as you are. Accept yourselves as you are. Accept Me like I want you. I start by forgiving you, and I am capable of sanctifying you and making you the instruments of My glory." This is the way I see the connection between these sentences of Jesus: How beautiful is this place. I shall build My kingdom and My peace in it. I give you My heart to (all of) you so that I may obtain your heart(s). Your sins are forgiven, because you look towards Me. Once we look to someone with love and trust, we become filled with his image.

And this is what Jesus said: In he who looks towards Me, I shall paint My image in him. Therefore, you will be My icons. You will be My icons, just as we can symbolically say that Myrna is the Lord's icon. As oil oozes from the images of the Holy Virgin and Jesus, so does oil ooze from Myrna's body too. Oil has oozed from other people who were praying. If the Lord wants to remind us that we are His icons, He is only reminding us of a truth that is rooted in Man, and that the Holy Scriptures explain right from the very first pages: "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him" (Gen. 1:27). We are the icons of God on Earth. Unfortunately, we have forgotten that. We have disfigured ourselves, we have denied ourselves. We have tried to be icons of this world instead of being icons of God. The Lord tells us, "Whether you want it or not, you are My icons."

And here, Jesus said an extraordinary sentence: In he who looks towards Me, I shall paint My image in him. He continued: [And] woe to him who represents My image but has ransomed My blood. Woe to him who represents My image but has ransomed My blood. We all represent the image of God. But do we truly represent this image or not? How do we represent it? To what extent? What way? The Lord is very patient, but He said in the Gospel, "Woe! Woe! Woe!" And here, he says only once, "Woe!" And this woe reaches everybody. It reaches all Christians who claim to represent the Lord: The simple believer, the priest, the bishop, the Patriarch, the Pope. We are all His representatives.

That is why Jesus added immediately: Pray for the sinners. Because for each word of prayer, I shall spill a drop of My blood on one of the sinners. Therefore, He thinks of each one of us. That reminds me of the words of Blaise Pascal: "I have poured this drop of My blood for you." For the Lord, we are not an anonymous crowd. We are persons who are loved individually. We are persons who are considered individually. He paints His image in each of us. He want us to be in His own image. If, unfortunately, we lead a sinful life, only He can help us to redeem ourselves. He tells us that very clearly.

That is why He immediately told Myrna, who might have been troubled by all this, Let not earthly matters trouble you, because through My wounds you will gain Eternity. Here, I want to point out something. Myrna was very anxious because her father had been imprisoned. He was in jail for three months for being falsely accused. In prison, he spent all his time telling the other prisoners the whole story of Soufanieh. He tore his undershirt to make a rosary out of it, tying the small pieces of material into beads. He made a rosary out of it and prayed the rosary during his three-month stay. But just before the ecstasy of that day, Myrna was crying. She was in the living room. I came to tell her, "Myrna, stop crying. Remember what the Holy Virgin told you once: 'Go down and tell them that you are My daughter before being theirs.' And now, I can tell you that your father is a child of God before being your father. You have no right to worry so much. Now, it is time to pray. Stand with the people, in the midst of them, and leave your father to the Good Lord. He knows everything and He settles everything." In the message, there was this sentence: My daughter, let not earthly matters trouble you. And Myrna understood that very well. Anyone who does not know what was worrying Myrna can take these words as a general statement: There are so many things on Earth that worry us. But Myrna understood very well why Jesus said that.

And He continues: Through My wounds you will gain Eternity. I want to renew My passion. And He threatens her: And I want you to accomplish your mission; [otherwise] you will not be able to enter Heaven. The Lord is as good as He is demanding! Therefore, if someone says that God's mercy would not allow the presence of an eternal hell, one can reply, "But Man did not invent it!" Human reason does not accept that. But God knows God better than anyone. He told us the truth about Himself and about our own eternity. So if He says that there is an eternal Heaven and also an eternal hell, we should take that into account and not act rashly, relying on the unlimited and infinite mercy of God. We have no right to do so.

Jesus then told Myrna: Go in peace, and tell My children to come to Me any time, and not only when I renew the feast of My Mother. Because I am with them at all times. So Jesus is there, reminding Myrna of the great truth of the cross. He will undertake salvation, and will renew His kingdom through these small instruments, like Myrna. Myrna should not be disarmed by her sin. Jesus is capable of painting His image in her and in any other sinner.

And He urged her to pray and to expect Him to manifest Himself in her, through His wounds. Because He wanted to renew His passion, that is to say, He wanted to remind men that He wants the salvation of mankind. And the salvation of mankind can only be attained through the suffering of God and through the suffering of those who participate in the Redemption of the Lord. And the Lord is with us. Also, should we be present for Him, continuously present, truly present, not only occasionally, temporarily!

Then there was a warning that made us think. In fact, on Holy Saturday, April 18, 1987, during the ecstasy, Jesus told Myrna, I have given you a sign to glorify Me. Glorifying God is always the final goal. Continue along this path, and I am with you. For if you do not... And then He stopped. Therefore, everything is done for His glorification. As long as we continue along this path, He is happy, but if we do not... And He is with us. Since we know that He is with us, we are sure we will arrive. If you do not... This "If you do not" made us think a lot. We wondered, "Who is He talking to?" A particular person or all of us? Myrna alone, or all of us? And I think that we have not paid enough attention to this. Because in the next two messages, Jesus told us, first on May 28th, 1987: Love one another and pray with faith. When the Lord says to us, Love one another, it is because we do not love one another enough. And when He says, Pray with faith, it is because we do not pray with enough faith. Our prayer had perhaps become a routine.

And again, afterwards, on July 22^nd, 1987, He urged Myrna to pray, using the plural, saying: Pray, pray, and pray again, addressing His message to all of us. And if you pray, say, "O Father, through the merits of Your beloved Son's wounds, save us." However, in the message, Jesus repeated again to Myrna, Do not fear, My daughter, in you I shall educate My generation. Therefore, Jesus again asked Myrna not to fear. He wants to educate her. But through her, He urges us to pray. To pray by addressing the Father, but through the wounds of Jesus. That is to say, by His Redemption. There is no salvation except through Jesus. There is no salvation except through the wounds of Jesus. He already said, on November 26, 1985, that there is no salvation for the soul except through the Cross: There is no salvation for the soul except through the Cross. Here again He says the same thing: O Father, through the merits of Your beloved Son's wounds, save us. We must go through the wounds, through Redemption. The wounds of Jesus are the doors to salvation.

Then Jesus, during the following message, on the evening of August 14, 1987, proclaimed what we can truly call divine motherhood. It was a message so simple and so beautiful. My daughter, She is My Mother from whom I was born. He who honors Her, honors Me. He who denies, Her denies Me. And he who asks something from Her, obtains because She is My Mother. Compare this message with what Jesus said in the Gospel: "He who recognizes the Son, recognizes the Father" (John 7:19; see John 5:23 and 14:9). Here, we have the impression that the Lord is magnifying the Holy Virgin to a level inconceivable for theologians. He who honors Her, honors Me. When we think of our Protestant brothers, who say that Honor given to the Holy Virgin is taken away from Jesus, this statement is difficult to understand. It is difficult to accept. It is not possible. Humanly speaking, this is unacceptable. Because honor given to the mother of a man, whomever he may be, is, humanly speaking, additional honor rendered to the son. This is clear logic. Apply this to Jesus and His Mother! To assert the opposite is to deny logic.

He who denies Her, denies Me. And he who asks something from Her, obtains because She is My Mother. I remember that during the years of my theological studies, we were taught that "Only God gives. We ask, by the intercession of Saints, but only God gives." Here, Jesus seems to scoff at our human theology: "Ask My Mother, have no fear. She is My Mother. I cannot refuse Her anything. He who asks something from Her obtains. Even if you do not ask from Me, ask from Her, and you will receive." This is very beautiful. The theology of Jesus is so human! This is even more interesting because in the Middle East, even those who do not believe, or those who never pray in churches, or who are not observant at all, even those people, when they are in trouble, instinctively say, "Ya'Adra! -- O Virgin!" It is true. Whether they are children, adults, or old people, they say, "Ya'Adra!"

I remember the story of a young man who was leading a life of worldly pleasure. Once, he narrowly missed getting into a serious car accident. He was on a mountain road, where there was snow, rain, and awful traffic, and his car started sliding down the steep slope. Instinctively, he shouted, "Ya'Adra!" He told me, "I don't know how the car stopped, it just came to a stop right at the edge of a cliff." What made it stop? "Ya'Adra! -- O Virgin!" He told me, "This occurred even though my life was quite far away from Jesus and Mary." And since then, this young man has completely changed. He has resumed the path that leads to the Lord.

"Ask My Mother. Ask. Have no fear, ask!" Do we ask Her often enough? In Western countries, the Holy Virgin is often absent. Some Churches no longer have a statue or an icon of Her. Even the rosary has been abandoned by some people. One of the French priests who came to Damascus, when he saw how much we prayed the rosary (I have difficulty saying "recite the rosary," although this is the expression to use because we cannot just recite a prayer), he said, "Oh! You pray the rosary!" I replied, "Of course! Of course we pray the rosary! Why would we not?" He said, "But in France, this tradition has disappeared." I told him, "I hope it will start again." What is the disadvantage of praying the rosary? In the first place, it has the same words said by the angel and Elizabeth. The words of the Gospel! And in the second place, what do we say to the Holy Virgin? "Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death." This "now" might be exactly the hour of our death. Because I cannot guarantee what will happen during the next minute. Therefore, to Her, who is the Mother of God, we pray, "Look at me, poor sinner." What disadvantage or incongruity could there be in praying the rosary? We ask things of human beings whom we often disrespect. We ask them for things to achieve our goals. Why not ask things of the Mother of God, who is our Mother? Unless we no longer consider ourselves to be sinners. This act of eliminating our sense of sin is one of the greatest sins in Western countries.

Therefore, during the second period, we witnessed a kind of crescendo in the messages. The Lord unveiled His entire plan of salvation and then proved His words to be true. I was crucified out of love for you, and I want you to [...] bear the cross. Pray. My daughter, I shall give you from My wounds. [You, also, must pray.] And, Do not fear, I am with you. Then, [Respect My Mother, honor Her, and pray to Her. She is for you, My Mother and your Mother.]

The ecstasies, A turning point
Monday, September 7, 1987 -- Thursday, November 26, 1987

Here, there was a turning point. On September 7, 1987. This turning point was preceded by a mysterious warning on Holy Saturday, April 18, 1987. On September 7, 1987, the message seemed like more than a warning. It seemed more like an ultimatum. Myrna, awakening from the ecstasy, was crying. She was so upset that when the priests asked her what was wrong, she replied, "Get out of the room, I don't want to see anyone here. If He wanted to abandon me, then why did He choose me? Suicide would be better." Imagine that word. It shows how devastated Myrna was, almost despondent. I was not in the room to hear what she said, but Father Boulos Fadel reported that to me.

Here is the content of the message. Jesus is speaking: Mary (this was the name given to Myrna at her baptism), is it not you that I have chosen, the quiet girl with a heart full of love and sympathy? I have noticed that you cannot endure anything for Me. This is a death sentence. And the Lord continued: I shall give you a chance to choose. Know that if you lose Me, you will lose the prayers of all those around you, and know that bearing the Cross is unavoidable. Did Myrna, during this period, seek to avoid bearing the cross, as we might also have done? Because Myrna is not alone. Myrna, I would say, represents the entire community. Did we try to avoid bearing the cross? To flee from it? To pretend that we were bearing it? This is a daily temptation. Myrna must have passed through a period of even greater temptation, and the Lord caught hold of her.

One person in the room guessed what was happening before even hearing the message. It was the late Nabil, the cameraman, who was there constantly filming. When he saw Myrna crying so hard, he turned to her husband and said, "Nicolas, I think that Jesus reprimanded your wife." And, in fact, when Myrna told us the message, we realized that Nabil was right. After that, Myrna intensified her prayers. And we also shook ourselves and said, "It is time to intensify our prayer life, and our life of love and service." Luckily, the Lord had mercy on us. Otherwise, we would have suffered a horrible fall. Imagine, after four years, we would have been scoffed at by the whole world. Imagine our situation, Myrna's situation, if everything had ceased after all these events. People would certainly have claimed that the whole thing was completely false. Or they would have said, "See, God Himself has abandoned them. Oh, the poor people, what remains for them?"

We awaited the answer to this ultimatum with great anxiety, on the eve of November 26, 1987. That day, Father René Laurentin (Vatican Mariologist) was there. The Lord gave a message to Myrna. He congratulated her for having chosen Him, but He urged her to live a life based on true faith and love. He urged her to pray for those who persecute her, because through them, He promised her Glory. And He urged her, again, to be strong in the face of difficulties, to be faithful as a wife, a mother and a sister to those who come to her. And again, He gave her the great message, but this time, to bring to the whole world: Go and preach to the whole world and tell them without fear to work for unity. That was the turning point. And what a turnaround! An ultimatum that the Lord Himself withdrew, out of friendship for us, out of love for Himself.

And He gave Myrna a new mission: Go and preach! This go and preach was seized upon by a physician, Doctor Antoine Mansour (personal doctor of former American president of the United States of America, Ronald Regan), who phoned the same evening from the USA. At his request, we told him the message. A short while after, he phoned back and said, "We are going to put the Lord's ordinance into practice. I invite you, and we are going to start with the U.S.A."

The ecstasies, Third period
Sunday, August 14, 1988 -- Monday, October 10, 1988

Here begins what I call the third period of the messages. Myrna and Nicolas went to the United States for six months. In Los Angeles, the Lord renewed the mission of Soufanieh, through the oil that oozed, and through a message that the Lord gave on the eve of the Feast of the Assumption, August 14, 1988, during an ecstasy that occurred at the end of a mass celebrated in the house of Doctor Antoine Mansour.

Then, Jesus said: My children, My peace I gave you, but what have you given Me? Jesus was there, I would say, to ask what had been achieved. After seven or eight years, He had the right to ask, "What have you done?" My peace I gave you, but what have you given Me? You are My Church and your heart belongs to Me, unless this heart has a god other than Me! You see this back-and-forth of the Lord: You are My Church and your heart belongs to Me, unless... My peace I gave you, but what have you given Me? Then He continues, I told you, 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. And this led Him to say, It is easier for Me (to accept) that an infidel believe in My name than that those who pretend to have faith and love swear by My name. It was a sad observation, and a hard reproach! A hard reproach because it corresponded to an observation that we had made in Soufanieh. How many people who were completely against God have been reclaimed by God and have found their joy, their purpose, their peace and their freedom in the Lord. And many of those who claim to represent the Lord, or to believe in Him, continue to deny Soufanieh and to oppose it with such disdain and snobbery! We saw some people who, even though they had very important positions in the Church, continued obstinately to refuse all these signs that the Lord gave to us.

It is Jesus' reproach that seems to weigh heavily on His heart. The continuation of the message seems to clarify it, because Jesus continued, It is in God alone that you must place your pride. In God alone! Then, He strengthens this explanation, it seems to me, in the sentence that immediately follows: Pray for the sinners who forgive in My name, and for those who deny My Mother. But who forgives in the name of Jesus? Those who have the power to forgive. In the Catholic as well as the Orthodox Churches, it is the clergy, at any level. It is the clergy, the priests, the bishops, the Patriarchs, and the Pope. Only they forgive in the name of Jesus. Jesus reminds us of our state as sinners, especially when we forgive in His name!

At the end, Jesus said this truly astounding sentence, which gives the impression that God is begging us: My children, I have given you all of My time, give Me a part of your time. But God does not need anything! The whole universe, the entire universe, gives Him nothing! And despite that, He asks us for part of our time. If this is not for us, who is it for? Why does He want our time? He has eternity ahead of Him, before and after! Despite that, He asks us for part of our time. So that, through this time that we give Him, we may discover ourselves, find Him again, find ourselves again. So that we truly become children of God. Not children of this world, immersed in the world, who see nothing but this world.

This message was given in Los Angeles. And it seemed to us that the Lord, beyond Soufanieh, was targeting Americans as a priority. Because the way of life in the USA exemplifies this attachment to the worldly. But it is obvious that the Lord is speaking to us all. Because we are all threatened by this civilization, this so-called western civilization. It is most extreme in the USA, but we are all threatened by it. We see some of its consequences in Syria. And God's presence in our daily life has diminished. More and more. When I stroll through the streets of Paris, I ask myself, "Where is God, if He is not in the hearts of a few people, in some little houses, in convents and monasteries, or in these small prayer groups which are like little islands in a great pagan, materialistic ocean?"

On September 7, 1988 a new stage in this third period began. Myrna returned to Damascus on September 6. She had suffered a lot in the United States. She suffered a lot without complaining. Back in Damascus, then, she told us many things, almost despite herself, to explain the meaning of the message received on September 7. That day, the Lord said, My daughter, I told you to overcome all your difficulties and know that you have endured only a few. That is to say, prepare yourself. He is always educating her, preparing her.

And it was then that He pronounced a word that came like a slap in the face: Tell My children that it is from them that I demand unity, and I do not want it from those who act as if they were working for unity. This sentence seemed so harsh that, Father Joseph Malouli and I, said to each other, "Perhaps Myrna had not understood Him." So I read the sentence again, and asked Myrna to listen carefully to see if she was not mistaken. After I read the sentence again clearly, she said, "That is exactly what I heard." The following day, I took the message to the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch. After reading it, he said, "Father, the Lord knows us. That is exactly what we are like." A short while after, I showed the message to another bishop, Monsignor George Hafoury. When he read the message, he said, "Father, the Lord knows us. This is really true."

In the continuation of this message, Jesus repeated to Myrna, Go and preach. Go and preach! She had just returned. She returned the night before, on September 6. And on September 7, Jesus told her, Go and preach. As if the Lord wanted her to be on the road. And wherever you go, I am with you. Therefore, do not fear anything, I am with you. Jesus wanted Myrna to be on a permanent mission. But is this not the normal situation of any Christian?

A few days later, Myrna went to Lebanon. She had been invited there. In Lebanon, among other events, an extraordinary thing happened. She attended Sunday mass on October 10, 1988, held at Saint George's Church in the village of Màad. After mass, she returned to the church, where there was a plaster crucifix that Myrna found very beautiful. She kneeled down, and then she was not aware of what happened after. Some people who were looking for Myrna went to the church and found her kneeling under the crucifix. Oil was oozing from the feet of the crucifix onto Myrna's head, which was just under Jesus' feet. Oil was oozing and running onto the floor. People filmed the whole thing, for half an hour. Then, when Myrna awakened from the ecstasy, she said, "I saw light, and I heard the voice of Jesus who told me, My daughter Mary, why are you afraid even though I am with you?" Always this statement: I am with you. You must speak loudly to tell the word of truth about He who created you, so that My strength may be manifested in you. And I will give you from My wounds so that you will forget the hardships that people inflict upon you. Do not choose your path, because I have laid it out before you.

This message is both so deep and so beautiful that it takes one's breath away. Myrna is still afraid, despite all she has seen, despite all she is experiencing. A human being is still a human being. Myrna is suffering because of what people are saying about her. She has been suffering immensely until now. The Lord is with Myrna, and she knows that. But despite this fact, she knows she is very limited.

Myrna does not like to speak about herself. When her husband or the priests are with her, and someone asks her a question, she says, "Ask Nicolas, ask the Father. Me, I know nothing." Usually, Myrna acts as if the whole Soufanieh phenomenon does not concern her, as if she has nothing to do with it. But when she has no choice, and she is obliged to speak (and I have seen that recorded on video), what she says is amazing. When she watches the videotapes, she says, "How could I have spoken like that?" It is not she who is speaking. That is why the Lord told her, You must speak loudly to tell the word of truth about He who created you, so that My strength may be manifested in you. This leads us back to the foundation of Christianity: God is pleased by humble people who accept Him. And it is through those humble people that He manifests all His greatness and all His power. He began in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, for us, it is especially the Holy Virgin who is His most devoted Servant, the most humble, who regards Herself as a lowly servant, She who is, at the same time, the Mother of God. Myrna keenly feels her limits, her weaknesses, her fears. The Lord tells her, "Do not worry, speak." He obliges her to speak.

Then the Lord states this paradox: Do not choose your path, because I have laid it out before you. We know how much God respects human freedom. But how can we reconcile this freedom with His choice? He alone knows how to reconcile the two. We do not see these things clearly. And I think that, each one of us, no matter how small was our experience with the Lord, when we look back on it, we feel and see proof that the Lord was holding our hand, and that through each period of our lives, He was holding our hand.

We thought we were acting of our own volition, on our own initiative, with our own intelligence. I am not diminishing human capabilities. Not at all. I do not want to minimize the extraordinary capabilities of human beings. But I do want to acknowledge that whatever humans do, they are still limited. And only the Lord knows man. He alone knows man! That brings us back to the first sentence of the Holy Virgin, during the first message, on December 18, 1982: You know all things and yet you know nothing. Your knowledge is an incomplete knowledge. Even though we know things, I think that the person one knows least is oneself. So we do not know others either. Although we think we know them.

That is why it is always better not to judge, and to try to live in love. It is nearly impossible, I know that from experience! How many times I have asked the Lord, "Please, Lord, help me to stop judging others. Help me to love them, only." Being constantly confronted with a lot of people and things, even in the Church, frequently puts one in a state of judgement, I would say, without even noticing. You flee by imploring the Lord to put you in a state of love solely, but despite that, you return, without noticing, to a state of judgement. If only to see whether you are on the right path or not. Too see if what you do and say is agreeable to the Lord or not, if it serves the Lord or not. You place yourself in a state of judgement, of yourself and others, without wanting to do so. And the Lord tells us here, Do not choose your path, because I have laid it out before you.

The ecstasies, Fourth Period
Saturday, November 26, 1988 -- Monday, November 26, 1990

Here begins what I have called the fourth period of the messages of the ecstasies. In fact, a little later, on November 26, 1988, Jesus said to Myrna, Let your tongue be a sword that speaks in My name. A sword. This is the language of the prophets in the Old Testament. And this was said to Myrna, who scarcely dares to answer. When someone reproaches her for something, she does not reply, she just remains silent. And here is the Lord telling her, Let your tongue be a sword that speaks in My name.

Then the Lord presses further in His demand for unity. Prayer, love, unity. The Lord asked for this unity through two requests: one that depends solely on Him, and another that clearly depends on men.

Here is the one that depends on Him alone. On November 26, 1989, during an ecstasy, Myrna saw the Holy Virgin who gave her an extraordinary message. She told Myrna, Jesus told Peter, "You are the rock, and on it, I shall build My Church." As for Me, I tell you now, "You are the heart in which Jesus will build His UNICITY." There is certainly a complementarity between the two parts of this message. The beginning of Christianity rested on Peter's shoulders. And now, it is the beginning of a new Christianity, always loyal to the Lord, but which rests also upon the hearts of men. As for Me, I tell you now: "You are the heart in which Jesus will build His UNICITY." It is still Jesus who is doing the work, not us. Jesus built the Church on Peter. Now, the Holy Virgin tells us, He will build His unity in our hearts.

The structure and content of this message are inspiring. First of all, it is in the style of the "Sermon on the Mount." In this "sermon," Jesus gave Himself a place in the divine plan for salvation, a place that seemed surprisingly important to His contemporaries and listeners. Here, it seems to me that Mary, through this message, is giving Herself a place in the divine will for a return to Church unity, a place that might seem surprising to our contemporaries. Moreover, the surprising word here is the word unicity, which is the only word that can translate the Arabic word "Wahdanya." Unicity is more than union; it is much deeper. It goes right to the heart of the matter. Jesus is ONE. And since the hearts of the faithful are made in His image, they are ONE. Union tolerates, indeed postulates, diversity in institutions, in the expressions of faith and life. But in the hearts, there can only be unicity of faith and love. Before the One Jesus Christ, there is One Heart from those who love each other. Of course, such perfection is, humanly speaking, impossible. But who said that this would be the work of men? It is Jesus who is doing the work. Mary reminded us of that. He is the One who will build His unicity. Has the time not come to remember that? The initiative comes from Him, the work also will be His. We are the instruments. Christ asks us to try to be as available as possible, through prayer, in order that He may do His work in us.

Now, let us discuss the demand of Jesus and Mary, which, in terms of union, depends on men. The Holy Virgin and Jesus, during the following two messages, seem to reduce their demands for union to a bare minimum. On Holy Saturday, April 14, 1990, after having said, My children, you will teach the generations THE WORD of unity, love and faith, Jesus also said to Myrna, I am with you. But you, My daughter, will only hear My voice until the Feast (of Easter) has been unified. For eight years, Jesus has been asking for unity. Now, it seems that all He wants is unity of the Feast, Easter. "Since you have not given Me unity, at least give Me unity of the Feast... At least that. Because true unity, profound unity, is not your work." But unification of the Feast can be achieved, since it has already been accomplished in other parts of the Middle East.

A little after, on November 26, 1990, the Holy Virgin said exactly this to Myrna: Do not fear, My daughter, if I tell you that you are seeing Me for the last time until the Feast (of Easter) is unified. It seems that the Lord asked, asked, and asked again. Finally, He saw that we had not responded to His request. He then said, "Fine. Then at least do Me the favor of unifying the Feast of Easter."

But the Lord did not stop there. Again, through the Holy Virgin, He explained to Myrna that He is always with her, and with all those who want to unify His Church and His Feast. And He will give her a sign, the oozing of oil on her hands: As for the oil, it will continue to manifest itself on your hands to glorify My Son Jesus, whenever He wishes and wherever you go. Therefore, the sign is still there, but only to glorify the Lord! Let us remember the initial message. Remember God, because God is with us. If God is truly here, life must change.

Now I will provide further details on this fourth period. On November 26, 1988, Myrna was in Damascus, and as I said before, a lot of people were trying to figure things out. What was to be done to unify the Churches? Some said they felt that Soufanieh had divided the Church even more, rather than unifying it. Is that what the Lord wanted? Did He want yet another division, on top of the existing ones? Some people were really worried that there was going to be even greater division in the Church, even though we kept telling them that we were only at the beginning of Soufanieh, and that the Lord sees much further ahead than we do. We do not see beyond the ends of our noses. But people kept asking us whether something should be done.

The message of November 26, 1988 clarified things, and reminded us of two essential things: The Lord is with us, and He wants us to be in Him as He is in each of us. Those are His words. And, especially regarding unity of the Church, this does not depend on us, because we are incapable of achieving it. It was, I would say, Jesus' polite way of telling us: "Your history is so encumbered, humanly speaking, that you are absolutely incapable of ridding yourselves of it, of freeing yourselves of it. Allow Me to do My work. All that I ask from you is to fast and pray. I will take care of the rest."

And in the message, there are two extremely important sentences: In the first one, the Lord said, All I want is for you all to gather in Me as I am in each of you. For you all to gather in Me as I am in each of you. In the second sentence, the Lord said to Myrna: And be sure that I am with you and with you all.

Of course, He told her other things also: Do not fear if you do not hear My voice for a long time, etc. What is most important for the Church is this: The Lord is with us. He is even in us. He wants us to be in Him. And knowing that we are truly incapable of being in Him, that we do not know even that we are in Him unless He tells us so, (and how often, because of certain personal or group situations and for a thousand and one reasons, do we feel separate from the Lord, do we believe we are far from Him). Despite all that, He tells us, I am in you.

He has an unfathomable love for man. Even though I may repeat many times, "Lord, go away. I don't want You in my life. I want to do things that are against You," He tells me, "No matter what you do, I am in you." Whatever you do, I am in you. Not only "with" you! This is the sentence in which He summarizes His message: All I want, All I want: That is all He said. All I want is for you all to gather in Me as I am in each of you. It truly fills the heart with joy and faith to know that the Lord is there, that He is assuring us that He is within us, in spite of all our miseries, whether they be on a personal or community level. And this is all what He wants.

But what does He find so beautiful in us that He wants to be in us? He is infinite beauty. But what does He see in us? That is His secret. That is His secret. What a mystery! And that is why He seems to tell us, You do not understand. You do not know what to do. At least, do what you can and what I tell you to do: Fast and pray. I do not ask you for more. And that was quite a lesson for us.

Then, immediately after, there were the other messages. The Holy Virgin Mary reappeared to Myrna, after an interruption or absence of four years and four days. She reappeared to Myrna to tell her, in very simple language, that She also is with us, that Myrna does not have to be afraid, that she should rejoice, that she should work, that all that is to glorify the Lord, that Myrna should be happy and in peace and that she should urge everyone to pray. And all those who cooperate with Myrna will also benefit from this peace that the Lord gives to Myrna. It is very simple but extraordinarily beautiful.

Notice that the first sentence of the message given by Mary in Los Angeles, on August 18, 1989, begins exactly with the first sentence of the first message given during the first ecstasy, which occurred on October 28, 1983. That day, the Holy Virgin said to Myrna, Do not fear. All this is happening to glorify the name of God. And on August 18, 1989, the Holy Virgin said exactly the same thing: Do not fear, My daughter. All this is happening to glorify the name of God. It was as if the Virgin were completing the circle. Ultimately, it is the Lord who designs the circle, and it is He who causes it to manifest. But He said, "My children, try to cooperate, and let Me do My work."

And at the same time, this is an invitation to Myrna to rejoice. To rejoice about what? About the fact that the Lord allowed her to come to Mary. Therefore she was summoned from elsewhere. This is a real mystery, the mystery of all ordinary relationships between creature and Creator, and the mystery of all privileged relationships between the Creator and a "chosen" creature...Jesus had already said to Myrna, during the ecstasy of November 26, 1985: Go to the land where corruption has prevailed... And Mary came to tell her, during the ecstasy of August 18, 1989: Rejoice, [...], because God has allowed you to come to Me. The "where" and the "how" are mysteries, even for Myrna, who is experiencing these unique meetings. We, as witnesses, see only the external, transitory signs of all this!

The Holy Virgin also told Myrna, to educate her, "Do not worry about what people say about you, but remain always in peace." And God knows how much Myrna had suffered from the many accusations that were thrown at her, and that continued to come from all directions. Moreover, the Holy Virgin told her, Remain always in peace, because the creatures turn towards Me through you. What an amazing sentence! It was a way of telling Myrna that she had become an icon of the Holy Virgin. It was a sentence that I had read in a book by Father René Laurentin (France), about Soufanieh, where he wonders if Myrna is not also an icon of the Holy Virgin, since she oozes oil. And why not? Why not? The Holy Virgin said, "Yes:" The creatures turn towards Me through you.

Then, She gave Myrna a new mission: Tell everyone to pray more. Once again, prayer. It was an invitation to prayer: Because they need prayer to please the Father. The Holy Virgin is so gentle, but at the same time so worried, that from time to time She reminds us that the Good Lord is not satisfied, that there is something wrong and that the only thing that will please Him is prayer, the type of prayer that changes our lives. Therefore, we must pray.

Finally, She said this to Myrna, as if to console her: May the blessings of God be upon you and upon all those who have cooperated with you out of love for Him. Out of love for Him. Not for themselves, but out of love for Him. You see, this is an extraordinary spiritual responsibility through which the Holy Virgin reminds Myrna that everything we do must be done to glorify God. Therefore, if we truly want to serve the Lord, we must not worry about what others will say, we must rejoice, we must be in peace, because once we have become servants of the Lord, whether we want it or not, we become icons of the Lord. People turn towards the Lord through us. We may not be outwardly beautiful, or whatever, but it is through the image that we offer to others that they will see the Lord. This is true. People used to say that the priests represented Jesus Christ. But all Christians represent