Miracles Bear Witness To The Truth

Rick Salbato – 4-18-2007

People have been asking what happened during Easter Week in Damascus this year. This was a long awaited day. Myrna, the seer of Our Lady of Soufanieh, has received the stigmata and messages from Our Lady or Christ every year when Easter in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church land on the same year. This is one of those years.

People traveled to Damascus from all over the world to witness the miracle of the stigmata and the miracles of oil. Most expected an apparition and wanted to see this first hand. They came from as far away as Brazil, almost all of Europe, America and Canada. There were many from Lebanon, Iraqi, Jordan and Egypt.  For over three years no miracles have happened in Soufanieh and people were apprehensive to see one or more of the miracles that had made Our Lady of Soufanieh famous: cures, oil, apparitions and the stigmata.    

But nothing happened. From Sunday through Saturday there was no oil from Myna’s hands, or from the Icon, or from anything else. On Good Friday there was no stigmata, no apparition, and no oil. Finally on Saturday oil came out from Myrna’s hands and face in front of great crowds including two of my close friends. Thinking that Myna might have also had an apparition when the oil came out, my friend asked Myna if she had a message. 

“No! But even no message is a message.”  

The object of this Newsletter is to explain what I think Myrna meant by this statement and to show the importance of TRUE miracles. I have stressed the word “true” because there are more false or demonic miracles than true ones. If you have read my book, “THE MIRACLE OF DAMASCUS”, (or will read it in the future) you will see that I not only tested Myrna and the messages, but also tested the miracles to make sure they were real and not faked or demonic.

The complete book is at http://www.unitypublishing.com/damascus.html

To understand why God performs miracles all we need do is listen to Christ’s own words in the bible: “If you do not believe me, believe me because of the works I perform.”  What works?  To understand that let us look at John the Baptist, who is sitting in jail waiting to have his head cut off. John had seen Christ in the Jordan and had baptized him. John saw a dove come down out of Heaven and heard a voice speak out:  “This is My only Son, hear Him.” The word “beloved” is a bad translation, it should read “only Son”.

Why then did John send his disciples to Christ and ask: “Are You the One, the Christ, or are we to look for another?” What made John start to doubt what he had once believed when he said: “There goes the Lamb of God.”?  John thought in jail: “What have I seen that might not be an illusion, a trick of the devil? The dove could have been an illusion, I did not touch it.  The voice could be from the devil. I have no way of knowing. I need some proof that Jesus is the Christ.”

So when John’s disciples asked Christ for proof, He smiled at them: “Tell John that the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk, the dead rise, and the poor have the good news preached to them.”

Now this is the great statement of discernment because it says what Satan and the demons cannot do in the form of miracles and it says that Christ is not charging money for His miracles or preaching. These true miracles, miracles beyond the power of nature and therefore beyond the power of the preternatural, are God’s signature. God never asks us to believe the unbelievable without signing His Name. This is done by an irrefutable miracle, a miracle that humans cannot fake and demons cannot do. 

For a list of these things see: http://www.unitypublishing.com/Apparitions/TestingTheSpirit.html

Now let us stay with the bible for more discernment of miracles. In John’s gospel he says that what is written is written for our salvation but there is so much more that Christ did it would take hundreds of books to hold all the information. From this and the teaching of the Church we know that every single word of the bible is very important even when it seems that it is not. For example, when Christ cured Peter’s mother-in-law the bible says, “she waited on them.”  This is circumstantial evidence that Peter’s wife was no longer living. If she had been living she would have waited on the men.

Now let us look at Christ’s miracles and extrapolate truth from it. When Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, He said: “Give him something to eat.” Now Lazarus just came back to life and was not thinking of food and even if he was, why was this considered important enough to include in the bible? It is included to prove this is not an illusion but a man that can be touched and even eat.

When Christ cured the lame man, He said: “Pick up your bed and go to your family.” Why pick up the bed? To prove it is a real cure and not an illusion, legs that can even handle a complete bedroll. 

When Christ rose from the dead He said: “Touch me! Give me something to eat.” He did not need food, He had a resurrected body but He did need to prove He was not an illusion. Again when meeting the Apostles on the beach He called to them to bring in the fish and John says: “He ate with us.” This is in the bible to prove it is not an illusion like the Egyptian Magician’s snake at the time of Moses. Their snake was an illusion but Moses snake ate it up, as to say made it disappear. When Elias challenged the 450 false prophets to show their power they actually tried to do so thinking that they could because they had done so before; but this was different. Elias was not just asking for fire from Heaven, which they could do by illusion, but was asking that the fire consume the sacrifice and even the wood soaked in water. Their demons could not do this. 

The same criteria are used even today for any message from Heaven. God does not ask us to believe the unbelievable without giving some proof and that proof is His Signature, His sign that it comes from Him, an irrefutable miracle. When Our Lady appeared to Bernadette God did not leave her without proof it was His Mother and not an illusion. When Our Lady appeared to the children of Fatima God did not leave them without proof that it was not an illusion.

When someone makes an unbelievable claim to me, they have to prove it. In the case of private revelation that is a miracle because I know of no true apparition that does not have a real miracle connected to it. But still, these miracles have to be tested so as to be proven that they are from God.

Let me give some examples of miracles not from God.

In Lisbon, Portugal in about 1955 a woman had a statue that was bleeding real human blood and right before the eyes of priests and nuns. When the bishop tested the blood it contained the saliva of a leach. It was demonic because even a human can suck blood out with a leach and then squeeze it on a statue.

In the case of the stigmata, anyone can make wounds in the hands and feet as in the case of Gino, but no one ever saw it come onto him or leave him. In the case of Myrna, the wounds come and go away in front of witnesses. The demons can make them appear and even be real but they cannot heal the wounds instantaneously as is done in Soufanieh.

The Fatima statue that wept tears in New Orleans was tested to be 100% pure human tears. Now unless you do not know, 100% pure anything is impossible but not even dust from the statue clung to the tears. By the way, the same is true about Myrna’s oil as told to me by the Nuncio. It was his investigation. 

However, in the case of the stigmatic seer of Rockingham, his statue had an oily rose-scented material that was not real tears and his stigmata was never seen appearing or disappearing. The bishop removed him from the parish.

The Monks of the Russian Orthodox  Church, Christ of the Hills Monastery in Blanco County, Texas admitted to faking a crying statue to molest children.  What is educational about this is that although a fake (not even demonic) it fooled tens of thousands of people for many years. 

In Medjugorje we have many signs in the sky but these are illusions and let me prove it. Many, if not most, who look to the sun because it is changing colors (illusion) end up having eye problems the rest of their lives because of the radiation burns. See   http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=146656436&blogID=226609905&MyToken=4e6a55da-5667-4b0e-aedc-7f5242c725d7

A true miracle of the sun as in Fatima heals eyes, not harm them. The true miracles of the sun at Fatima were the many cures and the drying of the water six feet deep in the ground.

Now that we have explained that even miracles have to be investigated, let us go back to the theme: “Miracles bear witness to the truth.” Miracles are like a phone call. The phone rings and rings and when you answer the phone there is a message. The ringing phone is not as important as the message. In fact, the ring is not important at all except to get you to listen to the message. The miracle draws attention to the message and proves the message. But we should not seek the miracle except to prove the message because the reason for the miracle is to prove the message.

Miracles bear witness to the truth of even the interpretation of the message.  For instance, the Catholic Church claims to be the one and only Church Christ founded, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, a Kingdom militant, suffering, and triumphant.  Now, we can prove it is the one and only true Church through the Bible, the history of its existence and its fidelity to Christ’s teaching.  But there is even a better way to prove its claim to being the one and only true Church, its miracles.  There are hundreds of true miracles in the Catholic Church each and every year and millions throughout its 2000-year history, but there is not one miracle (using the test above) outside the Church.

When Protestants claim to be Christ’s church, ask them to produce God’s signature, a proof of what they say.

When the “Old Roman Catholics” claim to be the true church ask them for the proof of a miracle.

When the Saint Pius X Society claims that they are the true traditionalists, ask them for the proof.

Now I do not like the Novus Ordo Mass but there have been Eucharistic Miracles with it, which at least proves it is the true Body and Blood of Christ.

What about the many Orthodox Churches, Greek, Russian, Armenian, etc.? Has there ever been even one miracle using the above criteria in almost a 1000 years? No! Not one. Even the Icon of Kazan stopped producing miracles after the split.   

What about those people who claim all these Churches are God’s Churches and all are just different ways to heaven? This is what the Catholic Church calls the Heresy of Pluralism. But if this were true, where is the miracle to prove it?

What about the main message of Soufanieh? Our Lady of Soufanieh said:

“The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is the Church. Those who divided it have sinned. Those who are happy in these divisions are still sinning.”  Happy could also be translated “contented”.

Who divided the Church? Who are contented with divisions? Who are those who do nothing to unite? Now that brings me to my interpretation of the happenings (or lack of happenings) in Damascus this last Easter week. People came to Damascus from all over the world to see miracles, to hear the phone ringing.  People came from the Catholic Church, from many Orthodox Churches, from Protestant Churches. Even Moslems came. Some spent all the money they had to spare to get there. They came to see miracles but few know the messages and almost none are doing anything to bring about unity. There is not even unity among the followers of Soufanieh.

There is no plan to work towards unity even between one or two Churches.  There is no organization to implement the messages as there is in Divine Mercy, Fatima, Sacred Heart, Miraculous Medal, Brown Scapular and almost all other true apparitions. When Heaven asked for something, people banned together to get it accomplished, but not in Soufanieh! Nothing! Absolutely nothing!  

Myrna said: “Even no message is a message.”

People came for miracles and God gave them none because they have not answered the call to work toward unity. They only pretend to work toward unity. No message is a message, a message that God is not pleased with people’s failure to bring about the unity of Christians. 

In the end He gave one small miracle to show that He has not given up on Myrna, but I think He has given up on us. I think God will have to do things His way. I know there will be one and only One Catholic Church on Earth in my lifetime but no one will like the way God accomplishes this. We could have done it the easy way but we didn’t.

Richard Salbato

4-18-2007