Windsor church witnessing 'miracle' oil from painting of Virgin Mary!

St. Simeon Melkite Catholic Church Windsor كنيسة القديس سمعان العمودي
August 20

May the Blessing and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all my brothers and sisters,
This is Father Gerard coming to you from St. Simeon Stylites Melkite Catholic Church in Windsor, Canada.
We wanted to bring you this short report so we can explain to you what has been happening with the sacred oil seeping from the Icon of the Holy Virgin Mary.
Before we do that, we wanted to give a little background on the icon itself. It originated in Russia and is called the Icon of “The Inexhaustible Chalice”. It is a wondrous icon known for healing from any kind of addiction, and this one is a copy of the original icon. It was painted by a Ukrainian painter who lives in Lebanon. He dedicated his life to only painting icons after the Holy Mary healed him from his alcohol addiction.
It has been in our church for approximately two years, we bought it from Lebanon, but did not have anywhere to display it because we were renting a church and didn’t have our own as of yet. So now that we have our own church, we decided to display it starting August 1st for the feast of the Assumption. We prepared a wooden case with a glass door to put it in for display.
When we first brought it to the Church, we displayed it on the altar, since the case was not ready yet. On the feast of the “Transfiguration” we had a youth group meeting, before the mass. And during the meeting we went into the church to pray and saw that the icon was starting to seep oil. There was a fair quantity of oil all over the icon and altar. We wiped it, and were afraid that someone had poured oil on it purposely, so we had to be absolutely sure. After we wiped it, we placed the icon in the centre of the church on a podium and celebrated mass. When mass was done, we left the church. Later that night at around 9pm, a lady who was sick, saw the pictures of what happened earlier and wanted to come pray in front of the icon for healing. So, we opened the church for her and when we entered, we saw that the icon was seeping a large quantity of oil and it filled the ground and podium where it was placed. We wiped all the oil and brought the icon and placed it in a tray back on the altar. The church at this point was filled with people and so we decided to celebrate mass and Holy Eucharist to put the focus on Jesus and to help us understand His message from what was happening.
We celebrated mass and after mass we had a litany for the Blessed Virgin Mary and blessed the congregation with the icon. As we were blessing the people the icon started to seep plenty of oil right in front of everyone’s eyes that were present. It was an overwhelming feeling of awe to witness this and a feeling of great joy. The entire church was filled with an incredible scent of roses and flowers from the oil coming from the icon. We placed the icon back on the tray and this continued for approximately one week. Two days after this all started, Father Rabih Abou Zgheib, and two others came down from Montreal, in order to investigate the wonderous icon. They dried the icon and all the oil that was accumulated with a towel and a few hours after that the icon started to seep oil again.
The oil my brothers and sisters has the colour of extra virgin olive oil but is very fragrant and aromatic. We have sent a sample to a lab in order to see what the oil really is. We have mixed the oil from the icon with extra virgin olive oil in order to have enough to give out to all visitors. We have had a flood of visitors and the quantity of oil from the icon itself would not be sufficient enough to give everyone. Monday August 12 at 3am, was the last time that the icon seeps oil, so we dried it completely and placed it in the case we prepared for it, so that we can have a procession with the icon for the feast of the assumption of our Lady after mass. After the vesper prayers we were preparing for the mass, when the deacon called me over to show me that the icon was seeping a large quantity of oil all over again. We blessed the people and since was seeping oil lightly for the next two days after.

 

Today my brothers and sisters if we want to just stop at the miraculous oil seeping from the icon, it is not the intent of the miracle to stop at that. Today we need to look further into the seeping of the oil. The oil represents the presence of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the sick with oil, the renewal, repentance and confession. Today what is happening as a result of this wonderous seeping of oil from the icon, has brought thousands of people to the church. Whether they were coming out of curiosity or skepticism, once they entered the church felt a presence of Holiness and Sacredness in the place. People started to confess, cry and repent. Once in front of the icon there was a real great change in their lives. That is the true miracle that was taking place. These individuals that have not confessed or entered church in a very long time, once they came in to the church have confessed and renewed their commitment to our Lord. They have once again dedicated their lives to God, confessing and being washed from their old ways and have been leaving stronger and joyous in their faith. This is the true miracle. Indeed, the Holy Virgin Mary is telling us today what she said at the wedding in Cana, “Do whatever He tells you.” And the true miracle that happens in our lives is every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, in the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sacrament of Communion. This sacrifice of praise where the bread and wine turn into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Today we are not in a position to believe or not believe, to analyze using common sense or science to prove if this is a miracle or not. Today this matter only needs faith. If we look and take into account all of our lives as Christians, it is all built on miracles. The Lord’s presence in our lives is a miracle, the resurrection of our Lord a miracle, the Virgin Mary becoming pregnant through the Holy Spirit also a miracle. We need to commit our lives to our Lord and surrender all to Him having faith that he will come into our lives understanding our weak nature, understanding our world, creating good and change in all things present, in this world, that our nature only understands by common sense and proof.
Today my brothers and sisters if the miracle is not going to drive me to know more and believe in my Lord it is irrelevant. Even so the miracle is not what will bring me faith, it is my faith that will bring the miracle. Just as we see in the bible when Jesus would ask “do you believe?” and He would give the person according to his faith. There have been a lot of people that have come, received blessing and confessed. Their lives were changed and they were filled with peace, felt peace. Our church is small and is not heard of or known, but our Blessed Mother made it known to everyone and she brought people from all over to receive blessings, even though we did not have any media coverage to inform people. We did not allow any media to cover the story or take videos of what was happening because we were not making public or marketing this wonderous Icon. If our Blessed Mother wanted to bring her children, she would know how to bring them together from all over the world, and this is what was happening. There has been a lot of testimonies of people repenting and their lives being changed, among them a priest of devil worshipers, he came to the church and could not enter. He asked the Holy Virgin Mary if you are truly the Mother of God, allow me to enter the church to see you. He came in to the church and felt a fire burning in him. He cried, repented, confessed, his life was changed and he dedicated his life all over again to our Lord Jesus Christ. These testimonies that we are seeing in the 24/7 we are spending at the church are the true miracles. The coming back of the faithful to Christ is the most beautiful miracle that is happening more important then the oil that is seeping from the icon. Also, there have been many testimonies of healing from chronic diseases that we are still investigating to confirm these healings. The church before it announces any miracle of healing has to study it and confirm it so that is gives a true account built on true faith, so as to not create chaos and distraction.
God bless you and we hope that you keep us in your prayers, so that we can be loyal to Jesus’s message in our society and can understand more our Blessed Mother’s message.
Through the prayer of the Mother of God may God save us and give us His peace.
https://www.facebook.com/stsimeonwindsor/

 

Wow! It makes me want to go on pilgrimage. Thank you so much for sharing this miracle.

 

You're welcome. I don't live too far from Windsor so I may end up going down there to see this miracle!