[ 04-17-2002: Message edited by: Amado Guerrero ]

Dear Amado,

Yes, the miraculous phenomenon of the "milk-like" myrrh is truly amazing!

I received a vial of the Manna of St Nicholas, the oil that exudes from his Relics and which was largely diluted in water.

In a moment of great personal need, I drank some of this clear water with the Oil mixed in.

What I tasted, however, was pure milk.

Also, when my diabetes was taking me on a downward spiral, I read the Psalms as frequently as possible, asking God to help me.

Then, when I got to about Psalm 30, I felt as if milk was poured into me, and I felt it hit my stomach and "slush" around in there!

A wonderful peace and sense of contentment ensued.

But I had the taste of milk in my mouth for some time.

I shared this with my nurse at the diabetic clinic.

She told me that some other diabetic patients have a similar story including the feeling of tasting milk.

Some saints have also suggested that we need to be nourished on the "Milk of Grace" of the Mother of God.

There is an icon depicting the nursing Mother of God called in Greek: Galaktotrophousa. And there is of course Our Lady of La Leche, Patroness of Florida and the U.S.

Alex

Dear Alex,
Christ Is Risen!
Thank you for that information on the icon of Our Lady of Pochayiv!
I first learned about the icon of Our Lady of Pochayiv in 1988, the same year I first learned about the existence of the Byzantine Catholic Church(at that time still "underground" in Ukraine). 1988 also happened to be a Marian year declared by the Church. During that year in Los Angeles, there was a big Marian event in the Hollywood Bowl and an enlarged image of the Pochayiv icon was selected to be the Marian image displayed for the event.

Also, there was mention of the miracle of Our Lady of Pochayiv in an article about Ukraine in an issue of National Geographic magazine.

Since then it is my dream to one day make a pilgrimage to the Pochayiv monastery. I had the opportunity to see the original icon of Our Lady of Pochayiv as well as the second Pochayiv icon and Our Lady's footprint from seeing the video, "A Vision of Freedom."

I do have a small Pochayiv icon in my room.

Here in Los Angeles, there is an absolutely gorgeous copy of the Pochayiv icon (with diamond crowns!) enshrined in Saint Nicholas' Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral. Sometimes I have visited the cathedral just to pray before the icon.

Personally I believe the monastery should be handed over to the Basilians again, but as one Ukrainian seminarian said when I brought up the subject: "There would be war. The Orthodox Church would never want to let the monastery go."

All the more reason to pray for unity!

God bless you,
griego catolico

Dear Griego,

You are welcome and it is always heart-warming to hear of such great devotion to the Most Holy Mother of God in Her miraculous icons and images!

Pochayiv, though, is an Orthodox monastery and so it should remain.

The "take-over" of the Lavra was a sorry event in the history of the relations between our Churches and Metropolitan Andrew maintained a strictly "hands-off" policy here.

The Basilians at Pochayiv, unfortunately, promoted a very pro-Latinization agenda at Pochayiv, to the point of introducing statues etc.

Although St Job was a glorified Orthodox saint, they simply shut up his relics to prevent pilgrimages from taking place.

When both Orthodox and Catholics didn't stop coming there to pray before his Shrine, the Basilians then introduced his actual canonization cause at Rome, as noted extensively in the book "The Holy Pochayivska Lavra" by Met. Ilarion Ohienko, complete with photocopies of letters sent back and forth between the Pochayiv Basilians and the Roman Church authorities.

The Pochayiv icon was crowned with a papal crown, one of only a handful of such Eastern icons to receive it.

When His Holiness visited Ukraine, he gave the papal crown to the miraculous icon of Terebovlya which is in St George's Cathedral I believe, and also two others for locally venerated miraculous icons there.

Alex

Thank you again Alex for the new information.

Here is a link that leads to a great website on the Pochayiv monastery:


www.iprinet.kiev.ua/wumag/archiv/1_99/pochayiv.htm

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: griego catolico ]