The Virgin Mary icon image window is for everyone

Denisse Quintanilla with Virgin Mary image

"The window is truly miraculous. It can call forth faith in people," stated Gregorgy Sapp of Jesup, Georgia. He believes that the image of the Virgin Mary that has appeared on his garage window was created in a divine way. He said that, "it's just a miracle, it's an image, it's an icon, and it's a beautiful thing, too."

Mr. Sapp's resounding statement about the awe-inspiring window with the image of Mary, that he has placed in a backroom for safe keeping, is that it is a miracle and it is for everyone. Due to those strong sentiments concerning the image in the window, and because of his conviction in wanting to honor the Lord, he and his wife have begun to share their private miracle with the public by posting several images on a website given the name www.virginmarywindow.com. Along with contributions and assistance from Justin Stroh in Minnesota and Jeromie Rudolph in Florida, the website was created in order to share the Mary image window that the Sapp couple feels "brings us deeper into the Divine".

The site now features prayers and devotionals in both English and in Latin. Mr. Sapp has stated that they are praying even with regard to my articles about the special window "so that we may work together in such a way that in all we do, God might be glorified." There is streaming video of the window available for viewing which is also able to be used as a point of focus for prayer and meditation.

In a recent phone conversation, I asked Greg Sapp what it might mean to have an image of our Blessed Virgin Mary appear in their window, without hearing any message from Mary. Filled with faith, Mr.Sapp responded that "you feel the presence of Mary," and added that, "I think that we're going to see something wonderful happen from this window. The beauty of the image," stated Mr.Sapp, "moves me to contemplation."

Greg Sapp spoke of liturgical icons being well-rooted in rich symbolism and rules according to our faith. He spoke of an over-whelming love of God, as he explained a little about the iconic painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in an example for comparison to the image of Mary in his window. He further illustrated the point of Mary communicating her message by way of her image in stating to me that "sometimes you can read about something even ten times and not understand it. In other words, what this image might do is help people to understand something that they've never been able to understand. That is what this image is--it's an icon. You can't look at it and not know that it's an icon of Mary. That is what an icon does, it spreads the gospel in a different way, with images instead of with words."

This is a most profound and significant understanding of how the Catholic believer is to understand images and visions of the Virgin Mary, for our faith is to be that which causes us to worship and glorify God, a living faith from which works of charity flow from within our hearts of compassion. The image of the Virgin Mary in the Sapp family window is meant to lead souls to a closer connection to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. From the time that Jesus worked his first miracle in Cana at a wedding, the mother of Jesus tells us that our religious belief and practice must be active and rooted in Christ. She spoke to our Lord on behalf of others and then she told the servants to "Do whatever he tells you." John 2:5.

Mr. Sapp intends to write a letter to the Bishop of his archdiocese about the image of the Virgin Mary that has appeared in his window. This is especially exciting because this is a preliminary part of a process that the Catholic Church requires for recognition of genuine phenomena beyond the realm of the natural.

Here is an excerpt of the written testimony of Denisse Quintanilla, a Spanish-speaking cousin of Gregory Sapp, after seeing the window during a family visit in Jesup:

"It was like seeing something unbelievable [sic] because I was really looking at the veil of the Virgen [sic] Mary which touched me profoundly.  I felt a shudder and I did not want to move away because what I felt was something beautiful, something very difficult to explain, something which I had never felt before, a sensation of peace and serenity"

Referring to the crack in the window, Denisse wrote:

"What called my attention in a special way was that the glass was craked [sic] from the inside and not the outside, something which is unexplainable [sic] but beautiful as it is a sign that the home of my cousins has been blessed with the presence of the Virgen [sic] Mary."

Homepage for the Virgin Mary Window website: http://www.virginmarywindow.com/

For a current news read on icons: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=15143

Ave Maria!   Music: Our Lady of the Trinity by Justin Stroh

This concludes part 2 in a series of several articles concerning Mary, miracles, images and visions of the Virgin Mary, the image of the Virgin Mary in the Sapp family window, and how the Holy Spirit may be involved in some of these happenings.

Article 1 Catholic family from Jesup, Georgia is blessed with the image of the Virgin Mary  http://tinyurl.com/m83nxz