A painting of the Virgin Mary has apparently been captured moving its lips during a prayer in a Sydney church, which has led many Catholics to declare it a miracle .
The painting is located at Saint Charbel’s Maronite Catholic Church in Punchbowl, Sydney, and it shows the Virgin Mary holding onto a young Jesus Christ as she prays.
Two videos of the Virgin Mary painting apparently murmuring along to a prayer with the church’s congregation have since been uploaded, and they have instantly led to a debate over whether they actually show the Madonna speaking. You can check out one of the clips below.
According to Yahoo , the first of these videos was originally uploaded to Facebook by Kirsten Keirouz, a young Catholic who frequently visits the church.
Keirouz has explained that she decided to record a video of the painting after a friend of hers nudged her and stated “look at the painting.”
Writing on her Facebook page, Keirouz recalled, “Once I looked up, I had no idea what they wanted me to look at and I saw her mouth moving. I then asked my friend; ‘Is it her mouth?’ She replied, ‘Yes.’ And then I got the shivers throughout my whole body. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I kept blinking in case I was seeing things.”
Kristen Keirouz’s video clearly caused quite a stupor in the local community. That’s because a fellow parishioner at the Sydney church, George Akray, then decided to see if he could capture the Virgin Mary’s mouth moving.
Speaking to the Daily Mail Australia , Akray insisted, “This is something I had seen a few times. This time I recorded it.” He also added that he often stares at the paintings on the wall while he prays, and he even declared that he’d seen the paintings talk before.
On Sunday, July 19, Akray recorded another video of the Virgin Mary’s lips moving on the painting, which he then uploaded to Facebook. “I never thought to record it until a saw a clip a few weeks ago,” Akray added. “These signs are to bring people to know God is really with us.” It has since been watched over 45,000 times.
However, naysayers insist that the lips in the painting aren’t actually moving. Instead, the movement is simply because of the camera shaking.
In fact, Reverend Father Joseph Sleiman, who officiates at the church, has now told the Express , via the Daily Telegraph Australia , that he himself can’t see what’s so special about the footage. Even though he’s watched it 20 times.
“For me, I looked at it, it is a kind of personal hallucination or imagination. He might have felt something under the emotion of prayer and looking at Mary. It’s not a professional camera, it’s not clear enough. We can’t base our faith on something not 100 percent.”
[Image via YouTube]
