Much has been made of the fact that the path of the April 8 eclipse includes seven or eight towns called “Nineveh” (where Jonah famously warned of destruction).
Some claim an eclipse occurred around the time of the prophet’s warning.
We don’t know about that (there was a total eclipse over that region in 674 B.C.; 2 Kings 14:25 places Jonah’s life during the reign of Jeroboam II, 786–746 BC), but we do know that major apparitions approved by the Syrian Orthodox Church and also acknowledged by local Catholic clergy occurred a while back in Mosul, Iraq, a city built upon the remains of Nineveh.
Those apparitions (of Mary and Jesus) were experienced by a young woman named Dina Basher, who since the war in Iraq has dropped from view. Is she still alive? (We’ve not been able to find her.)
This we know: Her messages were fairly apocalyptic. Also, she was a stigmatic.
For your discernment.
The visions started in 1991 on the Feast of the Assumption, when she was fourteen.
Our Lord came to her in a bright light and she was blinded for several days like Saul.
She saw Him with a golden crown and white shining robe or with white rays around His head.
During the ecstasies, there were movements. It looked like Dina was receiving a candle. What were these movements of your hands, a bishop asked?
“Either the Lord Jesus gives me a chalice to drink, which is the Blood of Christ, and sometimes very bitter. Or He gives me holy Communion or blesses me or gives me the Holy Gospel to read or I hold a candle in my hand,” she told an interviewer. “When I saw the Lord Jesus Christ wearing a beautiful robe it was the first time I was able to look at His eyes and face, because before I would only look at His feet, and the only time I could see Him all was on the Cross. Now I saw Him dressed all in white with white rays around His head and a cross with light coming from it. He said that everyone must light a candle in his house, in the church, and pray for others and for the churches, and repent for their sins, because He says, ‘My Second Coming is now drawing near.’ He said to light candles in all the churches and welcome Him with joyful hands, because He said, ‘My arrival is very near.’ The last thing He did was give me an icon that was fastened around His neck.”
Dina sometimes had four ecstasies in a single day. In one case she was “taken” to a place that resembled the tabernacle. Here she has received blessings and read from a “holy book.”
After one ecstasy Dina said that Jesus told her the sign of the blood “will be a sign for the people so that they may see her and believe.” At St. Thomas Church, in front of many ecclesiastical students and faithful, she had an ecstasy and related the message of Jesus as: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” and said He spoke to her about His “near Second Coming” and told her all people must fast three days. He asked her to visit the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary [in Masinta]. That was November 25, 1991. On December 6, 1991, she related a message from the Lord in which He allegedly said, “Begin prayers in the church, begin prayers in the home. Repent, for My Second Coming is near at hand. Each of the faithful is to light a candle in his own home, sing hymns in your homes, and sing hymns of praise and glory because the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near. Repeat Kyrie Eleison — Lord have mercy — three times in your prayers. Fasting from the tongue — not talking — is preferable to fasting from food though both are required. Come to My house and begin prayer and light the candles and welcome Me with joy. Come to Me, all who have burdens, and I will give you rest.”
On December 27 of that same year — allegedly — Jesus was quoted as saying, “I want faith, love, and unity.” Two days before Christmas, the Virgin allegedly told the young Iraqi woman that “your unity in the Church is my feast.” On January 14, 1992, the Lord allegedly said, “Stay awake because you do not know when the time will come. I will give you an example of this. A man traveling abroad leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gate keeper to be on watch. Watch, therefore, you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the morning, in the evening, or at cock crow. I tell you a second time, stay awake, my dear ones.”
On that same day Dina claimed the Blessed Virgin Mary said, “Keep my words and keep my commandments and prayers and pray to me and my beloved Son. Pray for your souls and fast for your souls. When you pray, meditate on the angelic salutations and meditate on the Apostle’s Creed. My dear ones, I give you this message that you may do what I say. Sit in a church and examine your consciences and go to the priest and confess your sins. Come to the holy Eucharist because it brings you close to my beloved Son. Open the doors of the church and do not close them. Open your eyes and do not close them. Open your hearts and be wise like your heavenly Father. Be firm in my commandments, and I will stay with you forever. Do what I tell you and you will obtain graces from me. My beloved Son sacrificed Himself on the cross for you. He shed His pure Blood for you because we love you. We come close to you and you run away from us. We come close to you and you run away.
“Why, my dear ones? Why my dear ones? Examine your consciences and come close to me and do not go away. Why this separation? You have covered your faces with a veil of darkness. I beg of you that you may remove this veil. With a heavenly Light on your faces, I ask from each one of you to each take this message to each church and each heart and to each person. My dear ones, I love you very much. My only question is, why do you close the doors to your hearts to me? Open them and you will see a white heavenly ray entering your home and expelling the dark clouds from your hearts. Your faces will change to the faces of people with pure hearts and innocent people; they will turn to faces of angels and doves. The smile on your face will be a pure smile and not a false one. My last word is that you love one another so that my love remains in you and that you examine your consciences and do not run away from me.” When Dina said to Jesus, “Lord, these words are hard. How can I say them to the people?” He allegedly answered, “No, Dina, tell them. Announce this, my message, to all the churches. Bear all. You will be exposed to many pains and dangers, but I beg of you to bear it so that you may be with Me always and I will help you in everything and I am with all of you. Tell My people I suffer like you; tell My dear ones I suffer so much. My daughter, obey your priests and obey your deaconesses and obey all who tell you something good. Pray with your priests and all the people. Unite, unite, My brothers. United and you will receive the power to fight those who oppose Me.”
Could it be true? Have Jesus and the Blessed Mother really made such a stunning announcement in one of the world’s greatest current hotspots?
We must discern not only the general mysticism but also parse within various messages, as we are instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:50: “Do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.”
[Footnote from Miracle Hunter: The Orthodox Bishops of Baghdad, Mozul (Iraq), Australia, Jerusalem, and Amman (Jordan) have given positive testimonies on the apparition. On December 20, 1991, His Holiness The Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Zakka. “I affirm that I have received accounts concerning the heavenly phenomena surrounding one of the faithful, Dina. I thank God for this great grace and for the most astounding miracles and wonders which he has bestowed by means of Dina and her hands.”]
[Resources: Pilgrimage to Fatima, Lourdes, Avila, etc.]