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Nineveh 90 Challenge Begins Feb. 13

Dear Prayer Warrior,

Awesome job praying for our nation in the Novena for Our Nation! Thank you!

 We are now calling you to a very important prayer and penance campaign that starts on February 13.

We have now entered the 100th year since Our Lady appeared in Fatima, Portugal. The anniversary is May 13, 2017. Many people are wondering if God may do (or allow) something soon to “shake us up” (I wrote about it  HERE – this is the most “shared” article I have ever written).

As we watch terrorism rising up everywhere around the world, relations between nations in steep decline, a false economy ready to collapse, morality at an all-time low, pre-born babies murdered by the millions, marriage redefined for the first time in all of civilization, adult men allowed to share a bathroom with little girls, religious freedom under assault, corruption and collusion rampant within our government, and confusion in our Church … people are asking, especially as we enter this centennial year of Fatima, “WHAT DO WE DO NOW?!?!”

The answer may lie more in “God’s style.” What is “God’s style?” Throughout salvation history, we know that no matter how far we stray from God, He always wants to give us every opportunity to return.

Recall the story of Jonah, and how God sent him to Nineveh to warn them. The Ninevites believed God, and they put on sackcloth and ashes … they repented and did intense prayer and penance.

“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:3-10).

Is it time to do the “Nineveh Thing”? Yes! We lay out everything about this call for prayer and penance in the last 90 days before the 100th Anniversary of Fatima HERE. And, here is the new website: Nineveh90.com.

THE NINEVEH 90 CHALLENGE

Inspired by all of the research that reveals it takes 90 days to replace bad habits (even addictions) with good habits, We are calling upon all of us to enter into a 90 day period of humility and transformation we call “Nineveh 90,” starting February 13 and leading up to the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, 2017.

This amazing worldwide period of prayer and penance includes:

* 54 Day Rosary Novena (Basic Training in Holiness) – February 13 to April 7

* 33 Day Preparation for Consecration – April 10 (Monday of Holy Week) to May 12

* Marian Consecration – May 13, 2017. 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima

You can read about the elements of Nineveh 90 HERE.

Please plan to join us by signing up for the daily emails of prayers and reflections at nineveh90.com.

Please invite all of your family and friends!!

Your fellow warrior in Christ,

Fr. Rick Heilman

Holy League, 5250 Justin Road, La Crosse, WI 54601

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/15/nineveh-90-challenge/

Gospel Reading for Feb. 14, 2017 with Divine Will Truths – Divine Will Casts Divine Fermentation into Human act

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Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/14/gospel-reading-for-feb-14-2017-with-divine-will-truths-divine-will-casts-divine-fermentation-into-human-act/

Love, Through the Eyes of Jesus’ Heart

Love, Through the Eyes of Jesus’ Heart

V2 – May 7, 1899 

“…Much Love of neighbor enters

My Heart, but it must be so United to Mine as to

Form One Single Love, in such a way that one cannot

be distinguished from the other. But as for the other

love of neighbor which is not Transformed into My Love

– I do not Look at it as something that belongs to Me.”

~ FIAT! ~

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/14/love-through-the-eyes-of-jesus-heart/

Gospel Reading for Feb. 13, 2014 with Divine Will Truths – Sign that the Soul is Living in the Divine Will

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Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/13/gospel-reading-for-feb-13-2014-with-divine-will-truths-sign-that-the-soul-is-living-in-the-divine-will/

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2017

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Not to abolish but to fulfill.

2/10/2017

Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!

Here’s another passage of the “Sermon on the Mount” after that of last Sunday. It is a rather ample passage (Mt 5:17-37), concerning various rules, unified by the recurring expression: ” You have heard that it was said to the people long ago… But I tell you …”.

On a superficial reading, it seems that Jesus wants to dismantle the whole structure of the relationship between man and God, that His countrymen had inherited from Moses and the prophets, to re-found everything on different bases. That’s  not the case!

The revelation that God made of Himself, and that we find in the Bible, was progressive; it did not happen all at once, but it has been broadening and deepening over the centuries. Something like what happens in the field of school education: successive studies do not cancel the concepts we learned in primary schools, but they expand and deepen them. In His infinite goodness, God revealed Himself little by little, giving man time to gradually assimilate some realities that his intelligence couldn’t understand on its own.

The fullness of divine revelation was accomplished through Jesus, the fullness, not another one; for this, He explains in the passage of today that He does not want to abolish “the Law or the Prophets”, that is, what had already been revealed in the Old Testament: “I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”. And He immediately gives four examples, relating to the rules that his listeners already knew about murder, adultery, divorce and oaths.

Jesus says that a minimalistic and exterior observance is not enough; we must adhere to God with all our heart. Therefore it is not enough that we do not kill: even if we get angry or offend others we go against the commandment. It is not enough that we avoid the physical act of adultery: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Divorce was introduced into the Jewish law: in this regard Jesus restores God’s will, which does not allow it. The ancients were used to oaths, with which they called God as guarantor of what they said; But Jesus says to us not to swear at all: man must give truth to his words, all he needs to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

Man would hardly have understood these teachings on his own, as well as many other gospel teachings that inspect the depths of consciousness and the most hidden depths of the heart. Moreover, other teachings, concerning the very nature of God and the earthly mission of God’s Son, even though they are important for man, they would be out of his reach: we understand them only because He revealed them. That’s why, in today’s second reading (1Cor 2:6 – 10), Paul writes that “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom but not the wisdom of this age. What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him.”

He created man, and – as the only one of the creatures – endowed him with intelligence, to talk to him, explain to him his confidence, render him part of realities that man could not even imagine on his own. How much mercy from God, and how much honor to the man! The revelation of God to man shows, in the most wonderful way possible the importance, dignity, greatness that is inherent in every human being.

His greatness, however, implies a dramatic component: the risks of freedom.

God created us free, and as such He treats us; He did not make some computers or some robots that are programmed to perform only His commands, but He created thinking and autonomous beings, capable of choosing: they can even choose whether to join or not to Him. He does not force us; we might also refuse Him, and proceed as we wish, with our only human “wisdom”: but we should assess exactly where it may lead us and where, instead, the wisdom He gives “to those who love Him” leads us.

Jesus gave life in the Divine Will to the acts of all creatures, making them free. He associated His Mother with this work, now He wants the third “Fiat” by Luisa and the other children of the Divine Will, always in freedom.

As God created the heavens, the sun, the stars, etc., for all He fixed the limits, the place, the number, and they can neither increase nor decrease; In the same way, in creating man, at the same time He created all the intelligences and each thought, all the words, the works, the steps, and all the rest of man, from the first to the last who will exist. All the operating of creatures swims inside God’s Will, like the fish swim inside a vast sea. However, having created man, not a slave, but free – because it would not have been decorous for God, nor a work worthy to come out of His hands, had He delivered this man hampered, without freedom; nor could He has said, ‘Let Us make him in Our image and likeness’, had He not made him free – He wanted to endow him with freedom.

God was free – free was man also to be. Besides, there is nothing that tortures a person more than to give a forced love, which causes diffidences, suspicions, fears, and almost reluctance in the one who receives it.

God’s Will grieved in seeing the acts of many, of which It was the actor, changed into deadly acts for Him and for them. Therefore He wanted that His Will, making Itself, in a double way, actor of each act, lay another divine act over all, which was to repay Him with as many other divine acts, according to the sanctity of His Will.

However, someone was needed in order to do this: and here is Jesus’ Humanity, holy and free as well, which, wanting no other life than the Divine Will alone, swimming in this immense sea, went on doubling each thought, word and work of creature, and laid an act of Divine Will over everything. This satisfied and glorified the Divine Father, in such a way that He was able to look at man and open the doors of Heaven to him; and Jesus retied the human will with more strength, leaving it always free not to detach from the Will of its Creator.

Jesus wanted also His Mother, holy as well, to follow Him in the immense sea of the Supreme Volition, and to duplicate all human acts together with Him, placing the double seal, after His own, of the acts done in the Divine Will upon all the acts of creatures. The company of Mary in operating makes happiness, delight, love of tenderness, competition, accord and heroism arise; isolation produces the opposite.

After His Celestial Mother, Jesus called Luisa, so that all human acts may have the first seal done by Him, the second done by His Mother, and the third by one creature of common stock. God’s eternal love would not be content, if He did not raise one of common stock, who would open the doors for those who would dispose themselves to enter through these doors in order to live in the Divine Will.

However, in order to enter into God’s Will and follow the sublime flight of His acts and of those of His inseparable Mother, as much as Luisa is of common stock, she could not enter into the Divine Will if she did not have, or had at least been transformed into, the nature which came out of His hands before man withdrew from the Divine Will. As Jesus engraced Luisa, so He removed from her the seeds, the tendencies, the passions of the rebellious nature, always leaving her will free. Having to call her into the center of His Will to live a communal life in It, to make her cover all the acts done by Him, which are not yet known by creatures, it was necessary to restore her nature to this happy state. Otherwise, she could not have run with Him in the interminable acts of His Will, nor be with Him with that ease which is needed in order to operate together. The passions, the seeds of tendencies that are not good, would have been like many bars of division between Jesus and Luisa. At the most, she would have been at the commands of the Divine Will, like many other faithful ones of His, but she would have been very far from doing what Jesus did, and neither Luisa nor Jesus would have been happy; while living in the Divine Will is precisely this – to live fully happy on earth, to then move on to live more happy in Heaven.

By doing the Divine Will, every man, will ascend and acquire the new transformation into the nature created by God. Then God Himself will be able to say: ‘I have accomplished everything; the order of the whole Creation has returned to Me, and I will rest in It.

 

don Marco

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/12/sixth-sunday-in-ordinary-time-2017/

Mons. Carmelo Cassati passed away to the Father’s House

Mons. Carmelo Cassati passed away to the Father’s House

He was Archbishop of Trani- Barletta-Bisceglie from 1991 to 1999

2/4/2017

Yesterday afternoon, His Excellency Mons. Carmelo Cassati, Emeritus Archbishop of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie, after a long illness, at the age of 93, passed away to the Father’s House. In the morning his condition worsened so that he went into a coma. At this news Mons. Giovan Battista Pichierri sent a message to the whole Archdiocese inviting it to join in prayer. Subsequently, Mons. Pichierri, after learning the news of Mons. Carmelo Cassati’s death, invited everyone to keep alive “the memory of the Pastor who went back to the Father through his example, his teaching and  in prayer.”

Tomorrow at 9.00 am, the body will be placed in the burial chamber of the Hospice of Tricase where he stayed. The funeral will take place on Monday, February 6, at 16:00, in the Mother Church of Tricase. It will be attended by a large delegation of the diocese (priests, deacons, women and men religious, lay people) led by Archbishop Mons. Giovan Battista Pichierri.

Mons. Carmelo Cassati was born in Tricase, in the Diocese of Ugento-Santa Maria di Leuca, on April 6, 1924.  On  December 17, 1949 he was ordained a priest in the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

In 1950 and 1951 he came as a missionary to Brazil. At the end of 1951 he moved to Peru as Secretary of  the Apostolic Nuncio of  Peru, Mons. Giovanni Panico. Cassati followed him to Lima, Ottawa, Lisbon. After Mons. Panico became a Cardinal, Father Cassati moved to Italy.

After the sudden death of Cardinal.Panic, he became executor of the prelate, and carried out the construction of a hospital in Tricase.

In 1967 he returned to Brazil. In 1970 he was appointed Titular Bishop of Nova Germania. On June 28, 1970 he was ordained Bishop in Tricase

On 26 August 1975 he succeeded His Excellency Mons. Alfonso Ungarelli, in the government of the Prelature of Pinheiro (Brazil) that then became a Diocese on February 12, 1979; for health reasons, he was transferred to Tricase

On December 7, 1985 he was transferred to Lucera and San Severo. So, in the revision of the dioceses, on September 30, 1986, he opted for San Severo.

He moved to the Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie on December 15, 1990, and began his episcopal service on February 23, 1991. Since November 13, 1999 he was Archbishop Emeritus of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie. He was succeeded by His Excellency Mons. Giovan Battista Pichierri.

He settled in Tricase and, since then, some priests and lay people of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie often came to visit him. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, in March 2014, there was a choral participation of the Diocese

Arcidiocesi di Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/11/mons-carmelo-cassati-passed-away-to-the-fathers-house/

Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes

FEAST DAY OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES

GREATER DOUBLE / WHITE

During the year 1858 our Blessed Lady appeared eighteen times from February 11 to July 16 to Bernadette Soubirous, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a destitute day laborer of Lourdes in France. Through this humble child, the Mother of God announced to the world her sublime title of the Immaculate Conception and a special message of penance and love.
Mary of the Immaculate Conception is the national patron of the Church in the United States of America, and so we should develop a special interest in helping to fill the treasury of graces that our compassionate Mother distributes so freely for the conversion of sinners to God.
INTROIT Apoc. 21:2
I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
Ps. 44:2. My heart overflows with good tidings; I sing my song to the king.
V. Glory Be . . .
COLLECT

O God, You prepared a fitting dwelling place for Your Son by preserving the Blessed Virgin immaculate at the moment of her conception. Grant health of mind and body to all of us who celebrate the feast of Blessed Mary’s apparition today. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord . . .

EPISTLE Apoc. 11:19; 12:1, 10 And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple. And there were lightnings and voices and an earthquake and great hail. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ: because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night.

GRADUAL Cant. 2:12, 10, 14 The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning has come, the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
V. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come: my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall.

TRACT Judith 15:10; Cant. 4:7 You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you are the honor of our people.
V. You are all fair, O Mary, and there is no stain of original sin in you.
V. Truly happy are you, O holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of praise, for with your virgin heel you have crushed the head of the serpent.

GOSPEL Luke 1:26-31 At that time, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” Who having heard, was troubled at his saying and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus.”

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Luke 1:28
Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.

SECRET

O Lord, we offer You this sacrifice of praise through the merits of the glorious and immaculate Virgin. May it please You and win for us the health of body and mind we seek. Through Our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON
You have visited the earth and watered it; You have greatly enriched it.

POSTCOMMUNION

O Lord, You have nourished us with the Food of Heaven. May Your immaculate Mother now strengthen us with her own power and help us to reach our everlasting home; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/11/feast-day-of-our-lady-of-lourdes/

Feast of St. Scholastica – Feb. 10

February 10

OUR MOTHER SAINT SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN (543 A.D.)

File:Andrea Mantegna 019.jpg

SAINT SCHOLASTICA

Virgin

St. Scholastica was the twin sister of St. Benedict, the Patriarch of Western monasticism. She was born in Umbria, Italy, about 480. Under Benedict’s direction, Scholastica founded a community of nuns near the great Benedictine monastery Monte Cassino. We are told that Scholastica “could be sated or wearied with the words of grace which flowed from St. Benedict’s lips.” Inspired by Benedict’s teaching, his sister devoted her whole life to seeking and serving God. St. Scholastica died in the peace of Christ in the year 547. Tradition holds that at her death her soul ascended to heaven in the form of a dove.

Introit
Ps 44:8
You love justice and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
Ps 44:2
My heart overflows with a goodly theme; as I sing my ode to the King.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
You love justice and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. 

Mass of a VIRGIN, except

COLLECT

O God, you brought the soul of the blessed virgin Scholastica to heaven in the form of a dove in order to bring to our notice her life of innocence. Through the prayers and merits of Your saint may we live such a life that we too may attain everlasting happiness. Through Our Lord . . .

Lesson
Lesson from the second letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians
2 Cor. 10:17-18; 11:1-2
Brethren: He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord. For he is not approved who commends himself, but he whom the Lord commends. Would to God that you could bear with a little of my foolishness! Nay, do bear with me! For I am jealous for you with a divine jealousy. For I betrothed you to one spouse, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ.

Gradual
Ps 44:11-12
Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear; for the King shall desire your beauty.
Ps 44:13; 44:10.
V. All the rich among the people seek Your favor; the daughters of kings come to meet You.
Ps 44:15-16.
V. Behind her the virgins of her train are brought to the King; they are borne in to You.
V. They are brought with gladness and joy; they enter the palace of the King.

GOSPEL
Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
R. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
Matt 25:1-3
At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to His disciples: Then will the kingdom of heaven be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom and the bride. Five of them were foolish and five wise. But the five foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them, while the wise did take oil in their vessels with the lamps. Then as the bridegroom was long in coming, they all became drowsy and slept. And at midnight a cry arose, ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming, go forth to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ The wise answered, saying, ‘Lest there may not be enough for us and for you, go rather to those who sell it, and buy some for yourselves.’ Now while they were gone to buy it, the bridegroom came; and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Finally there came also the other virgins, who said, ‘Sir, sir, open the door for us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Amen I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.  

SECRET

May this sacrifice of Thy dedicated people be accepted by Thee, O Lord, in honor of Thy Saints: to whose merits we attribute the help afforded us in tribulation. Through our Lord . . .

POSTCOMMUNION

Thou hast filled Thy household, O Lord, with holy gifts: do Thou cherish us always, through the intercession of her whose festival we are keeping. Through our Lord . . .

 

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/10/feast-of-st-scholastica-feb-10-2017/

Gospel Reading for Feb. 10, 2017 with Divine Will Truths – Unbelievers Remain Empty of the Goods of Jesus

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Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/10/gospel-reading-for-feb-10-2017-with-divine-will-truths-unbelievers-remain-empty-of-the-goods-of-jesus/

Gospel Reading for Feb. 9, 2017 with Divine Will Truths – Divine Will is the Food of Man’s Soul

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Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2017/02/09/gospel-reading-for-feb-9-2017-with-divine-will-truths-divine-will-is-the-food-of-mans-soul/