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TRANSCRIPT

Given the times we live in at this moment — and, to be clear, the times you were specifically created for by Almighty God — a look back at the happenings of the wedding feast at Cana can be instructive.

It was a pretty big wedding, with important people (whoever they were). There were lots of guests, which is why there were servants. And there was a captain of the feast, so this was a big-deal wedding. Of course, Our Blessed Lord and some of His disciples were with Him, along with Our Lady.

She asks Him to perform His first miracle (and thus to reveal His divinity). He complies. But it’s what He does and how He does it that is our point of reflection. He doesn’t just change water into wine. He does something else first. A big-deal wedding always had a series of water jars for Jewish ceremonial rules and so forth.

Our Lord could have instantly filled them with wine, but He didn’t. He first told the servants to fill them with water. Now consider that — a big wedding, lots of jars, much water, no plumbing, a lot of work.

Gallons and gallons of water would need to have been hauled from the town well: Servants schlepping back and forth in the heat of the day like a kind of bucket brigade. Why? Because Divinity desires that humanity be intimately involved in the work of salvation.

Our Lord could have, but He didn’t. He chose to have men first exhaust themselves in the work proper to them — physical toiling in the material world. And St. John specifically records for us that they filled the jars with water to the brim, meaning they could not do one more thing.

They had done everything they could possibly do. They left it all on the field, to use the expression from sports. Then and only then does God say, “Thank you. Now step back and behold.” It is the utmost grace to be chosen to participate with Christ in His salvation.

No, He does not need you, but He wants you. We must do everything we can do so Our Blessed Lord can involve us in what is always His work. As the psalmist says, “For it is you who have accomplished all we have done.” So what precisely is it we are to do in this time and space, given the particulars of our day?

First, we must recognize the reality on the ground. Just as Our Blessed Mother saw there was no wine, we must see and understand that authentic spirituality has been drained from the culture. America is, in many ways, a moral wasteland — laid waste by a Marxist push beginning with the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s.

That revolution had as its goal the destruction of the fabric of society — the family — and most importantly, the canceling of masculinity and paternity. With the natural order of society thus destroyed, the unnatural order could be imposed by the State.

And since the natural order flows from God (God as in Father), the unnatural order flows from the demonic, from Hell, which is kind of evident when you look at various cities in America today. They look like “little Hells.” However imperfectly, there is a recognition on the part of Trump that this is a battle whose most important dimension is spiritual.

For the record, the other side essentially told God to take a hike. So here we are, faced with two visions of America — two courses, two roads to take with everything on the line. In the lead-up to the election, faithful Catholics (meaning you and us) must do everything we can to fill the jars with water to the brim — electioneering, talking, getting involved in the battle. No stone can be left unturned. We must fill the jars to the absolute brim.

What we are fighting for is the survival of a culture that allows a space for religion, for God. And while that would become a whole different battle as we advance the one true Faith (which should have been done decades ago), that simply will not be possible if the other side wins.

Marxist atheism must be dealt a fatal blow — right here, now, at this moment of history. This far and no farther. Now, to that end (with all we have to do in the material world), we are not just corporeal beings. We are a composite of spirit and body — material and immaterial. So we have a duty in both areas, in each realm.

This requires, demands actually, just as intense an effort on the spiritual plane. Church Militant is announcing its own 54-day Rosary Novena on behalf of the Church and the nation beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 8, the feast day of the birth of Our Blessed Mother.

As many of you know, the entire staff gathers together each weekday morning in our chapel at 8 a.m. ET to pray the Liturgy of the Hours and the Holy Rosary. Many of you join us for that. Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 8, we will be offering the Rosary first, straight-up, at 8 a.m. ET, for the following 54 days.

The Rosary is an especially powerful weapon against Satan because of precisely where your thoughts are directed — to the life of Our Blessed Lord, the Savior, and His mission to open up the path to salvation as recorded for us in the gospels.

These meditations occur against the backdrop of the scriptural honor to the Queen of Heaven, who, as Scripture tells us, crushes his head. The Woman of Genesis was the instigator, as it were, of Christ’s first miracle and is our source of appeal for more miracles.

And notice the use of the term “weapon.” It is a weapon. It’s like a spiritual Gatling gun reeling off bullet after bullet against the Devil. You know this already. What Church Militant is doing is trying to inspire you to join us, to take the pledge today to sign up and commend the life of the Church and the nation to the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven.

We sent out a small advance notice of this a couple days ago, and, in just a short period, 3,000 people made the pledge to pray with us every day, starting Tuesday, Sept. 8. So now we are making the invitation official and more far-reaching: Please click on the provided link and take the pledge!

Of course, not everyone will be able to pray with us live at 8 a.m. ET every weekday, but those of you who can are strongly encouraged to. But whether you pray with us live or on your own, please join with us spiritually. We are the Church Militant — that dynamic of the Church still engaged in the battle, and this battle is ferocious.

No matter how much water the servants brought to the jars at the wedding feast, only Heaven could make the water become wine. So we need to do both the material and the spiritual. Time for the big guns.

And, on top of it all, after all the attacks against various images and statues of Our Blessed Mother during the communist-inspired attacks, what a lovely birthday present to give our Mother and Queen — a promise to pray for her to crush the Serpent’s head.

Remember, as all loyal sons and daughters of the Church know, Heaven is never outdone in generosity. Fight in both worlds — the material and the spiritual. Fight, Church Militant, fight.

I give you this news: yesterday, first Friday of the month of September, I presented to Our Lord the 3rd Volume, which I finished reviewing completely. Then I went to the Sacristy and I signed it at the end with my Nihil Obstat, with the authority that Msgr. Archbishop of Trani gave me by appointing me Ecclesiastical Censor for the publications of His three Dioceses. So the authorization to publish for the world these books dictated by Our Lord about His Divine Will, is now opened. Note that it was the lst Friday of the month which is dedicated each month to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Now this is my idea: to review, myself personally, with the help of the Lord, all of the other volumes which I have not yet read—that is, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10, 11th, 19th; then, after going through them, to place my Nihil Obstat; and then to pray Msgr. Archbishop of Trani, according to His promise, to place His Imprimatur on each volume, after my Nihil Obstat. It is understood that I will also place the Nihil Obstat, without new revision, on Volumes 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, which I have already reviewed, and whose originals you have. In this way, everything will be ready for the future—who knows, Our Lord may use whomever He wants.

Do you see how, in this way, the celestial plan which wants these writings to be approved by the Ecclesiastical Authority appears to be so well outlined! Who can resist the Divine Will?

I think I will come back to Corato between the 21st and the 22nd of this month of September because, in truth, if I can, I will do everything possible with the help of Our Lord in order to present to Msgr. Archbishop of Trani all of our volumes with my Nihil Obstat on September 24, which is dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin of Mercy, Redemptrix of slaves, and to have all the Imprimaturs, or at least the beginning of the Imprimaturs, on that day, so sacred and meaningful!—which also falls on a Friday.

In the meantime, let us pray, because if this point is passed, we can say that the publication is secured.

Lady Obedience imposes on you to write, either during the day or at night, everything, everything—everything that the Lord reveals to you: let nothing escape you. This is word of the Uncreated Wisdom, and one word is worth more than the whole Universe. You are not allowed, therefore, to neglect even one syllable. If you are not impeccable in this Obedience, I will ask your Archbishop to exercise greater authority over you.

I bless you and your good sister and the young girls.

Blessing you again, I commend to you a little bit my poor health, which is worsened by the years; but before all, ask Blessed Jesus for my conversion.

If you want, you can write me a few lines. My address is: Via Circonvallazione Appia, 66 – Roma (40).

Yours in J. C., our Beloved

Canonico M.A. Di Francia

AN EXEMPLARY CHAPLIN – FATHER VINCENT CAPODANNO
click here for more information

Click here for the trailer to the movie on Father Capodanno’s Life

by Maureen Boyle

There have been countless brave Catholic chaplains serving the U.S. Armed Forces since the Revolutionary War. One heroic example who is honored every year on the anniversary of his death is Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a Maryknoll priest who was killed in Vietnam on September 4, 1967, as he gave physical and spiritual assistance to the dying Marines of the 1^st Marine Division. Father Capodanno posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor and was officially proclaimed a Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 2006, formerly initiating his cause for sainthood.

In his homily on September 6, 2011, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio pointed out that among the scores of Navy chaplains, only two have received the Medal of Honor: Jesuit Father Joseph O’Callahan and Father Capodanno.

“They were men who never forgot the specificity of what they brought to others as Catholic priests, and yet still served all who sought their counsel comfort and ministry,” said Archbishop Broglio. “It is that realization that permitted Father Capodanno to defy logic and remain under fire to minister to those entrusted to his pastoral care. He knew that he brought them something no other chaplain could: the healing presence of the risen Lord who entrusted his sacraments, his life, to the Church.”

“Men and women like Father Capodanno, afire with the love of Christ, challenge us to live the Gospel and to teach all people to live as brothers and sisters. The quest for peace still stirs our hearts,” Archbishop Broglio said.

Book of Heaven
8/31/00 – Vol. 3

As I was in my usual state and since my adorable Jesus was not coming, I was all afflicted and a little concerned about why He was not coming.  Then, after much waiting and waiting, He came, and seeing that Blood was pouring from His hands, I prayed that from His left hand He would pour Blood over the world, for sinners who were about to die and were at risk of being lost; and from His right hand He would pour His Blood over Purgatory.  Listening to me benignly, He stirred Himself and poured Blood over both places.

After this, He said to me:  “My daughter, in the interior souls there cannot be disturbance, and if it enters into them, it is because the soul goes outside of herself.  To do this is to act as her own executioner, because by going outside of herself she clings to many things which do not regard nor belong to God; and sometimes, things which do not regard even the true good of the soul.  So, returning into herself and bringing things that are extraneous to her, she herself torments herself, and with this, she comes to make herself infirm, and also grace.  Therefore, remain always within yourself and you will always be calm.”

Who can say with what clarity I understood this, and how I found truth in these words of Jesus?  Ah, Lord, if You please to instruct me, give me the grace to profit from your holy instructions, otherwise everything will be for my condemnation.

 From the EWTN Website 

Under the pretext of providing his personal automobile, so that the children could travel safely through the crowds pressing around their homes, the civil Administrator or Mayor of the district in which Fátima was located, arrived in Aljustrel on the morning of August 13th. A previous attempt on August 11th to obtain the “truth” from the children having  been unsuccessful, Artur Santos, an apostate Catholic and high Mason, had devised a scheme by which he would take them into custody and force them to reveal all. With a show of good will he now offered to take the three and their parents to see the parish priest, whom he claimed wished to see them, and then to the Cova. At the parish house he abandoned this ruse, and the parents, taking the children alone from there to the district headquarters in Vila Nova de Ourem, some 9 miles away. Here he tried bribes, threats of death and locking them in a cell with other “criminals” in order to get them to recant their story. It was to no avail. Despite their ages, their belief in the Lady and their courage was unshakeable. 

Meanwhile, in the Cova at noon on the 13th the characteristic external signs of the Apparition appeared for the benefit of the crowd, the greatest crowd to that time. After they ended the crowd dispersed, as yet unaware of the trickery of the government. 

The “trial” of the children, however, continued for two days, to the consternation of their families. Finally, on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, the Administrator had them driven back to Fátima and deposited on the steps of the rectory. Here they were seen as the people, who had just come from Mass, were trying to determined from Ti Marto where the children were. Their anger was poured out on the driver, and on the Mayor when he arrived a little later, both of whom were no doubt glad to be rid of their little charges and to escape unscathed. It would effectively be the only serious effort of the civil authorities to interfere with the Lady of Fátima.

As it was the Lady’s plans were delayed slightly. On Sunday the 19th Lucia, her brother John, and Francisco, were grazing the sheep at a place known as Valinhos. It was located on the side of the same hillock opposite Aljustrel where the angel appeared twice, though a little farther north. At apout 4 o’clock, sensing that Our Lady was about to appear, Lucia tried unsuccessfully to get John to fetch Jacinta, until she offered him a couple pennies for the errand. As she and Francisco waited they saw the characteristic light. The moment Jacinta arrived the Lady appeared.

“What do you want of me?”

Come again to the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of next month, my child, and continue to say the Rosary every day. In the last month I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.“What are we to do with the offerings of money that people leave at the Cova da Iria?”

I want you to have two ardors [litters to carry statues] made, for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. I want you and Jacinta to carry one of them with two other girls. You will both dress in white. And then I want Francisco, with three boys helping him, to carry the other one. The boys, too, will be dressed in white. What is left over will help towards the construction of a chapel that is to be built here.

Lucia then asked for the cure of some sick people.

Some I will cure during the year.”(looking sadly at them) Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice.

Having said that she departed as she had on the other occasions. 

From Vespers August 1st to Midnight August 2nd is the Feast of Portiuncula!

A plenary indulgence is available to anyone who will:

1. Receive sacramental confession (8 days before of after)

2. Receive the Holy Eucharist at Holy Mass on August 2nd

3. Enter a parish church and, with a contrite heart, pray the Our Father, Apostles Creed, and a pray of his/her own choosing for the intentions of the Pope.

THE BASILICA OF
OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS

Shrine of the Portiuncula

The Portiuncula is situated now inside the
Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels
in the town of the same name around 5 km from Assisi

Pope Emeritis Benedict XVI praying at the Shrine of the Portiuncula

The chapel was of antique construction and venerated for the apparition of Angels within it.  In the chapel in 1216, in a vision, St Francis obtained from Jesus himself the Indulgence of the Pardon of Assisi that was approved by Pope Honorius III.