TOGETHER WE DID IT! Vienna, 2011

"My eyes and my heart will be here,  

even when I will no longer appear." 

President:  Denis Nolan 

P.O. Box 899

Notre Dame, IN  46556

 574-287-7875

marytv.tv

 Mary TV is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization

December 9, 2011

Feast Day of St. Juan Diego!

Dear Family of Mary TV,

Together we did it!  We're particularly grateful for your intercessory prayer!  MARY TV's streaming November 17, 2011, in St. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna succeeded beyond all expectations!  The graces for us were astounding! 

We enter battle with Satan every time we enter the digital sea and only prayer wins victories for Our Lady.   Your prayers that day moved mountains!  We encountered more technical problems than we did last year, but as Tom Mattaso says, the peace was greater! See Cathy's November 25th Reflection on Our Lady's messages : The Incredible stats of November 17, 2011  (and if you haven't yet signed up to be receiving them, I suggest you do so. You can sign up at <www.marytv.tv>)

Once again Milona von Habsburg, who doesn't just translate, but conveys the spirit of the Gospa so beautifully, graciously served as MARY TV's translator.  

I'll just tell one story not mentioned in Cathy's reflection that gives an example of the fruit of your intercessory prayer: the day before the Evening of Prayer in the Cathedral was to take place it was realized that Ivan would need Milona to translate from Croatian into German when he was speaking before the congregation.  And so organizers of the event phoned Katryna, another gifted translator (who for years worked as Blessed Mother Teresa's translator) so she could take Milona's place translating for MARY TV when Ivan was speaking....   Katryna, who was working as a translator in another country at the time, told them, "No, I can't come."   So they had Milona phone her.  Katryna, telling me this story, said, "How could I say 'No' to Milona?"  But she made clear she couldn't arrive until Mass on the 17th ....  As she was driving towards Vienna that day she felt Our Lady pulling her car to go faster and faster: "Our Lady was actually pulling me to get me here before I intended to arrive!" she told me.  And so Katryna arrived in time to take over MARY TV's English translation for Milona when Ivan was speaking well before Mass began!   

And then after the Rosary when it was time for Ivan to tell everyone about his apparition he needed Milona to come and translate again, she asked me... "  What am I to do?  I'm being called to come up front to translate for Ivan and I have no idea where Katryna is.  Please go and see if you can find her.".... When I returned after a fruitless search in a sea of people, Milona whispered, "I've got to go.   But don't worry.  I'll remember everything Ivan says and tell everyone on MARY TV later"....  The moment she left, out from the congregation heading towards me was Katryna.  I told her she was just in time to take Milona's place translating for MARY TV.  I asked her if someone told her to come.  She said, "No one told me to come.  I didn't know I was needed just now to translate.  I was sitting in my seat and all of a sudden I felt Our Lady telling me it was time for me to get up and come over here."....   She sat down next to Tom in Milona's seat just in time as Milona started translating for Ivan!  

We're grateful for your intercessory prayer - and also that you spread to your email lists word that we'd be streaming live November 17th - otherwise no one would have known to go to their computers!  MARY TV's web page had two million hits that day!....It's conceivable a million people joined Ivan, Our Lady, Cardinal Schoenborn and all who were praying in the cathedral!  And I've had it confirmed by leading authorities in the church that those throughout the world who participated through our live internet broadcast received all the blessings given in the Cathedral - the same as the people sitting in the pews!  Section 12 of the Enchirdion Indulgentiarum can be taken analogically: "Through broadcasts or digital transmissions blessings will be received by those who participate 'piously and devoutly' and this includes also religious items brought with them, in the same way as if they had participated personally."  What joy this must give to Our Lady....her blessings reached so many around the world who were joining in prayer through the internet during her apparition!  

Cathy concluded that November 25th reflection: "Yes, November 17, 2011 was a powerful day. So many, many of Our Lady's children were united in prayer and adoration on that day, through the internet!  This is a new and powerful grace for us all.  Thank you, dear Mother, for helping us to develop such a tool to be used for you in your mission from Medjugorje!"  In the future, anyone - anywhere in the world - can be present in the apparition room for Our Lady's apparition!

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, main author of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and a close personal friend of Pope Benedict XVI, presided at Mass and gave the homily.  When I expressed surprise that the Gospel reading for the Mass (that he had just given the homily on) was Lk 19: 41-44, he told me it was the Church's reading for the day (it wasn't picked by him)!  And November 17th had been chosen many months in advance because it was the only day Ivan was free to come!  This was indeed a prophetic day!

"And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes.  For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation."   (Lk 19: 41-44)

This is certainly our time of visitation.  And Our Lady is coming to tell us what makes for peace!  May we all respond to Our Lady's coming with complete surrender to God, total trust, and profound love for our Lord and His Mother.  (You can listen to the cardinal's homily at <www.marytv.tv>.)  

Please continue keeping MARY TV in your prayers....  When Ivan told me he would be coming soon to churches not far from South Bend, I asked him if we could stream those apparitions.  He replied, "I'll ask the Gospa!"    MARY TV needs to be ready for when Our Lady calls.   This June 23, 24th and 26th (2012) we'll be streaming Ivan's apparitions from Medjugojre.  But we'll be arriving in Medjugojre a week early to finish setting up the ground floor television studio in Villa Mia (the beautiful building across the street from the parish bathrooms) .   Though we have all the cameras and most of the equipment for that studio in order to make it operational, our main studios below ground still need the floors finished, the electric finished and television equipment purchased and installed.  Please pray we get donations in order to get everything ready as soon as possible...  If you know someone who has been blessed financially and who loves Our Lady, please pass on to them this appeal.  (And you can direct them to MARY TV's "MISSION STATEMENT" at <www.marytv.tv>.)

Vicka tells me she is praying every day for MARY TV's television station in Medjugorje to become a reality.  It's been 12 years since Our Lady spoke with her about MARY TV's project, Our Lady telling Vicka that we should get ready slowly, she herself would tell us when to begin!   

Please consider spreading our appeal, and sending a monthly contribution.... Mary TV is tax-exempt.  You can donate by sending a check (Mary TV, PO Box 899, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA) or by credit card through PayPal using the button on our home page, www.marytv.tv . Bank wire transfers are possible, contact Cathy at 574-288-3069.   We need to be ready - up and running - when Our Lady says it's time to begin!

God bless you!

Denis Nolan

President

MARY TV

PS.   Caroline Lashutka, who is still at the International Theological Institute, told me when we arrived in Vienna last month that there is one thing she's learned since "Medjugorje Magazine" published her testimony after last year's Evening of Prayer in the St. Stephens Cathedral (see article below - taken from Medjugorje Magazine, page 49, Winter 2010).  She has discovered since giving her testimony concerning the faith in Austria: it's Medjugorje that has kept the faith alive in all of Europe!

I cannot help but conclude this letter by noting that several friends have expressed their frustration at the snide way in which some in the American Catholic media have chosen to report Cardinal Schoenborn's presence at the Evening of Prayer with Ivan on Nov. 17th. Furthermore, although the Vatican has taken the Medjugorje phenomenon with utmost seriousness by instituting a commission to study it, some purportedly orthodox Catholics have taken it on themselves to preempt the Church's deliberations by declaring that it is clear to them that Our Lady is not appearing in Medjugorje.

On November 20, 2011, Monsignor Giacomo Martinelli, director of the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate and the Pope's chaplain since 1997, introduced Medjugorje visionary Marija Lunetti to 5,000 faithful in the sports hall of Varese 55 kilometers north of Milan, Italy: "The apparitions of Our Lady Immaculate in Medjugorje are an opportunity that God gives today's disoriented man, and the arrival of hope..."  

In July of 2007, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, since 1980, Preacher to the Papal Household,  chose Medjugorje to give a retreat to priests titled, "With Mary, in Anticipation of the Holy Spirit."  

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta wrote in her own hand, "We are all praying one Hail Mary before Holy Mass to Our Lady of Medugorje."

Blessed John Paul the Great wrote in his own hand, "I thank Sophia for everything concerning Medjugorje.  I too go there every day as a pilgrim in my prayers.  I unite in my prayers with all those who pray there or receive a call for prayer from there.  Today we have come to understand this call better.  I rejoice that our time is not lacking people of prayer and apostles," and is quoted by the postulator for the cause of his canonization, "Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"  

Fr. Gabriele Amorth, founder of the church's Association of Exorcists (who for years was the chief exorcist of Rome), said in an interview on September 15, 2011, "The Gospel is so clear, it tells us how to discern! By the fruits you will know the tree! It has been 30 years since Medjugorje has given us fruits that are ultimately exquisite! Confession, conversion, vocations, graces of every kind! For more than 30 years!...And as for those people who believe themselves to be intelligent by saying they wait until the Church approves? They are fools!"  

According to the testimony of her personal secretary for many years, Olga, Duzesa de Cadaval, Sr. Lucia, the visionary of Fatima, knew Our Lady was appearing to the children in Medjugojre and was praying fervently for their protection...  

Literally hundreds of bishops and cardinals and tens of thousands of priests have joined Cardinal Schoenborn in professing their belief that Our Lady is indeed appearing to the visionaries of Medjugorje.  Bishops of the universal Church from Africa to Asia to the Americas have built and consecrated Medjugorje shrines, recognized new religious orders inspired by Our Lady of Medjugorje and officially sanctioned new congregations whose mission is to live and spread Our Lady's messages!   

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, head of the Vatican Commission now investigating Medjugorje, is the Archpriest of St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome.  Bishop Domenico Pecile, Vicar of St. John Lateran, the Pope's Cathedral in Rome, has publicly gone on record, stating, "It is impossible not to see here in Medjugojre the Lord our God.  Impossible!.... Here for such a long time, Our Lady is giving messages, is continuing to speak!  In all our churches throughout the world, it should be as it is here in Medjugorje"!   

My point is this:  the Bible tells us to test the spirits, not to reject all spirits:  and those who have demonstrably shown deep discernment into the supernatural are the most competent when it comes to assessing the authenticity of a so-called "alleged "apparition.  Armchair academics - particularly many in the Catholic media who have created an alternate magisterium - usually add nothing to this discussion because they have to rely on "facts" doctored by polemicists:  they simply hurt their own credibility when they make self-assured comments about phenomena that go way beyond their pay-grade. 

MISSION STATEMENT: MARY TV is a lay apostolate founded to put at the Gospa's service (Our Lady's service) modern communication technologies to bring her presence in Medjugorje - and her school in Medjugorje - to the world.