Heaven is for Real: Boy describes seeing Mary and Jesus

Near-death experience led to heaven's door - Winnipeg Free Press

The following excerpt is from Winnipeg Free Press:

WHILE on a family road trip in 2003, a small-town Nebraska boy just shy of four years old survived a brush with death made all the more maddening by how preventable it was.

A simple case of appendicitis took a malevolent turn when medical miscalls, parental errors in judgment and the vagaries of winter travel conditions lead to Colton Burpo suffering a rupture and rampant infection.

Heaven Is for Real, by Colton's father, Todd, a Baptist preacher,

In conversation, Colton starts to drop the names of some remarkable religious figures, saying that he had met them in heaven during the moments he was nearest to taking his last breath.

Todd, a pastor at a Nebraska Wesleyan church, wonders about his son's otherworldly comments that pop up in the midst of otherwise normal little-boy chatter.

Colton goes on to describe meeting Jesus's cousin, John the Baptist, and knowing that Colton could not possibly have had prior knowledge of the experiences and people he describes, interprets the situation as a calling.

"We'd been given a gift and our job now was to unwrap it, slowly, carefully, and see what was inside."

From this point forward, Todd faithfully presents a complete record of Colton's visit to heaven, as revealed to him in a naturally unfolding conversation over the course of months.

The Burpos' middle child (his younger brother was not born until 2005), Colton reveals that he has travelled extensively throughout heaven, meeting dearly departed family members, and luminaries of the faithful, including God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Todd is even able to report to Catholic friends that Colton "saw Mary kneeling before the throne of God and at other times standing beside Jesus."

For believers who like to share the Good News, Heaven Is For Real is manna in a couple of ways. For the Christian-centred family, the book is perfect to share and discuss around the dinner table as a means to grow and deepen faith.

Read More: Heaven is for Real

Our Lady of Medjugorje: Messages from Heaven

Photograph by Loci B. Lenar

The Medjugorje Web - Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje

Our Lady of Medjugorje's Message to Visionary Mirjana Soldo on June 2, 2011:

"Dear children!  As I call you to prayer for those who have not come to know the love of God, if you were to look into your hearts you would comprehend that I am speaking about many of you. With an open heart, sincerely ask yourselves if you want the living God or do you want to eliminate Him and live as you want. Look around you, my children, and see where the world is going, the world that thinks of doing everything without the Father, and which wanders in the darkness of temptation. I am offering to you the light of the Truth and the Holy Spirit. According to God's plan I am with you to help you to have my Son, His Cross and Resurrection, triumph in your hearts. As a mother, I desire and pray for your unity with my Son and His works. I am with you; you decide. Thank you."

Read More Messages

Pope Benedict XVI proposes leap of faith to overcome all difficulties

Benedict XVI proposes leap of faith to overcome all difficulties

The video and following excerpt is posted on RomeReports.com:

RomeReports.com - While praying the Regina Coeli, Benedict XVI highlighted the presence of God in the world and asked for others not feel like “Orphans of God” and to overcome the difficulties by renewing their faith every day.

Benedict XVI
“I invite everyone to joyfully renew the Christian hope which is born from the mystery of Easter, to face difficulties, ward off discouragement and efforts to build a world worthy of man , following God's wishes.”

The pope stressed that everyone is responsible for helping others come closer to God. He said this could be done by introducing the Gospel to others and to help rejuvenate the “ancient Christian roots.”

Benedict XVI
“Today the vocation of the Church is the evangelization of the people who are not familiar with the Gospel, as those with ancient Christian roots that need new blood to rediscover the beauty and joy of faith.”

Read more: A Leap of Faith

Editor of Vatican paper says he received miracle from St. Pope Pius X

CNS NEWS BRIEFS

The following news item is from the Catholic News Service:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The editor of the Vatican newspaper said he was cured of a childhood disease through the intercession of St. Pope Pius X. "I have an authentic veneration for him because, according to family tradition, I was miraculously cured because of him," said Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of L'Osservatore Romano. In 1954, when Vian had just turned 2 years old, he was struck by "an almost deadly form of diphtheria," he said in an interview with Il Consulente Re, an online Italian Catholic magazine. Vian said that on the eve of Pope Pius' canonization in May 1954, a Spanish priest who was a friend of Vian's father said the family should pray for the intercession of the late pope. Family members already felt a close tie to the Treviso-born pope because they were from the same part of northern Italy, Vian said. After the priest celebrated Mass "on the pope's tomb" in St. Peter's Basilica, "I was cured," Vian said.

Science and Faith Merge in Pope's Space Station Talk

Science and Faith Merge in Pope's Space Station Talk | Space.com

The following excerpt is from Space.com:

In a first for The Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called to the heavens on Saturday, but instead of reaching God, he spoke to two Italian astronauts and their 10 colleagues working on board the International Space Station (ISS).

"Dear astronauts, I am very happy to have this extraordinary opportunity to converse with you during your mission and especially grateful to be able to speak to so many of you as both crews are present on the space station at this time," the Pope said.

Love is a Key to God's Blessings



Jesus said, "This is My commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you."
John 15:12
Photo by Loci B. Lenar

 

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

This beautiful scripture is written by St. Paul (Paul the Apostle):

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.