He Jumped Up at the Elevation
The relics of St. Philomena were venerated in the church by large crowds for a number of days in a row. On the ninth day, a poor widow brought her son to Mass. He could neither stand nor walk. At the elevation of the Sacred Host, the boy not only stood, he jumped up.
He then ran to the urn that held the Saint’s relics to give thanks for his cure.
After the Mass was over, the boy walked about the town. Bells were rung and drums were beat. The boy was even lifted up and carried in procession through the streets.
Adapted from an entry in My Daily Eucharist II by Joan Carter McHugh, and an excerpt contained there from St. Philomena the Wonder Worker by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, OP.
Aimee Allope
Aimee Allope was born in 1872 and lived in northwestern France, near Angers. In 1909, she went to Lourdes, France. She was very ill at the time, and had been for a long while. In 1898, she had to have a kidney removed. Several years later, several more operations were needed to remove tuberculous lesions from her right abdominal area. This led, however, to the formation of fistulas, abnormal passageways that exit through one’s skin. Shortly, before her arrival in Lourdes, it was confirmed that she had “four enormous abscesses, from which fluid ran quite profusely. Her condition was such that she weighed only ninety-seven pounds.
For several days after arriving in Lourdes, there was no change in her condition. The discharge of fluid from her sores required the changing of her dressings two times each day.
On May 28th, however, her life turned. She received Holy Communion at the Grotto. Then, her wounds closed, her appetite returned and she resumed a normal physical state. The next day, she was examined at the Medical Bureau and it was confirmed that the fistulas had sealed and that the hardening of her skin and tissue had disappeared.
Over the next ten months, she gained more than twenty pounds. There was no regression and her condition remained completely healthy.
On May 8, 1910, the Bishop of Angers formally declared that she had experienced a miraculous cure.
Source: http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/lourdes/miracles2.html#38
No More Hoax
Eugene H. Dierks, III always was a 12-year-old altar boy at St. Thomas More Church. One day, he served at the 8:30 Mass. During the first reading, he wondered whether the Mass itself was a sham. Perhaps Jesus had fooled everyone around him during His time. Perhaps the worship of Him, over 2,000 years, had been one colossal waste of time.
Then he thought that if God was in fact real, He would have no problem proving it to him. He prayed for a sign, not something that could be doubted or mistaken, but something concrete and real. He hoped that, if God really loved him, personally, He would do this before the end if the Mass.
Throughout the rest of the Mass, he kept looking for his sign. It never came. At the end of the Mass, he led the procession toward the rear of the church, greatly disappointed.
After everyone had left the church, he went back toward the altar, to collect the used communion articles so that they could be cleansed. As he did so, his thoughts turned to what he would do next. He could not go to Mass anymore, having determined for himself it was a farce. He thought about telling his father, but knew he would never understand. His only answer was to go through the motions of attending weekly Mass, until he was old enough to move away from home.
He picked up three empty ciboriums and walked back to the sacristy. Upon reaching it, he took the lids off of the ciboriums and his “jaw dropped.” One of the ciboriums was full.
He quickly motioned for Deacon John to come, but he merely grabbed the ciborium and took it back to the tabernacle. When he got to the sacristy once again, he was confused. He knew there were only three full ciboriums. Since there had been a full ciborium in the sacristy, thought that he must have put an empty one in the tabernacle during the Mass by mistake. Upon returning to the tabernacle just now, however, he found that there were in fact three full ciboriums already there. He shrugged it off, saying, “ I must be getting old.”
Eugene knew differently. He was too scared to mention it at the time, feeling that no one would believe him. The memory of it was not one to leave him though. No longer could he think in the way he had before, that the Mass was just a giant hoax.
Adapted from Proctor, Sister Patricia, O.S.C., 201 Inspirational Stories of the Eucharist (Spokane, Washington, Francisan Monastery of Saint Clare, 2004) p. 39-41.
Rita’s Hip
A woman named Rita Pilger was suffering from pain in her hip when she attended a certain weekend conference. During Mass on Sunday, the pain was quite severe. When she received Communion, however, she suddenly felt no pain. She returned to her seat and felt a “readjustment” in her hip socket, then another “readjustment” or movement across her hip and abdomen. Her leg then felt very light. Several days passed and she still had no return of the pain when she wrote of her experience.
DeGrandis, Robert, S.S.J., Healing Through the Mass (Totowa, New Jersey, Resurrection Press, 1992) p. 141-42).
The Picture that Was Not There
Debbie Gerard returned to the Catholic faith in 1994. The following year, she attended a Marian conference in Rochester, New York and was eager to attend Eucharistic adoration. When she made it to the area designated for this, she found it packed, except for one seat directly in front of the monstrance. She took that seat, but was greatly surprised when she saw a picture of Jesus had been inserted when the Host should have been.
She thought it was just one more change from way things were done in the Church she used to know. Since she had fallen away years before, the Mass was no longer done in Latin, railings were removed from the altar sanctuaries, tabernacles were moved to the side or even behind a wall and people frequently came to church on Sundays dressed in mini skirts, tank tops and similar attire. She simply assumed this was one more change.
On the way home afterwards, she was riding in a car with three other companions. When asked about what they saw, each one confirmed they had seen merely the Host. They then queried her as to why she was even asking. She confided to them that she had never seen the Host, only Jesus. It was then that she realized she had not been looking at a picture placed in the monstrance. She was in fact witness to something seen only by her, a special privilege she was given that day and remembers to this one.
Adapted from Proctor, Sister Patricia, O.S.C., 201 Inspirational Stories of the Eucharist (Spokane, Washington, Francisan Monastery of Saint Clare, 2004) p. 36.