Nora’s Story

April 15, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

The Apostolate of Eucharistic Adoration is an organization of laypeople organized in 1985, located in Ireland. They maintain a website that contained the following story:

“This is Nora’s story (not her real name) I have been praying during my weekly hour of Adoration, over many years, for my husband to return to Mass and the Sacraments as he has been away from them for 26 years. He didn’t even enter the church when our children were making their first Holy Communions and Confirmations. On a wet and very cold winter’s day he dropped me down to the Adoration Chapel for my holy hour and asked me to hurry out after the hour as he wanted to go to an important meeting. After the hour he came to collect me and waited outside in the car. After waiting for an extra twenty minutes, he lost patience and ran into the Adoration Chapel to hurry me out. I pretended not to see him and he sat down very impatiently for some minutes. Finally I got up and left and he came speedily after me. I was expecting a lot of anger and complaints because I stayed longer than the hour and kept him waiting. Having got into the car he turned to me, and said, calmly and quietly, ‘I am not going to that meeting I mentioned but instead I am going the priest in the Parochial house and going to ask him to hear my confession. Something came over me as I entered that Adoration Chapel, and I feel God calling me back again’. He got confession that day and became a daily mass goer and a weekly Adorer for the very first time. I put this down to the power of prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament.”

Source: http://eucharisticadoration.ie/testimonies/

Sokolka, Poland

April 14, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

On October 12, 2008, at the church dedicated to Saint Anthony of Sokółka, the Holy Mass of 8:30 AM is celebrated by a young vicar, Filip Zdrodowski. During Communion, unknowingly, a Host falls from the hands of one of the priests. The priest picked it up and placed it in a vessel filled with water, in the tabernacle. After Mass, the vessel containing the host was placed in a safe present in the sacristy.
On October 19, 2008, after opening the safe one could clearly see a red stain on the Host that had fallen, which with the naked eye immediately gave the impression of being a bloodstain.

On October 29, 2008, the vessel containing the Host was transferred to the tabernacle of the chapel of the rectory. The next day the Host was removed from the water contained in the vessel and placed on a corporal inside the tabernacle.

In January of 2009 the Curia of Białystok asked two eminent specialists in pathologoical anatomy of the Medical University of Białystok, Professor Maria Elżbieta Sobaniec-Łotowska and Professor Stanisław Sulkowski, to analyze the samples of the bloodstained Host.

The two scientists of conducted their own independent investigations. Professor Sulkowski, did not even know that the sample which he was examining came from a Host. For her part, Professor Sobaniec-Łotowska, was initially convinced that she was examining a blood clot. In the report that they ultimately issued, however, they stated that, “the material analyzed is composed in all respects of cardiac muscular tissue”.

They also found the phenomenon of segmentation, namely damage to the fibers of the tissue of the cardiac muscle in the section where communicating junctions [structures characteristic of the cardiac muscle] are found, and the phenomenon of fragmentation. Such damages are visible in the form of numerous small lesions. These alterations can be observed only in fibers that were not necrotic, that is alive, and show signs of the fast spasms of the cardiac muscle typical of the extreme phase preceding death.

The professors discovered also other unexplainable elements. “The Host remained in water for a long time and it remained in the corporal for an even longer period of time. The tissue that appeared on the Host would therefore have had to undergo the process of autolysis, namely the process of self-destruction by the action of the intracellular enzymes; in the material analyzed there were not however observed traces of these alterations!”

Moreover, the cardiac tissue was found joined to remnants of the consecrated Host in an inseparable manner. The fragments which composed the Host were tightly interconnected to the fibers of the human tissue; they penetrated each other, as if a fragment of “bread” had suddenly transformed itself in “body”. It is not possible to manipulate an event of this type. No one, absolutely no one, would have been able to do it. To Professor Sobaniec-Łotowska, this fact was of especially notable importance.

A consecrated Host had changed to heart tissue, showing signs of stress just prior to death. But it had changed only in part. It was part Host, part heart tissue. And it had not deteriorated as it should have. This particular Eucharistic miracle contained not simply one extraordinary feature, but four.

Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration and Association, http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Sokolka1.pdf;
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Sokolka2.pdf; http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Sokolka3.pdf.

Veroli, Italy

April 13, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

It was Easter in the year 1570. In Veroli, Italy, at the Church of St. Erasmus, the Blessed Sacrament was presented for Forty Hours of adoration. Various civil confraternities were to be present for an hour each. During one such hour, the Confraternity of Mercy, vested in their black robes, were kneeling in prayer.

According to a documents from the time, still preserved in the Church of St. Erasmus, a spectacle was witnessed by many there. A detailed deposition was given by a Giacomo Meloni, who was among the first witnesses. His testimony is as follows: “Raising my eyes towards the chalice, I saw a most brilliant star at the base of the chalice’s cup, and above the star, the Blessed Sacrament in the size of the Host used by the priest at Mass. The star was attached to the Blessed Sacrament (…). The vision ended when small children in adoration, similar to small angels, were seen around the Sacred Host…”.

The consecrated Host from this miraculous event did not decompose at it should have, but remained intact for 112 years. At that time, a decision was made for the Host to be consumed.

Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration and Association, http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Veroli.pdf.

Scala, Italy

April 12, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

Scala is a town on the Amalfi Coast, in southwestern Italy. Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa and St. Alphonsus Liguori founded the Monastery of the Most Holy Redeemer there. In 1732, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed every Thursday for Adoration.

For three consecutive months, starting on 11, 1732, the signs of the Passion appeared on the Host situated in the monstrance.

All this can be confirmed not only by the nuns and the people but also by Bishop Santoro of Scala and by the Bishop of Castellamare. The apparition occurred also in the presence of St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori.

Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration and Association,http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Damian-Scala.pdf.

Legnica, 2013

April 11, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

Legnica is a city of about 100,000 people in the southwestern part of Poland. On Christmas, 2013, at St. Hyacinth’s Church, a Host fell to the ground during the distribution of Holy Communion. The Host was immediately immersed in water and placed into the tabernacle. This in accordance with Church requirements for the disposition of a Host that had been soiled.

On January 4th, Fr. Andrzej Ziombra checked on the Host, assuming that it would have dissolved after two weeks.

He explains what happened next:

“Immediately we noticed that the Host had not dissolved, and that a red spot covering a fifth of Its surface appeared. We decided to inform the Bishop, who established a special theological scientific commission to analyze the event. We noticed that over time the stain on the Host changed color from deep red to red brown.”

The sample was taken directly to scientists on 26 January 2014. The Wrocław Forensic Medicine Institute immediately excluded the presence of bacteria or fungi as a cause for the Host turning red. A second histopathological analysis pointed out that some fragments seemed to belong to myocardial tissue.

An additional opinion was sought using the same samples at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Szczecin without specifying where the samples came from. The Institute used a different analysis method. After the analysis, The Pomeranian Medical University’s Department of Histopathology in Szczecin announced that “tissue fragments containing fragmented parts of cross-striated muscle” was found in the histopathological image. This is similar to “human heart muscle with alterations that often appear during the agony. We have not tested the blood found on the Host, we only know that human DNA was found.”

Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration and Association, http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Legnica1.pdf.

Zaragoza, Spain

April 10, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

In the town archives of Zaragoza, there can be found a document written in 1427 by Don Dorner, archdeacon of the city. The report states:

“A married woman consulted a Moorish evil sorcerer for a remedy to cure her husband of his violent nature and to make him treat her more gently. To change the husband’s behavior, the sorcerer told her he needed a consecrated Host. The very superstitious woman went to the church of Saint Michael, went to confession and received the Eucharist. With diabolical cunning, she took the Blessed Sacrament from her mouth and hid the Host in a small coffer which she took immediately to the sorcerer. When they opened the coffer, instead of the Host they saw, with great terror, a little Baby surrounded by light. The sorcerer told the woman to take the coffer home, burn the Holy Eucharist, and bring the ashes to him. The unscrupulous woman did as she was told, but with great amazement saw that though the coffer was completely burned, the Baby remained unharmed.

“Stricken with terror and out of her mind she ran to the house of the sorcerer to tell him what happened. The sorcerer on hearing the words of the woman, began to tremble, fearing a vengeance from heaven. They decided to go to the cathedral to inform the bishop don Alonso, confess their sin and ask for baptism.

“The bishop consulted some prelates and theologians of the diocese to shed light on the event and finally decided to take the Miraculous Baby in solemn procession from the house of the woman to the cathedral. The whole city accompanied the procession and was deeply moved at the sight of the marvelous Baby. Once in the cathedral, the Miraculous Baby was put on the altar of the chapel of Saint Valerio so that the people of Zaragoza could see Him and venerate Him. The following day while the bishop was celebrating Mass at the same altar, at the words of consecration, a Host, immediately consumed by the bishop, appeared where the Baby was.”

Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration and Association, http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Zaragoza.pdf.

A Cure for Theresa

April 9, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

In her book, The Way of Perfection, St. Theresa of Avila modestly writes the following:

“And do not imagine that this most sacred food is not an excellent food for our bodies and a splendid remedy even for bodily ills! I know for a fact that it is. I know a person who suffered from serious illness (meaning herself) and was often in the greatest pain. That pain was lifted from her when she received the Eucharist so that she felt completely well.”

Laon, France

April 8, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

A woman was possessed and a number of exorcisms were performed to try to rid her of the evil spirit. None worked. Finally, the bishop approached the woman with a Host. The spirit made a horrible cry and left the woman. The Host was removed and the devil returned. This repeated a number of times.

Then, the bishop made a command and the evil spirit replied. He confessed, “I acknowledge that here is truly the Son of God. He is my Lord. It pains me to confess it, but I am compelled to do so; yes, I will be obliged through the power of this Body to depart from hence.” The devil now departed a last time. He did not return again.

This occurred in Laon France in 1566 and was witnessed by thousands.

Source: Kaczmarek, Louis, Hidden Treasure, The Riches of the Eucharist (Plattsburgh, N.Y., Trinity Communications, 1990) p. 102 – 103.

Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich

April 7, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich was a German mystic of the 18th and 19th centuries. She was known for receiving tremendous visions of the life of Christ.

For twelve years, the last twelve years of her life, she lived on nothing but water and the Holy Eucharist.

Source: Cruz, Caroll, Eucharistic Miracles (Charlotte, North Carolina, Tan Books, 2010) p. 243.

An Exorcism After Mass

April 6, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Stories 

One day, a priest went to a possessed woman for the purpose of performing an exorcism. He had attempted a number of exorcisms on this same woman before, with no success. This was 1617, in Cambrai, France.

This particular day, however, he had just celebrated a Mass. As he approached, the devil cried out, “Thou art very strong today on account of the bread which thou has eaten at the altar.”

The priest responded, “If what I have eaten today in Holy Communion is but common bread, then my voice shall be without power and authority against thee, but if, as I believe with my whole soul, it is the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, then I command thee in His name to leave the woman instantly.”

A frightful cry was then heard and the devil left the woman. He did not return and the woman was free from him afterwards.

Source: Kaczmarek, Louis, Hidden Treasure, The Riches of the Eucharist (Plattsburgh, N.Y., Trinity Communications, 1990) p. 102.

Next Page »

Copyright 2012 The Humble Catholic

Web site designed by Chicago web design company : Indigo Image