He Didn’t Know Better
He (my father) used to go very often to the church of Notre Dame des Victoires, a stone’s throw away (from his office). What drove him there? He couldn’t say. This church simply drew him as it still attracts those who are searching. One day while Mass was being celebrated, my father joined the line of people going up for communion in good faith, and received the Holy Eucharist. This was utterly irregular. Be he didn’t know better. Sometimes, it pleases God to overlook all the rules. Like me, my father instantly believed and got in touch with our friend Roselys, who gave him the address of a religious. The rest followed without difficulty.
(An account by the American-French novelist Julien Green, of the conversion of his father, while the latter was stationed as an American businessman in Paris.)
Source: Gaudoin-Parker, Michael, The Real Presence Through the Ages (New York, Alba House, 1993) p. 170.
Marge’s Story
Marge was in Tampa, Florida one Saturday afternoon in 1997. Something had been causing her a good deal of sadness, and she had been crying. Then, she decided to take her troubles to church. She would go to the Saturday vigil Mass, but she would also go early, so she could spend some time praying before the tabernacle.
As she prayed, there before the Blessed Sacrament within, she suddenly saw a beam of light come from the tabernacle. It slowly grew closer and closer to her. It then penetrated her body and, for a few seconds, she felt “that I could move a mountain.” After it quickly ended, she “was no longer sad.”
Source: “Guardians of the Eucharist,” The Spirit of Adoration, ed. June Klins, Issue No.2, Erie, PA, p.6, http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/files/AdorationIssue2.pdf.
The Forgiveness of Charles Martel
Charles Martel reunited and, from 718 to 741, was the de facto ruler of Francia, which contained much of present-day France and Germany. In 732, at Poitiers, he won a historic victory over the Muslims, stemming their invasion of Europe.
Apparently carried away with exuberance over the event, he committed, prior to the ensuing victory celebration, an extremely grave sin. So grave was the sin that he could not bring himself to confess it, his shame being so great. Determining upon a solution, he decided to go to Provenza and see a well-known abbot of the time named Egidio. He hoped that he could find absolution through this priest, even without confessing the sin and keeping it still a secret to himself. The sin was that of incest, and the other party involved was his sister.
After he arrived, Fr. Egidio was presiding at Mass when he beheld an angel carrying a book. In the book, the sin had been written. As Fr. Egidio progressed with the celebration of the Eucharist, the writing slowly faded, until it was no longer visible.
Martel took from this that his sin had been forgiven.
Today, the priest is known as St. Egidio.
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/Egidio.pdf.
Never In All His Life
Sylvan Dutheil was 16 years old when he enlisted in the army. During his time of military service, he contracted a pulmonary disease that sent him home. One day, he was walking with his sister down a street in Montpellier, in southern France. He came across a portrait of Fr. Jean Vianney and scoffed. His sister had a different reaction. She knew of this man, who was the cause for many pilgrims to journey to his small village of Ars, about 170 miles distant from Montpellier. She told her brother, “you might obtain your cure were you to put your trust in that holy man.” That only increased his derisive attitude toward the priest and the esteem accorded him by others.
That night, however, changed this attitude. He had a dream in which saw Fr. Vianney. Fr. Vianney was holding an apple, an apple that had a two-part appearance. Half of it was fine. The other half was rotten. It shook Sylvan. He then asked to go to Ars.
He arrived there, with his mother, in the middle of November, 1855. Fr. Vianney visited him at his hotel each day. On December 8, 1855, he converted and received absolution of his sins. Due to his ill health, he was carried to the foot of the altar. He received Communion and was carried back to the sacristy.
He then declared, “never in all my life have I felt such happiness.”
After being taken back to the hotel, he told his mother: “the joy of this Communion makes me forget all my sufferings. I do not wish to leave … I want to die here.”
That very night, he did.
For those who believe, it is God who decides to give us life and it is God who decides the time when each life shall end. For Sylvan Dutheil, that decision allowed an end to his sufferings, but only after he had experienced “the joy of this Communion.”
Source: Trochu, Abbe Francois, The Cure D’Ars (Charlotte, N.C., Tan Books 2007) p. 322-323.
The Hasty Return
A priest was travelling on horseback, during the early 1800s, near Albany, New York. He was answering a call to come to the bed of a sick man. The wind and rain was heavy and the priest was compelled to stop at a roadside inn. At this establishment, the priest encountered a messenger who was there to inform him that the man was no longer in imminent danger of death. He was still ill and it was desired that the priest should continue his journey, but there was no urgency to do so that night.
The priest was relieved and settled into a room for the night. He had been carrying the Blessed Sacrament in a pyx, in order to distribute Holy Viaticum when he reached his journey’s end. Now, the priest carefully placed the pyx in a drawer and went to sleep.
The next morning, the priest arose early and set out once again on his trip. When he had just about arrived at his destination, he suddenly had an alarming realization. The pyx was still in the room. Guilt and worry overtook him as he thought about the people at the inn who might discover the forgotten case and its holy contents. All the others were unbelievers who might treat the Sacred Host with contempt or desecration. The priest immediately rode back to the inn, despite the fact that the weather was still difficult.
When he finally came to the inn, the priest located the keeper of the house and inquired whether anyone had gone into his room from the night before. The response he received was most curious. The priest was asked, “what have you done to that room? We cannot get into it by any means. Not one of us can force the door open, though the key is in the lock.” That was not all he was told, however. The innkeeper also said, “And what is more, if one looks through the keyhole the whole room seems lighted up.”
The priest quickly ascended the stairs, followed by the innkeeper, his wife, the servants and several strangers, all of whom wanted to learn the answer to this riddle.
The priest turned the doorknob without any unusual effort and prostrated himself on the floor before the chest of drawers that had served as a makeshift tabernacle. He had forgotten and inadvertently abandoned the Lord of Lords. Apologetic and humble, he rose to his feet and retrieved the pyx. Then he began to speak to those gathered, with especial eloquence, on the mystery of the Eucharist.
Due to the gravity of the occurrence that had taken place and the desires of the people, the priest stayed at the inn for several days. He baptized the whole household into the Catholic Church, as well as some additional persons.
When he was done, the priest continued on with his journey. He found the man for whom he had originally started out on his trip. The man had recovered from his malady.
Source: Etlin, Rev. Lukas, O.S.B., Eucharistic Miracles (Clyde, Missouri, Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoratio 1947), p. 5-8.