A Child’s Teaching
In the Holy Eucharist the Good Shepherd feeds His sheep with the Bread of Life which is His Flesh. We need this food to live as sheep of the fold of Christ and to keep His life strong and growing in us. Without it we would grow sick and die on the way. To be good and strong we need it often.
Source: The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism, explained by Kelley, Rev. Bennet, C.P. (N.Y., Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1964) p. 125.
Conversation with a Priest
Yesterday, in speaking to a priest I know, he revealed that there have been several times during his career when he has been a witness to something extraordinary, although he treated it with almost a certain air of nonchalance. The word “nonchalance” is one to which I am sure he would not agree, but that is how I might best characterize his tone of voice as he related the events described below. It comes from a firm faith that the special is not extraordinary with the Eucharist, because the Eucharist itself is indeed special.
At every Mass, those responsible for seeing to it a sufficient number of hosts are available for Communion, by necessity, make an estimate of that amount. Invariably, over time, some estimates fall short. The priest said that in many such instances, Hosts are broken in half or even other fractions in order to overcome the difficulty. But there have been a few times, not just once, when, this priest said, although he should have run out, he did not. He was not aware how it occurred, he did not see any multiplication actually happen, but there just seemed to be more Hosts in the ciborium. More would simply be there, again and again.
He carefully pointed out that, in each of these cases, he had been fervently praying as the episode was transpiring.
Then, he told me something that surprised still further. He said that he had known other priests that had similar experiences. They had exchanged their stories with each other like other people do at work. While these instances are by no means commonplace in any possible sense of the word, they are out there, and more often than we know.
Early Church Catechesis
(I) … Therefore, when he has spoken and says about the bread, “This is my Body,” who will have the nerve to doubt any longer? And, when he affirms clearly, “This is my Blood,” who will then doubt, saying this is not his Blood?” …
(III) Therefore, with all confidence we receive this as the Body and Blood of Christ. For in the type of bread the Body is given to you, and in the type of win the Blood is given to you, so that, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, you may become one Body and one Blood with Christ. And so we become Christ-bearers …
– From the Mystagogic Catechesis, a series of sermons from the Church in Jerusalem during the late 4th or early 5th centuries, given to the recently baptized.
Source: O’Connor, Rev. James T., The Hidden Manna: A Theology of the Eucharist (San Francisco, Ignatius Press 1988) p. 27-28.
Sister Bernadette Moriau
There have been 70 cures at the shrine to Our Lady at Lourdes, France which have been officially recognized as miraculous. Here is the 70th.
Sister Bernadette Moriau was raised in a devout family. Her parents were members of the Franciscan Third Order. She herself entered the Congregation of the Franciscan Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus some 60 years ago. For two years, she cared for the sick. Then, she began to experience problems with her vertebral column, for which she has had four surgeries. After operations in 1965 an 1968, she was moved into a living area where she was one of the sick herself.
Some 40 years later, she was in an infirmary in Nantes, in northwestern France. Shortly thereafter, she met Dr. Fumery, who had been leading pilgrimages to Lourdes for 40 years. He asked her to go. At this time, Sister Moriau had been on morphine for some 14 years. While she could still walk, her condition was degrading and she was, in her words, “headed for paralysis. She had come to be at peace with her condition and no longer believed in a miracle for herself. Still, she decided to go to Lourdes in July of 2008, to participate in the celebration marking the fact that it had been 150 years since the apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette Soubirous.
At Lourdes, she received the Sacrament of Reconciliation ad the Sacrament of the Sick. Then she went to the pools and to the Saint Pius X Basilica. There, during the procession of the Holy Sacrament, the Bishop, Monsignor James, came to bless the sick with the monstrance. She said that, when he came towards her and the others in her midst, she: “had these words in my heart, Jesus saying to me: ‘I walk in your midst, I see your suffering, that of your sick brothers and sisters, give Me all.’ At that moment, I truly felt this living presence of Christ and I asked for healing for my sick brothers and sisters who were next to me, particularly for the youngest.”
Afterwards, she returned home. She rested for three days, still wearing a corset and a splint on her leg and foot. She also still had the neuro-stimulator and the self-probes that she had lived with for the last 10 years.
On the third day after her return, she went to the chapel, for adoration of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It was at 5:45 pm, the same hour as the procession of the Holy Eucharist at Lourdes, that she felt a “great relaxation and a warmth,” that felt as if it, “invaded her.” Not knowing what this meant, she went to her room. There, she “perceived” a voice that said to her, “pick up your equipment.” She picked up the equipment of her foot and leg and her foot was straightened. She could put her foot on the floor. Then she took off her corset, and no longer had any pain to move. She left her room and told another sister, “I don’t know what’s happening to me.” She stopped the neuro-stimulator; she stopped the morphine abruptly, without any symptoms of withdrawl; she stopped the self-probes. The following day, she took a walk in the forest, for five kilometers.
On July 15, she went to see Dr. Fumery. He was astounded, but understood. She had been cured.
Source: https://zenit.org/articles/my-life-is-a-miracle-sister-bernadette-moriaus-experience-healed-at-lourdes/
The Power to Subdue Passion
Sacrament of the Lord’s precious Body and Blood … effects two things in us: it lessens our inclination to lesser sins, and it prevents our consenting to all those that are more serious. If any of you feels the urge to anger or jealousy or self-indulgence or is guilty of any of those things less often and less sharply than he used to do, let him thank the Body and Blood of the Lord; for the power of the sacrament is at work in him.
– St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Source: Gaudoin-Parker, Michael, The Real Presence Through the Ages (New York, Alba House, 1993) p. 84-85.
Maiden Lane Church
During the 1920s, an assistant pastor by the name of Fulton J. Sheen was serving at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Soho Square, London. Every morning, when he opened the church at 7:00 a.m., a certain man would enter. He would stay until 9:00 and then receive Communion. Afterwards, he would remain in the church until 11:30, only to return in the afternoon and stay until the church closed in the evening.
After several months, Fr. Sheen approached the man and asked him, “were you always as good as you are now?” The man replied that, considering the grace he had received, he was “1,000 time worse now than I ever was.” The man then proceeded to recount that he had been an alcoholic. He was so bad that, when he came to the entrance of the pub, he would take off his shoes so that he could sell them for the price of some drink. But, the man said, every Ash Wednesday, he would take a pledge to remain sober, and faithfully kept it each time until Easter Sunday. Well, one year he reasoned with himself that, if he could do it for 40 days, he could do it for 40 years.
His exuberance was soon supplanted by a severe test. Descending the three steps into Corpus Christi Catholic Church on Maiden Lane in London, also simply called Maiden Lane Church, he proceeded all the way to the front pew, for a Benediction that was to be conducted. As Fr. Carney placed his hands on the monstrance, the man said he felt an “overwhelming passion.” The passion, however, was of the distinctly unpleasant variety. It was a passion for drink and vice. He said, “if the temptations of a lifetime were concentrated in one moment, they could not equal that agony.” He could not stand to stay in the pew. He exited the pew and ran the entire length of church, down the main aisle, and then stumbled on the three steps. As the Benediction bell rang, he “tore out” his heart, pleading with Christ for forgiveness and promising Him that he would go to confession.
Since that time, he told Fr. Sheen, he had no more drink and spent his days in prayer. Fr. Sheen asked him how much time he spent on average. The man replied, “18 hours.” Fr. Sheen then asked, “what do you consider a good day?” The man said, “24.”
He further explained that he lives in the same dive that he did when he was an alcoholic. Each night, he kneels beside his simple cot and prays for all the alcoholics in the world.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNZPvk6wB6k