Stories
The Rap on the Door, Followed by a Rap on the Door
by Ray at THCSt. Clement Mary Hofbauer was sent to Warsaw, Poland. He lived there on very meager means with his two companions, making do with the little they had. One day, they ran completely out of food. They had no money and no way to secure any.
Fr. Hofbauer then went into the church, knelt before the tabernacle and prayed. Then, with simple confidence, he walked up to the tabernacle, tapped on its golden doors as if knocking on the door of a friend, and said, “Lord, we are in great need; come quick and help us.”
A little while later, someone rapped on the door of the rectory. He was a total stranger, but for some reason, left a large sum of money that supplied their needs for a long time.
What possessed the stranger, unknown to Fr. Hofbauer, to come to his rectory and donate such a sum at that particular time?
Source: My Daily Eucharist, by Joan Carter McHugh, relating an excerpt from a piece in the December, 1984 issue of Immaculata Magazine, written by Rev. Armand Dasseville.
St. Gregory’s Sister
by Ray at THCSt. Gregory had a sister, Gorgonia, who died around the year 372. At her funeral, St. Gregory told the following tale.
Gorgonia suffered from a palsy. One night, she cast herself down, before the Blessed Sacrament, which was reserved on an altar in her home. She declared that she would not leave until she received a cure. Crying over the matter, it seems that some of her tears even fell upon the Sacred Host.
It was then that she felt, and in fact was, healed.
Shapcote, Emily Mary, Legends of the Blessed Sacrament (London, Burns & Oates) p. 23.
Onil
by Ray at THCOnil is a town about 85 miles south of Valencia, in the eastern part of Spain. Nicolás Bernabeu had been an altar boy in the church there since he was little. On November 5, 1824, he stole the pyx that contained the Most Holy Sacrament and some other sacred objects from the church. The news of the robbery spread quickly, and when Bernabeu tried to sell the stolen objects to a businessman named Alicante, Alicante reported it to the authorities. Bernabeu was arrested, but did not want to reveal where he hid the pyx, which still contained the Blessed Sacrament. The faithful and the civil authorities looked for days all over the countryside but could not find the stolen goods.
On November 28, in the nearby town of Tibi, where Bernabeu lived, a woman named Teresa Carbonell found the Hosts. Immediately she returned her find to Onil, where she was received with great celebration.
Exactly 119 years later, on November 28, 1943, Don Guillermo Hijarrubia, delegate of the archbishop of Valencia, verified the complete preservation of the Host contained in the stolen pyx and confirmed that the uncorrupt condition of the Host was in fact miraculous.
To this day, one can admire the miraculous Host that has remained intact for almost two centuries in the parish church of St. James the Apostle in Onil.
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/Onil1.pdf.
St. Peter of Verona And The Devil
by Ray at THCSt. Peter of Verona had a friend in Milan. Once when St. Peter came to see him, the reception he received was different than usual. It seems that his friend had found that the “truth” did not reside with the Catholic Church, but in Manichaeism. That religion believed in a world split between forces of good and evil, in which God was not all-powerful.
His friend had been to a Manichaean shrine where a person no less than the Blessed Virgin herself appeared and told him: “the real faith is here, not with the Catholics. I, the Mother of Jesus, am telling you this.”
Upon hearing this, St. Peter said that he too would like to like to go and see the Blessed Mother. He was taken to the place and a woman, acting as a medium, soon went into a trance. Then, the figure of a beautiful woman appeared before them on the altar.
It was at that moment that St. Peter held up a Sacred Host that had been consecrated at Mass earlier that day. St. Peter declared, “if you really are the Mother of God, then pay homage to your Son.”
The image immediately disappeared.
Source: Weible, Wayne, Medjugorje and the Eucharist (Hiawassee, Georgia, New Hope Press 2014) p. 91-92).
A Rose By Any Other Name
by Ray at THCSt. Rose of Lima lived in the city of Lima, Peru. She was born in 1586. At the time of her First Communion, she was already concerned with humility and chastity. Unbeknownst to her mother, she cut off her hair and offered it to God.
She was also worried that her name, “Rose,” was not her baptismal name, but was a name by which people called her because of her beauty. She feared this and wished it were not so.
She prayed about this to the Mother of God. Then, she received Holy Communion, and heard a voice tell her, “Your name pleases my Son, whom I bear in my arms, and, furthermore, you shall no longer merely be called Rose, but you shall take the name ‘Rose of St. Mary.’”
Shapcote, Emily Mary, Legends of the Blessed Sacrament (London, Burns & Oates) p. 109.
The Young Weaver
by Ray at THCThere was a young weaver by trade who lived in Brussels. His name was John and, in November of 1431, he was praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle when he felt himself suffused by a mysterious light. It caused him both fear and joy. The light was accompanied by a voice which told him that, instead of people coming to give adoration, “they leave Me here in forgetfulness and neglect, far from the eyes and hearts of men. It also told him, “be assured, however, that I will glorify and deliver from all tribulations, all those who call upon Me here.”
John was reluctant to tell others of what he had heard, fearing he would be called a liar, delusional or worse. So, he kept his silence.
The vision was repeated several times more. Still, he kept his silence.
His health began to deteriorate. He could not eat or sleep. He lost a tremendous amount of weight. Finally, he told his confessor, the parish priest of St. Gudula. His health returned at once.
The priest informed the Vicar General of Cambria, John of Liedekirks. Theologians were called in and an investigation was ordered.
It was then that the parish priest, Rev. Koofemans, had an experience of his own. One day, while celebrating Mass, at the moment of Communion, he saw the Host change in appearance. It took the form of a dazzling infant. The child said, “see that you announce to the people all that this youth has told you, because it is the pure truth.”
Source: Etlin, Rev. Lukas, O.S.B., Eucharistic Miracles (Clyde, Missouri, Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration 1947), p. 24-26.
Sister Georgene
by Ray at THCOne morning in 1994, Sister Georgene attended the 5:30 a.m. Mass. It was one she would remember.
The year before, her father had died. She had to sell the family home. The money was needed to place her mother in an assisted care facility. That was 150 miles away from the school to which she was assigned in Key West, Florida. Now, she was about to be named principal of the school. There were difficulties to be met, daily, in her work, and she felt the strain of not being able to visit her mother. She was an only child and her mother was, in some sense, alone.
Sister Georgene was becoming depressed and was finding it harder and harder to cope. She had thought of going to the priest who had charge over the center to which she belonged, but decided against it. As she had done in the past, she steeled herself to doing it all on her own.
As she went to Communion, the tears and distress were at a height. She pleaded to Him for help, for some sign as to where she should turn.
It was then that she heard a voice that shocked her. It said, “go to him.” She turned around, startled, looking for someone who might have said this. Everyone was engrossed in their own silent prayer, however.
Heeding the direction given by the voice, she went to see the priest. That began her counseling and healing. She looks back on that day and on the answer to a prayer she was given.
The chapel in which that morning Mass was said soon changed. It was turned into a perpetual adoration chapel devoted to Divine Mercy. Above the tabernacle is a large image of Christ, in the Divine Mercy style seen by Saint Faustina.
At that one morning Mass there that Sister Georgene remembers, she was given to understand two things she already knew. The Real Presence is there for us in the Sacred Eucharist, and whatever may be our particular needs, He has mercy in His Heart for us.
Source: Proctor, Sr. Patricia, OSC, 201 Inspirational Stories of the Eucharist (Spokane, Washington, The Franciscan Monastery of St. Clare, 2004) p. 201-02.
The Young Man of 26
by Ray at THCIt is said that time spent in the presence of the Eucharist can change a person. Well, one cannot expect that to happen immediately. It usually takes time. As to the story below, there is more to it than the short portion provided here. The real story may be more about what happened afterwards. Still, this was the starting point.
A young man came to see the Cure D’ Ars for confession one day. He lived in a town of about 25,000 people. He was known by most everyone there and held in high regard. This was quite important to him.
Also, it seems that for young people like himself, and for others whose opinion mattered to him, belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was looked on skeptically and perhaps even derision. To be popular, one would not openly demonstrate support for such a belief.
And so it must have been quite surprising, and disquieting, for the young man when Fr. Vianney told him that, for his penance, on one of the two Sundays in his town for the procession celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi, he would have to walk in that procession. Further, he would have to walk in a spot directly behind the canopy over the Eucharist.
He avoided doing it the first Sunday. On the second, he knew he had to. And so he did. He later said, for two hours, “cold perspiration bathed my forehead; my knees shook under me.” He also said that were he to “live a hundred years,” he would never forget “those two hours.”
It did change him. He said that, because of it, he “roused” his faith and “endeavored to pray.” Two years later, he led a conference of St. Vincent de Paul, in front of thirty young men who had been inspired by his example.
Source: Trochu, Abbe Francois, The Cure D’Ars (Charlotte, N.C., Tan Books 2007) p. 318.
Inexplicably, He Knew
by Ray at THCWayne Weible was not Catholic. He was Lutheran, and formerly had been a Baptist. Taking communion had been “symbolic” for him. Then, on a pilgrimage, he found himself inside a Catholic church during Mass. In this particular church, because it was so packed, some of the priests came to the rear of the church to distribute the Eucharist. He says that he suddenly found a priest standing in front of him and giving him a Host before he really understood what was taking place. Weible did not then know that non-Catholics were not supposed to receive Communion at Mass.
As he consumed the Host, he said that it seemed like an “explosion” was taking place inside of him and that, “inexplicably, I knew Jesus was in it.”
A few moments later, while kneeling in prayer with his eyes closed, he then says that he had a vision of Jesus, standing in front of him. He was surrounded by a brilliant light. He then asked Weible if he wanted to undertake a mission. It was confirmation of an experience he had eight months before.
Source: Weible, Wayne, Medjugorje and the Eucharist (Hiawassee, Georgia, New Hope Press 2014) p. 18-19).
Hartmannswiller
by Ray at THCHartmannswiller is a town in the Alsace region of northeastern France. On June 12, 1828, during an 8-day celebration of the Real Presence in the Eucharist, the Corpus Christi octave, Fr. Willig, the pastor, exposed the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance. Children who knelt near the altar, as well as certain other children saw the face of the Child Jesus in the Eucharist. It was the face of a live child, as the eyes moved and looked at the spectators. A light was also seen emanating from the image.
On June 13, 1828, Fr. Willig again exposed the Host. This time he too saw the extraordinary image. He permitted a number of men to ascend the altar steps and they too saw as the others did.
On June 14, 1828, still within the Corpus Christi octace, the Host was exposed once more. This time, the final night of this extraordinary event, all in the church were able to see the Child, and it was reported that the light coming from the Host was the brightest yet.
Source: Etlin, Rev. Lukas, O.S.B., Eucharistic Miracles (Clyde, Missouri, Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoratio 1947), p. 8-10. See also “Letter of Father Badin,” The St. Louis Catholic Historical Review, pub. by Catholic Historical Society of St. Louis, Jan. 1923, p. 175, in which Fr. Badin quotes a letter received by a fellow priest reporting on this same event, which had “made a great stir in Paris.”