The Guardian Angel: Eucharistic Miracle of Douai, France, 1254
As we continue to look at Eucharistic Miracles, it is important to listen read and listen to the following. "I wish, first of all, to highlight certain limits that should be kept in mind in a catechesis on Eucharistic miracles. I will then point out the positive aspects these miracles can offer to such a catechesis." Lord give us the grace to know, love, and serve you in such a way that souls are brought to you because of your use of us as your vessels. Thank you for giving us your Mother, she is a true mother to each of us and always points to you. Her Purity and Humility is unsurpassed and models for us what we must desire to be. To Jesus through Mary, GregoryMary
1) LIMITS:
Our faith is not founded on Eucharistic miracles, but on the proclamation of the Lord Jesus, received with faith through the action of the Holy Spirit. We believe because we have believed in the preaching (see Gal 3:5); “fides ex auditu, auditus autem per verbum Christi” (Rom 10:17: “Faith depends on hearing and hearing by the word of Christ; and, in turn, preaching depends on the word of Christ. Believing is an act of the intellect, which under the influence of the will moved by God through grace, gives its consent to divine truth” (St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q.2, a.9,c).
Our faith in the Eucharist has as its center Christ, who during His preaching foretold the institution of the Eucharist and then, in fact, instituted it during the celebration of the Last Supper with his Apostles on Holy Thursday.
Since then, the Church, faithful to the command of the Lord: “Do this in memory of me” (1 Cor 11:24), has always–with great faith–celebrated the Eucharist, especially on Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, and continues to do so “until He comes” (1 Cor 11:26).
A Christian is not obliged to believe in Eucharistic miracles. These miracles do not bind the faithful to believe in them, even if they are officially recognized by the Church. Every Christian is free to make up his or her own mind. No Christian is obliged to believe in any private revelation, not even when approved by the Church.
In principle, however, the believer must not exclude the possibility that God may intervene in an extraordinary way in any given moment, place, event or person. The difficulty is discerning whether, in an individual case, the authentic extraordinary intervention of God has taken place.
The prudence of the Church, in the face of extraordinary phenomena (like the Eucharistic miracles), is fully justified, since, among other things, one can run into the following risks:
Thinking that God forgot to tell us something in the institution of the Eucharist?
Making the Sunday Eucharist a secondary thing:
Attributing excessive importance to the miraculous and the extraordinary, with the resulting undervaluing of the "everyday dimension" in the life of the believer and of the Church. Easily and excessively believing suggestions or illusions.
The Church’s eventual approval of a Eucharistic miracle contains the following elements:
The event in question does not contain anything that contradicts faith and morals, it is lawful to make it public the faithful are authorized to give their prudent assent to it.
Even though no one is obliged to believe in them, a believer should show respect for the Eucharistic miracles, whose authenticity has been recognized by the Church.
2) POSITIVE ASPECTS:
Eucharistic miracles can be useful and fruitful aids to our faith. For example:
They help us go beyond the visible, the perceptible and admit the existence of something beyond.
Precisely because it is recognized as an extraordinary happening, the Eucharistic miracle has no explanation in scientific facts and reasoning.
It goes beyond human reason and challenges a person to ‘go beyond’ the perceptible, the visible, the human, that is to say, to admit that there is something incomprehensible, something humanly unexplainable with human reason alone, something that scientifically cannot be demonstrated.
They can give someone the occasion–during catechetical instruction–to speak of public Revelation and of its importance to the Church and to Christians. Eucharistic miracles are all about extraordinary events that have taken place after Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist, after the end of the New Testament, that is to say, after the end of public Revelation.
ST. CLEMENT OF ROME (Alt)
St. Clement was the third successor of Peter as Bishop of Rome; otherwise known as the third Pope.
"Since then these things are manifest to us, and we have looked into the depths of the divine knowledge, we ought to do in order all things which the Master commanded us to perform at appointed times. He commanded us to celebrate sacrifices and services, and that it should not be thoughtlessly or disorderly, but at fixed times and hours. He has Himself fixed by His supreme will the places and persons whom He desires for these celebrations, in order that all things may be done piously according to His good pleasure, and be acceptable to His will. So then those who offer their oblations at the appointed seasons are acceptable and blessed, but they follow the laws of the Master and do not sin. For to the high priest his proper ministrations are allotted, and to the priests the proper place has been appointed, and on Levites their proper services have been imposed. The layman is bound by the ordinances for the laity." Source: St. Clement, bishop of Rome, 80 A.D., to the Corinthians
"Our sin will not be small if we eject from the episcopate those who blamelessly and holily have offered its Sacrifices." Source: Letter to the Corinthians, [44,4]
Eucharistic Miracle of Douai, France, 1254
In the Eucharistic miracle of Douai, a consecrated Host was unintentionally dropped to the ground while a priest was distributing Communion to the faithful. Immediately he bent down to pick up the Holy Eucharist, but the Host lifted up in flight and lighted on the purificator.
A little later, a wonderful Child appeared there, Who all the faithful and religious present in the celebration could contemplate.
Although more than 800 years have elapsed, even today it is still possible to admire the Host of the miracle. All Thursdays of the month in the Church of Saint Peter of Douai, many faithful gather in prayer before the miraculous Host.
Bonum universale de Apibus is the work written by an eye witness of the miracle: the Dominican Father Thomas de Cantimpré, doctor of theology and “suffragan” Bishop of Cambrai.
On the day of Easter in 1254 in the Church of St. Amato in Douai, a priest who was distributing Holy Communion unintentionally dropped a consecrated Host to the ground. Immediately he bent down to pick up the Sacred Species, but the Host lifted up in flight and lighted on the purificator. A little later, a wonderful Child appeared there Who all the faithful and religious present in the celebration could contemplate.
The news spread quickly, and the Bishop of Cambrai, Thomas de Cantimpré, came immediately to Douai to verify the facts in person, which he described in this manner: “I went to the Dean of the Church, followed by many faithful, and I asked to see the miracle. The Dean opened the small case in which he had reposed the Host of the miracle, but initially I didn't see anything special.
“I was conscious though, that nothing could prevent me from seeing, as was true of the others, the Sacred Body. I didn’t even have time to ask myself this type of question, when I scarcely looked at the Host and saw the face of Christ crowned with thorns with two drops of Blood that descended on His forehead.
Immediately I knelt, and crying, I began to thank God”. It is certain that already by the year 1356, that is, one century after the apparition, every year on Wednesday of Holy Week, a feast in memory of the miracle of the Blessed Sacrament was celebrated, and the document which records it indicates that this event was in existence already for a long time.
The precious relic of the miracle was conserved and honored until the Revolution. Then all signs of this marvel were lost for many years. In October 1854, the Pastor of the Church of St. Peter by chance discovered underneath the Christ in the Altar of the Dead, a small wooden box containing a small Host, still white, but with damaged edges. A letter written in Latin gives witness: “I, the undersigned, Canon of the distinguished collegial Church of St. Amato, certify it to be the real and true Host of the holy miracle, which I removed from imminent danger of profanation and which I have happily collected. I have placed the Host in this pyx and have left this witness, written by my own hand, for the faithful who will discover the Sacred Miracle in the future (January 5, 1793)”.
