The Guardian Angel: Eucharistic Miracle of Glotowo, Poland 1290
Eucharistic Miracle of Glotowo, Poland 1290
Please remember that 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; also in 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.
Our faith in the Eucharist has as it center Christ. A Christian is not obliged to believe in Eucharistic miracles or any Private Revelations. In principle, however, the believer must not exclude the possibility that God may intervene in the extraordinary way in any given moment, place, event or person. The prudence of the Church is fully justified, since some may think God forgot to tell us something, attributing excessive importance to the miraculous and extraordinary, and easily and excessively believing suggestions or illusions.
Eucharistic Miracles can be useful and fruitful aids to our faith. For example: They help us go beyond the visible and the perceptible and admit the existence of something beyond.
Also, they can give us an opportunity, to speak of public Revelation and of its importance to the Church and to Christians.
In 1290, due to the invasion of the Lithuanians, a priest from the village of Glotowo buried in a field a silver ciborium plated in gold, with a consecrated Host still in it which he missed by mistake. The Lithuanian’s troops destroyed the village and the church. None of the survivors knew about the hidden Host. Only a number of years later, while plowing the field in the spring, a farmer found it by chance, thanks to the strange behavior of his oxen. They had bowed to the ground in adoration of the Host which was emanating a very bright light.
The most ancient documents describe how the miracle happened. The oxen were pulling the plow, behind which the farmer was walking.
The sun was setting at the horizon, creating long shadows. The man lifted his eyes and prodded the animals which were going slowly up the hill. All of sudden, the plow got stuck, the oxen pulled harder and on the side they turned over a big clod of earth.
The animals stopped as if frozen. At first the farmer scolded the beasts, yet paused surprised at the sudden change around him.
The light on the field was as if it were noon and a very intense light was coming from the ground shining on the kneeling oxen.
The farmer began to dig and noticed that the bright light was coming from a little ciborium covered with dirt. It contained a perfect Host as white as snow.
The news of the extraordinary event spread rapidly among the people, who rushed immediately to the site.
The local authorities organized a solemn procession to bring the Host to the Church of Dobre Miasto, though according to an ancient chronicle, inexplicably, the Host disappeared and was found at the same spot as the first time.
The event was interpreted as a sign from above and a little church dedicated to the Corpus Christi was built on that location.
The popularity of Glotowo grew through the centuries and in the eighteenth century the old medieval church was enlarged and consecrated by the bishop Krzysztof Potocki, on July 24, 1726. Even today, every year, the shrine of Glotowo attracts numerous pilgrims who come to venerate the relic.
Eucharistic Quotes
Through perpetual [Eucharistic] adoration Jesus longs to open up the floodgates of His merciful love on a troubled world. He longs to heal a broken humanity. Otherwise, He continues to weep in spirit and say: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you slay the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often have I wanted to gather your children together as a mother bird collects her young under her wings, and you refused me! Your temple will be abandoned I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord'" (Luke 13:34-36).
- from "Worthy Is the Lamb"
Jesus is condemned by His own people, by the very ones He showered with His favors. He is condemned as a fomenter of rebellion, He Who is goodness itself; as a blasphemer, He Who is holiness itself; as one seeking power, He Who made Himself the least of all. He is condemned to die on the Cross like the lowest of slaves.
Jesus lovingly accepts this sentence of death: He came down to this earth in order to suffer and die and to teach us to do the same.
In the Holy Eucharist Jesus is again condemned to death: primarily in His graces, which are rejected; in His love, which is slighted; in His sacramental state, by the unbeliever who denies Him, by horrible sacrilege...
Jesus is more cruelly treated by bad Christians than by the Jews. In Jerusalem He was condemned only once, but in the Blessed Sacrament, He is condemned everyday and in thousands of places, and by an appalling number of unjust judges.
And yet Jesus allows Himself to be insulted, despised, condemned: He still continues His sacramental life in order to show us that His love for us is without condition or reserve, that it is greater than our ingratitude.
O Jesus, forgive, I beseech Thee, all sacrileges! Should I ever have committed any, I want to pass my life making reparation for them and loving and honoring Thee for them that despise Thee. Grant me the grace to die with Thee!
- from the "Stations of the Cross" by St. Peter Julian Eymard
A reflection on the Adoring Love of St. Joseph from the writings of St. Peter Julian Eymard:
For three months the Blessed Virgin guarded her secret alone. No one but her knew that she bore her God within her womb. But when Saint Joseph learned of it from the angel, his faith acquiesced at once in blind submission. For six months he poured forth his soul in sublime adoration to God Who dwelt within Mary.
Words cannot express the perfection of his adoration. If Saint John leaped in the womb at the approach of Mary, what feeling must have coursed through Joseph during those six months when he had at his side and under his very eyes the hidden God! If the father of Origen used to kiss his child during the night and adore the Holy Spirit living within him, can we doubt that Joseph must often have adored Jesus hidden in the pure tabernacle of Mary? How fervent that adoration must have been: My Lord and my God behold your servant! No one can describe the adoration of this noble soul. He saw nothing, yet he believed; his faith had to pierce the virginal veil of Mary. So likewise with you! Under the veil of the Sacred Species your faith must see our Lord. Ask Saint Joseph for his lively, constant faith.
When later he carried the Child in his arms, acts of loving faith welled up constantly in his heart. It was a worship that pleased our Lord more than that which he receives in heaven. Picture to yourself Saint Joseph, adoring the little Child in his arms as his God. He tells of his readiness to die for Christ, of all his plans to promote Christ’s glory, and to win more souls to his love. No lover builds more scintillating plans for his loved one than a saint. The purer and simpler a soul, the more magnificent its love and adoration. Adore the Word present on the altar, born as a little Child for you; no matter what you do, your adoration will never equal in worth that of Saint Joseph. Join with his merits. A soul that loves God offers everything to Him in love and God listens to such a soul, for she is worth a thousand others.
