The Guardian Angel: Other Eucharistic Miracles what the Saints say about this precious gift from God
Always with a desire to be like Mary with our love and our zeal to bring souls to Her Son. Yet daily we let our flesh stand in the way, instead of going to the Source of Truth and Strength that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Left to our flesh, would we do better than Peter, who in Shame Denied Jesus three times before the Cock crowed, do we have within our being a flesh that cannot be fooled and tempted and sinful, are we capable of turning our backs on our best friend, spitting in His face, and huring him more that all the torture he endured out of love for us.
As Jesus said to the Apostles when finding them asleep in the garden, "the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak", and do we not have the same sinful nature of all men, without the Holy Spirit.
For sure this is the case we live with and the reason that we must die to ourselves so that we can Glorify Jesus with every breath we take to bring souls to Him. Lord help me in my weakness, and give me the power of the Holy Spirit to seek the Truth and listen to the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary that should drive our actions, "Do whatever He tells you"
If you love yourself and love others that God has given you or put into your path, then Share this gift from a Holy God. Love and prayers in Christ, GregoryMary
Other Eucharistic Miracles
—Martin Herbert
There are many extraordinary, as well as thoroughly authenticated miracles connected with the Eucharist. It is as if God was periodical reaffirming or substantiating anew to those of little faith, "indeed it is the Lord" we are dealing with.
Some miracles are connected with a lack of faith in the Real Presence (Lanciano).
Others follow an incident in which the Blessed Sacrament has been profaned. And the third type is for no other purpose than to prove conclusively to an adamant nonbeliever how pitiful human reason is in the presence of the supernatural.
Perhaps the best known miracle in which there was a lack of faith in the Real Presence was the miracle of Bolsena-Orvieto.
A Bohemian priest by the name of Peter of Prague was tempted into questioning the Real Presence.
When he broke the Host after the Consecration he was stunned to see blood flowing from it and dripping onto the corporal (the square piece of linen on which the Host and chalice are placed during Mass).
The bloodstained corporal was taken to the Cathedral of Orvieto where it is preserved to this day.
It was as a result of this great miracle that the Pope commissioned Saint Thomas Aquinas to write the Mass of the "Body of Christ" (Corpus Christi).
Pope Paul VI in our own day visited the famous shrine in August of 1964 for the anniversary of the Miracle of Orvieto.
It seems like most of the miracles regarding the Real Presence involve outrages committed against this Sacrament of God's infinite love.
To name but a few, there was Slavings, Moravia in 1120; the little town of Excelles near the border of France and Italy in 1453; Orthez in the Upper Pyrenees in 1845, and Santarem, Portugal several centuries ago.
All of these extend to many countries and over many centuries.
The Eucharistic Prodigy of Siena is outstanding, however, as it is a continuous miracle.
On August 14, 1730 the yearly procession in honor of Our Lady's Assumption was taking place in Siena.
Practically the whole town turned out for the feast leaving the Church of St. Francis unattended. At the same time the town's people were occupied in honoring the Queen of Heaven thieves desecrated her Son present in the Eucharist by stealing a large ciborium full of consecrated hosts.
When the theft was discovered the people were shocked and went into mourning. They prayed for pardon for this terrible sacrilege and begged God for light on how to recover the Sacred particles. Their petitions were heard. Within three days the hosts were found. On the morning of the 17th a choir boy in the Church of Holy Mary in Provenzano, near the Church of St. Francis, noticed something white in the alms box. There among the dust and cobwebs were the Sacred Particles. The Archbishop himself carefully cleaned and counted them, one by one. There were 351 Sacred Hosts that were brought back with great solemnity to the Church of St. Francis.
But this was not the end; it was the beginning of a tremendous Eucharistic prodigy that is still going on.
The Conventual Franciscan friars who now had the hosts restored to their church could not consume them as there was a continuous procession of people from Siena who came to adore the Sacred Particles day after day.
It soon became evident that contrary to natural conditions the Particles remained in their original freshness.
From time to time, over the centuries, the Sacred Particles were received in Holy Communion, so that now there are only 223 Particles remaining. But these are still in a state of perfect preservation.
During the 13th century St. Anthony of Padua was reported to have converted a hardened heretic through a rather unique contest. The heretic, by the name of Bononillo, was unmoved by the reasoning of the "hammer of heretics," as St. Anthony was called. Bononillo was as stubborn as the mule that stood beside him.
Eyeing the mule, Anthony made an offer to Bononillo. He asked him whether he would give up his heresy if the mule were to bow down and adore its Creator present in the Blessed Sacrament. The heretic answered he would, provided he could lay down certain conditions: for two days the mule was not to be fed, and on the third day it was to be led into the public square. On one side of the square would be placed a tempting pile of fresh feed, on the opposite side Anthony could stand with what Bononillo contemptuously called the "body of Christ." Anthony agreed, but in all humility made one condition. If the animal did not kneel before the Blessed Sacrament, his sins alone were to be blamed.
The day arrived for this strange contest and the square was crowded with people. When the derisive Bononillo arrived with his half-starved mule, he was fully confident that his mule had sense and appetite enough to go after the feed. But he was wrong. Anthony had implored his Lord in the intervening two days for the soul of this heretic. God did not let his faithful servant down. When turned loose, the mule without the least hesitation advanced towards Anthony and knelt in an attitude of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. With much emotion and contrition the heretic too fell on his knees and gave up his heresy. As wonderful as these miracles are the greatest of all, transubstantiation, has to be viewed with the eyes of faith."If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ's love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude."
- St. Angela of Foligno "Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples saying: 'This is My Body.' No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored it."
- St. Augustine "Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side... whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament." - from the writings of St. Augustine, Sermon 3, 2; circa A.D. 410 {original translation}
"O Lord, we cannot go to the pool of Siloe to which you sent the blind man. But we have the chalice of Your Precious Blood, filled with life and light. The purer we are, the more we receive."
- St. Ephraem "When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth's sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food."
- St. Francis de Sales "When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence." - St. Francis de Sales "What wonderful majesty! What stupendous condescension! O sublime humility! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble Himself like this under the form of a little bread, for our salvation"
- St. Francis of Assisi "...In this world I cannot see the Most High Son of God with my own eyes, except for His Most Holy Body and Blood." AT THE FEET OF CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST
From the writings of Saint Faustina O Jesus, Divine Prisoner of Love, when I consider Your love and how You emptied Yourself for me, my senses deaden. You hide Your inconceivable majesty and lower Yourself to miserable me. O king of Glory, though You hide Your beauty, yet the eye of my soul rends the veil. I see the angelic choirs giving You honor without cease, and all the heavenly Powers praising You without cease, and without cease they are saying: Holy, Holy, Holy. Oh, who will comprehend Your love and Your unfathomable mercy toward us! O Prisoner of Love, I love up my poor heart in this tabernacle that it may adore You without cease night and day. I know of no obstacle in this adoration: and even though I be physically distant, my heart is always with You. Nothing can put a stop to my love for You. No obstacles exist for me...
O Holy Trinity, One and Indivisible God, may You be blessed for this great gift and testament of mercy. Amen. I adore You, Lord and Creator, hidden in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You have spread so much beauty over the earth and it tells me about Your beauty, even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You, incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You and my souls recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good, and my heart is completely immersed in prayer of adoration.
My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here Your light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of grace flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature.
O Christ, let my greatest delight be to see You loved and Your praise and glory proclaimed, especially the honor of Your mercy. O Christ, let me glorify Your goodness and mercy to the last moment of my life, with every drop of my blood and every beat of my heart. Would that I be transformed into a hymn of adoration of You. When I find myself on my deathbed, may the last beat of my heart be a loving hymn glorifying Your unfathomable mercy. Amen. "Do grant, oh my God, that when my lips approach Yours to kiss You, I may taste the gall that was given to You; when my shoulders lean against Yours, make me feel Your scourging; when my flesh is united with Yours, in the Holy Eucharist, make me feel Your passion; when my head comes near Yours, make me feel Your thorns; when my heart is close to Yours, make me feel Your spear."
- St. Gemma Galgani I hunger for the bread of God, the flesh of Jesus Christ ...; I long to drink of his blood, the gift of unending love.
- St. Ignatius of Antioch "Jesus taught a new sacrifice which the Church received from the Apostles and offers throughout the whole world."
- St. Irenaeus (d. 202) "If Christ did not want to dismiss the Jews without food in the desert for fear that they would collapse on the way, it was to teach us that it is dangerous to try to get to heaven without the Bread of Heaven."
- St. Jerome "How many of you say: I should like to see His face, His garments, His shoes. You do see Him, you touch Him, you eat Him. He gives Himself to you, not only that you may see Him, but also to be your food and nourishment."
- St. John Chrysostom "I throw myself at the foot of the Tabernacle like a dog at the foot of his Master."
- St. John Vianney "All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man." - St. John Vianney, Cure d'Ars
Comentarios