Missed It By That Much!

This time I am giving this "Missed It By That Much" - to ME! I was back in the hospital last week and one of the chaplains and I were discussing the Blessed Virgin Mary. I made a comment about Catholics do not "worship" her like a goddess. He responded, with, "Well, some do," and gave me a look like, "you agree with me on that, don't you?" I responded that it is not Catholic teaching, but I cannot speak for every single professing Catholic out there - and that is where I "Missed It By That Much!" 

I told my wife about this discussion and she was quick to point out, as a "cradle Catholic," she has NEVER heard of ANY Catholic worshiping Mary as if she were a goddess - NOT ONE! Of course, that is a bit anecdotal, but true! I too know of NO Catholic who believes the Blessed Virgin is a goddess. Now you might find some former Catholic professing he/she worshiped Mary as a goddess - but that might be one of the reasons they are no longer Catholic - they didn't KNOW their faith!

The problem here is many Protestants, like this chaplain, have a perception of Catholics where they believe that WE believe the Blessed Virgin is essentially a goddess. I did explain that prayers to Mary are essentially petitioning her to petition her Son to gain graces or answer prayers. She does not replace Jesus, as when we go to her, ultimately we are going to Him THROUGH her. 

We discussed the Wedding at Cana, Jesus' first public miracle, where she intervened and even after He told her, "this is not My time," she turns to the servants, knowingly, and says, "Do whatever He tells you." Jesus then goes to them and has them fill the large water pots to the brim with water, and turns the water into wine! (John 2:1-11).

 Want to discuss this more? Please leave a comment!

The Day the Sun Danced

What was the Miracle of the Sun which occurred at Fatima on October 13, 1917?   Well, on the day of the last apparition of Our Lady of Fatima she presented a miracle - which was witnessed by thousands of people in attendance...  "the Sun danced!"  It moved around in the sky and appeared to fall to earth, and when it returned to its place in the sky the ground, which had been drenched by rain, was completely dry!

A cute little video my children grew up with can be seen here:


The Day the Sun Danced - The True Story of Fatima by aimal_osmani91

Now, even though you can watch it online for free - I encourage you to purchase a copy to support the making of films like these for our children.  You can purchase it here:


Today, October 13th, is the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun or "The Day the Sun Danced."  If you have children, I encourage you to gather them around your computer and watch the video together and discuss it with them.  A great family moment, and when you're done- pray the Rosary with them.

AMDG,
Scott<<<

The Real Presence - Part 1

The Real Presence

First reason to believe, The miracles…

Yes it’s a miracle in the change from bread and wine to the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord but I’ve always wondered why such a miracle is not visible as all the other miracles our Lord did like those described in the Bible as the lame walk and the blind could see. Why is it that the greatest miracle of all, our Lord and God making Himself present to us in such a way as being visible and concrete to our senses, is only seen as ordinary bread and wine? To answer this, I guess we’ll first need to have a closer look as to why miracles happened in the first place.

A miracle was most commonly performed by God for the purpose of convincing the listeners of the authority of the message. That the message does indeed come from God. The splintering of so many different denominations believing differently on key salvific issues is an important factor in showing the most obvious problems of finding the one who is truly speaking God’s Word (In this particular case whether the consecrated bread and wine turns into the actual Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ).

One possible solution to this dilemma in determining who’s got it right is by recognizing that the individual that is being sent directly by God will perform miracles so as to authenticate his message. You see, because there is a definite possibility that many will be deceived into believing that they, themselves, were sent by God, there must be a way to verify their ‘pedigree’, as you can appreciate the difficulty in finding someone teaching God’s Word amidst a sea of different ideologies and beliefs. Indeed, we find many examples of these in the Bible where these individuals, who are sent directly by God, performing supernatural signs to prove they were speaking God’s Word.

Examples like in the Book of Exodus where we find Moses performing miracle upon miracle to convince the Pharaoh to release the Jewish people.

Or in the first Book of Kings, chapter 19, verses 36 through 39 we read:

“Then at the time of the offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be seen this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things by your order. Give me an answer, O Lord, give me an answer, so that this people may see that you are God, and that you have made their hearts come back again. Then the fire of the Lord came down, burning up the offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and drinking up the water in the drain. And when the people saw it, they all went down on their faces, and said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.”

But most notably in the Gospel of John, specifically in John 10:37-38 where even Jesus admitted “Do not believe me, then, if I am not doing the things my Father wants me to do. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, you should at least believe my deeds, in order that you may know once and for all that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father."

So why am I speaking of miracles to prove that a message is from above? Because throughout history, our Lord has shown us that he is really present in the Blessed Sacrament. Catholics believe that the consecrated Host is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord, under the appearance of bread and wine. Therefore, Jesus, through many Eucharistic miracles, manifests His Presence in a more tangible way through visible and undeniable miracles. So, in the case of Eucharistic miracles, the miracle itself is the message.

Miracles like in Sienna, Italy on August 17, 1730 where the consecrated Hosts remain unprotected and yet perfectly preserved for over 250 years.

Or in Amsterdam, Holland in 1345 where a Eucharist is thrown into fire overnight and is miraculously unscathed.

Or in Blanot, France on March 31, 1331 where the Eucharist falls out of a woman’s mouth unto an altar rail cloth. The priest tries to recover the Host but all that remains is a large spot of blood the same size and dimensions as the wafer.

Or in Bolsena-Orvieta, Itatly. A priest has difficulties believing in the Real Presence, and blood begins seeping out of the Host upon consecration. Because of this miracle, Pope Urban IV commissioned the feast of Corpus Christi, which is still celebrated today.

As a last example we can look at the Eucharistic miracle which happened in the eighth century in Lanciano, Italy. Again, a priest has doubts about the Real Presence; however, when he consecrates the Host it transforms into flesh and blood. This unexplained event has undergone extensive scientific examination and can only be explained as a miracle. The flesh is actually cardiac tissue which contains arterioles, veins, and nerve fibers. The blood type as in all other approved Eucharistic miracles is type AB!

The analyses were conducted with absolute and unquestionable scientific precision and they were documented with a series of microscopic photographs. These analyses sustained the following conclusions:

The Flesh is real Flesh. The Blood is real Blood.

The Flesh and the Blood belong to the human species.

The Flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart.

In the Flesh we see present in section: the myocardium, the endocardium, the vagus nerve and also the left ventricle of the heart for the large thickness of the myocardium.

The Flesh is a “HEART” complete in its essential structure.

The Flesh and the Blood have the same blood-type: AB

In the Blood there were found proteins in the same normal proportions (percentage-wise) as are found in the sero-proteic make-up of fresh normal blood.

The preservation of the Flesh and Blood, which were left in their natural state for twelve centuries and exposed to the action of atmospheric and biological agents, remains an extraordinary phenomenon.

To read further about these and other Eucharistic miracles please go to therealpresence.org

So we do in fact have extra-ordinary events, by that I mean unexplainable by scientific means, that prove the message of the True Presence of our Lord in the Eucharist. But as the Lord said to ‘doubting’ Thomas when he finally touched the wounds of Christ and believed: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

Many have done just that, they have believed even when their senses tell them otherwise. And so I come to my second reason to believe, its history.

Next week, we will look at the history of this belief.

God Bless
Nathan

Miraculous Spiral Staircase of Lorreto

Snopes says it is "false," but doesn't really lay out a strong case for such a definitive judgment.  While they do raise some cause for concern or doubt, nothing in the Snopes article conclusively disproves the alleged miraculous nature of the spiral staircase at Lorreto, NM.

As the story goes, when the chapel was built it was left with no access to the choir loft.  The nuns were going to just use a ladder to access the loft, but seeking a better solution they did a novena (nine days of prayers) to St. Joseph.  On the ninth day, a man on a donkey with a toolbox showed up looking for work.  He designed and built the spiral staircase, alone, and without the use of nails OR a central support!  The railing was not part of the original staircase.  When the carpenter finished, he left without receiving payment.  It remains a mystery as to who the craftsman was - some surmise it was St. Joseph himself who answered the prayers of the nuns - others say it may have been Jesus who would have acquired the trade from St. Joseph as He was growing up, and prior to His public ministry which didn't start until He was 30. 

Again, even though Snopes says this is "false," there really isn't ANY evidence to disprove the miraculous explanation to this staircase.  Yes, they explain some of the technical aspects, but not who this carpenter was and the fact he did it alone and the matter of no visible means of support (the side support they mention does not give vertical support, only horizontal stability).  The "honest" assessment from Snopes SHOULD be that it is "inconclusive" to prove one way or the other.

Miracle Priest Prayer

On August 4, 2013, the feast day of St. John Vianney, did HE make an appearance to help save a 19 year old who was trapped inside her vehicle?  Trapped for over an hour, the report is, as her vital signs were beginning to fail she asked for someone to pray with her - and mysteriously a priest appeared and prayed with her!  He is described as having a thick accent and a police artist rendering of the priest has some striking resemblance to St. John Vianney, the Cure' of Ars (see below):

Fire chief Reed said: “We’re all local people from four different towns. We’ve only got one Catholic church out of three towns and it wasn’t their priest. I think it’s a miracle. I would say whether it was an angel that was sent to us in the form of a priest or a priest that became our angel, I don’t know. Either way, I’m good with it.”

Katie Lentz’s mom, Carla Churchill Lentz, said emergency workers have told her there is no way her daughter should have lived inside such a mangled car. Of the priest, she said, “I do believe he certainly could have been an angel dressed in priest’s attire because the Bible tells us there are angels among us.”

New York Daily News reports it this way:

A 19-year-old woman was miraculously saved from a wrecked car on a Missouri highway — after a mystery priest suddenly appeared to pray with the victim and bless the rescue operation.
But once the woman was cut free, the holy man vanished from the cornfield-lined roadway.
“As a first responder, you don’t know what you’re going to run into,” New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed told KHQA-TV. “In this particular case, it is my feeling that it was nothing more than sheer faith and nothing short of a miracle.”

Firefighters had been struggling for nearly an hour to get the teen, Katie Lentz, out of her crumpled Mercedes-Benz after a drunken driver crossed the middle line of the two-lane highway and struck her head-on about 9 a.m. Sunday, officials told the news station.

The smoke-eaters desperately tried to reach Lentz — who was pinned between her seat and the steering wheel — but the heavy steel of the car kept dulling the blades of their cutting tools, Reed said.

“It was a very well-built car,” Reed said. “And when you compact materials like that one, they become even stronger because you’re cutting through multiple things instead of one layer.”
Medical workers had just warned the crew that Lentz’s condition was failing fast, when the teen asked if everyone nearby would pray out loud with her.
Suddenly, a man clad in black with a white collar appeared at the scene.

“He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer,” Reed said. “It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well.”
Reed said he couldn’t make out everything that was said between the injured woman and the priest.

“But myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle,” he said.
As soon as the blessing was given firefighters with the Hannibal Fire Department arrived with fresh tools, which were able to extricate Lentz from the mangled car.

The injured teen was air lifted from the scene and taken to Blessing Hospital, where condition was later upgraded to serious after undergoing several surgeries.
“Both of her legs are very damaged,” Lentz’s friend, Amanda Wiseman, told KHQA—TV. “Her wrist is broken, several broken ribs, so she’s had a lot of broken bones to deal with.”
Once Lentz was safely aboard the helicopter, the fatigued emergency workers turned to thank the priest — but the man had vanished from the scene.

Not a single bystander or civilian vehicle was on the Center, Mo., thoroughfare, a quarter-mile of which had been closed for first responders to work after the wreck.

“Where did this guy come from?” asked another Lentz pal, Travis Wiseman. “We’re looking for the priest and so far, no one has seen him. Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all those and to Katie.”

Police later arrested Aaron Smith, 26, who was booked on a string of charges that include DWI, assault and failure to drive on the right half of the roadway.
The injured teen’s mother told the news station that her daughter has always turned to prayer when facing possible defeat.
“All along the way, her foremost request is for people to pray and to pray out loud,” she said. “We would like nothing more than to carry that message forward for her."

jkemp@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/god-country-mystery-priest-performs-miracle-missouri-crash-disappears-article-1.1421027

Miracle, coincidence - or Godincidence?  You decide!  Feel free to add your comments here too.

St. Clare of Assisi

St. Clare of Assisi was placed in a monastery by St. Francis.  Besides being the founder of the "Poor Clares" she is known for a miracle in 1240 wherein as Muslims were invading and attacking the monastery she prayed to Jesus before the Blessed Sacrament and for "reasons unknown" the Saracen mercenaries turned and fled.  This happened again in 1241 when troops of Vitalis d'Aversa attacked Assisi and were turned away after Clare prayed before the Blessed Sacrament.  Legend has it that she held up the monstrance before the attacking troops and they fled, thus she is often portrayed holding a monstrance.

http://catholicfire.blogspot.com/2012/08/st-claire-of-assisi-contemplative.html

http://prayers-miracles.blogspot.com/2005/08/st-clare-of-assisi-prayer.html

St. Clare's feast day is August 11.

Cessationism?

Barry Hofstetter wrote on his blog: 

Cessationism in one sentence...Tuesday, July 12, 2011 12:12:11 PM

"The purpose of miracles in general in the Bible is to reveal God's power in terms of the progress of redemptive history. Word revelation and deed revelation are intimately related. With the completion of Christ's work through the ascension there is no more need for continuing revelation, and hence no more need for the kind of revelatory miracles found in the Bible."

Now, since I wrote that, it actually has to be three sentences. Christ's works in establishing the church continues through the giving of the Spirit and the inscripturation of the apostolic deposit into what we know as the NT. Christ continued to work miracles through his apostles, but now that the foundation is established (Eph 2:20-21), these types of miracles have inded (sic) ceased.

Have miracles of God truly ceased?  Speaking as one who has witnessed miracles of God in my own family, I say such a statement is nonsense!  I'll witness to TWO of the miracles in our family, there have been more:

Miracle #1:  Son had spinal meningitis when he was just a few months old.  We were out of town when he got sick, about 2 hours from home.  We rushed home, called the doctor, but it was a weekend.  Before he called back we took him straight to the emergency room - where they told us if we had waited even another hour, our son would not be alive.  Well, he was "alive" but that was the good news.  The bad news was that the meningitis was so progressed that IF he survived the treatments, the disease would likely leave him blind or deaf or severely mentally retarded.  On top of that, since he was SO sick the amount of antibiotics they needed to attack the disease with would likely attack "healthy" cells too, which could leave him blind, deaf or severely mentally retarded!  The "cure" was potentially as bad as the disease!  

Well, we prayed and prayed.  We petitioned all our friends and family to pray.  We received word from a friend of one of our family members, "Your son will be just fine."  Watching the doctors take a hand drill like a woodworker would have in his toolbox and drilling through my son's skull to relieve the pressure building up on his brain, made such assurances hard to accept - but we did accept it, and continued to pray and claim our son's healing.  

Our son recovered from the disease and not only with perfect vision and hearing - but NO mental retardation whatsoever!  Praise the Lord!  And all praise does go to Him, for medical science gave us only a grim outlook but God gave us our son back!  He's healthy as can be, a math wiz and is currently serving our country in the U.S. Navy.

Miracle #2:  Our daughter stopped breathing when she was just 17 days old.  My wife walked in and found her in the cradle lifeless and turning blue.  She immediately went into autopilot and recalled the CPR she had learned years previously as a Girl Scout.  Somehow while performing CPR, she dialed 911 and got help on the way.  At the hospital they found an abnormality in the white matter of her brain.  The doctor diagnosed her with Leuko Dystraphy, a degenerative brain disorder for which there is no cure.  We got the prayer chains going again!  Two weeks later an MRI scan of her brain showed NO abnormalities AT ALL!  She had been "cured" of something for which there is NO cure!  

There are SO MANY MORE miracles I could share, and even more details related to the above miracles, but I'll save some for another time.  The point is, you'll NEVER get me to say the miracles of God have gone into cessation!

In JMJ,
Scott<<<

Eastern Catholic Miraculous Icons

In keeping with the miracles of the Eucharist series, the video above shows miraculous icons of the Eastern Catholic Church.

Accompanied by Kyivan Chant "Behold the Bridegroom Cometh."

San Gennaro

In the spirit of the Eucharistic Miracles series, I present the story of San Gennaro - Saint Januarius, Bishop and Patron Saint of Naples.  This miracle is not one of the Eucharist, but is worth looking into.


Miracle of San Gennaro's blood - which liquefies from solid clots to blood up to two times per year.  In 305ad San Gennaro was decapitated by the Romans.  Some of his blood was preserved in a glass vile which is kept in the Naples Cathedral, Duomo di San Gennaro.  This miracle happens nearly every September 19th, on his feast day.  On years when it does not happen, Naples is said to be without the protection of their patron saint.  In 1980 the blood did not liquefy and there was an earthquake which killed 2000 people.


To read more, check here:
http://www.huliq.com/1/68815/miracle-san-gennaro-repeats-september-19



It is said, before he was beheaded that Diocletian had him thrown into the stadium with wild bears which had not been fed in days - yet the bears paid no attention to San Gennaro.  Diocletian then had him cast into a fiery furnace - and he came out of it unscathed.  Being frustrated by these two attempts, he finally had the Bishop of Naples beheaded.

More Eucharistic Miracles

A very good presentation of the Eucharist and Eucharistic miracles...

Eucharistic Miracle

A Eucharistic Miracle...