Godhead Here In Hiding

First Friday today, so I spent the morning on my Communion Calls - a great day - many of those who are housebound are wonderful characters, and people of great faith.   This evening we have Mass in the parish church - St Louis and St Mary's but with a difference, we have a relic of the Eucharistic Miracle of Santarem - some of the Blood which flowed from the Host.  I announced that we would have it this evening, so I wonder how many will come to Mass.

I was reflecting on Eucharistic Miracles today as I was driving around the parish with the Lord in my car, working out what I was going to say after the Gospel.  We have a number of them in the world, over thirty I believe, many dating from the Middle Ages.  There have also been a few in recent times, including one in Poland which is being investigated at the moment.  They are most unusual phenomena, science is baffled.  The Miracle of Lanciano, the most spectacular of them of all, defies explanation - an explanation outside faith that is.

I think we need to look at these Miracles, more Catholics should know about them since they can be a means of deepening our Eucharistic faith.  The sight of a Host bleeding is not a sight to merely marvel at or study, or even gawk at as if it was an item on Ripley's Believe It Or Not, it is a sign to remind us that here, in the Holy Eucharist, is the Lord in hiding: Christ himself, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.  That is not a popular thing to say in some Catholic liturgical circles, but it is the truth.   A truth which calls us to the proper celebration of the Holy Mass, adoration, worthy reception of Holy Communion and, that big problem for Irish people, being reverent and quiet in the church where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved - the Irish like to talk (part of our charm) but we do have a nasty habit of talking (very loudly) in church before and after Mass - another sign that the Church here needs renewal.

Here is a good video on Eucharistic Miracles.