Eucharistic Miracles retreat

This past Saturday Maureen and I attended a Eucharistic Miracles retreat in Ottawa at St. Mary's parish. It was given by Fr. Mark Goring of the Companions of the Cross. (Fr. Mark also does short YouTube videos everyday about the Catholic faith.)

It was an amazing retreat.

As Catholics we believe that in the Mass, transubstantiation takes place. This is when the priest consecrates the unleavened bread (host) into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. The host is then called the Consecrated Host. We believe this is literally the Body and Blood of Jesus.

The retreat described numerous miracles from over the centuries where the Consecrated Host took on the appearance of human tissue/human blood. In current times scientists have analyzed these specimens from these miracles. It makes for interesting reading, not all of which I understand as they get into the scientific results of these tests, identifying cardiac specimens of live flesh, and blood types (always AB positive), etc.The miracles that have been approved by the Church are all listed here. 

For the miracles from centuries ago, obviously there was no scientific testing done, but there were other phenomena identified. Below I include the links from the recent approved miracles which detail some of the scientific testing done on the specimens.

Poland

Sokólka, October 12, 2008 (Part 1) – (PDF: 1.41M) Sokólka, October 12, 2008 (Part 2) – (PDF: 1.31M) Sokólka, October 12, 2008 (Part 3) – (PDF: 1.41M)

Argentina Buenos Aires, 1992 - 1994 - 1996 (part 1) - (PDF: 1.46M) Buenos Aires, 1992 - 1994 - 1996 (part 2) - (PDF: 1.42M) Buenos Aires, 1992 - 1994 - 1996 (part 3) - (PDF: 1.25M)   Italy (testing was done in 1970-71 and 1981) Lanciano, 750 A.D. (part 1) – (PDF: 186k) Lanciano, 750 A.D. (part 2) – (PDF: 194k) So why is Jesus's blood always AB Positive?

"Rarity of the AB blood type among the human population
Together the AB blood type (both positive and negative) is one of the rarest of the human blood types, with only approximately 3.4 percent of the world population having AB+, and only 0.6 percent of the population with AB-.

AB blood type and its universal receptivity
What makes the AB blood type even more special is that people who have AB blood can receive blood from anyone, and are therefore known as “universal recipients”, unlike all other blood types who can only receive from other specific blood types. Therefore AB blood type is referred to as the "Universal Receiver" blood type. 

So what to make of the universal receptivity of Jesus blood type?
So this begs the question--why would Jesus’ blood be universally receptive by all the blood types of humanity? What could this signify? Well, this is where Science and Faith may very well merge. 

In the Eucharist, we often speak of “receiving” Jesus in Holy Communion.  When we consume the Eucharist, Jesus literally unites and becomes one with us, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity."

Part 1 of  Fr. Mark's retreat



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4

The confusion that is the Catholic Church

"I want to spend Eternity in Heaven" Fr. Mark Goring

I can't help but wonder why I never hear anything about the disaster that is the Catholic Church right now--from our Canadian Catholic clergy. The only Canadian clergy I have heard speak up, is Fr. Mark Goring. And now Fr. Mark is in the penalty box.

(Patrick Coffin speaks to Fr. Mark Goring. Thanks Patrick Coffin and Fr. Mark Goring.)

I spoke recently to a very faithful and holy Catholic priest about this silence. He felt that there is actually little knowledge/awareness from rank and file Catholics about what is happening now in the Church. Which absolutely stunned me. How could that be?

And then I remembered what someone told me recently about Justin Trudeau and one of his supporters, many of whom are Catholic. An elderly woman made an announcement to a group of people she was with at a Catholic meeting. She told them that Justin Trudeau was humbled after the election. And that he was going to start listening to people.

She was serious. It made me want to cry.

I went looking for where this poor woman might have reached this crazy conclusion and found this editorial in the Catholic Register.

"It was a humbled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who indulged the media after his Liberal Party was returned grudgingly to Ottawa with a minority government. 

The virtue of humility, as Pope Francis reminds us, is the bedrock of character. It should be widely abundant across society yet often is dismally lacking, particularly among political leaders and especially at election time.  So if one outcome of the Oct. 21 vote is less arrogance in Ottawa, then strike up a small victory for Canadians. 

Trudeau acknowledged that voters “gave me a lot to think about” and that he heard their message “to work together, to listen to each other, to figure out a way to move forward that isn’t as divisive.” He promised to “reflect” on all of this. Then he made this promise: 

“It’s extremely important that the government works for all Canadians, as I have endeavoured to do over the past years and as I will do even more now, deliberately,” he pledged."

(I've come to realize after reading the Catholic Register for two years--with very few exceptions--that it is an extremely liberal paper. I don't read it anymore,)

Every faithful Catholic who follows politics in Canada (even a tiny speck) knows that Justin Trudeau is not humbled. He does not work for all Canadians. He excludes Catholics and pro-life people from his so-called inclusiveness, including getting funds from the tax payer funded Canadian Summer Jobs Program, and barring pro-life people from being an MP in the Liberal party. Will Trudeau change those discriminatory policies? I don't think so.

And he sucks in little old Catholic women like he did above.

We do have faithful Catholic commentators like Taylor Marshall, Patrick Coffin, John-Henry Weston and Michael Voris. Some people may not like their style but they speak the truth. And since our clergy doesn't speak up we have no choice but to listen to these Catholic commentators.

There are also many American Bishops who speak up, like Cardinal Burke, Athanasius Schneider, and Bishop Strickland to name but a few. But I haven't heard Canadian bishops speak up on this Catholic dumpster fire. And that makes me very sad.

(Note: Patrick has a great suggestion with what to do with Justin Trudeau--send him to Germany--you'll have to listen to his podcast above to know why.)

Before winter hits

Michelle and Andy's wedding