Fr. Philip Kemmy's Account of the Eucharistic Miracle in Donegal

07-16-2023Letter from the PastorFr. Don Kline, V.F.

“For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” John 6: 55-58

Fr. Philip Kemmy's Account of the Eucharistic Miracle in Donegal (Part II of IV)

We mark this in every Mass when we are invited at a certain stage to lift up our hearts, to lift our hearts on high, to join with the Heavenly angels in singing their “Holy Holy Holy.” We’re invited, in a certain sense, like an alarm bell in our prayer, to lift up your hearts to pay attention [because] the Lord is about to do something wondrous.

The Holy Eucharist, Holy Communion, is the most precious gift the Church has to offer. And the most precious gift we can receive from God is the Holy Eucharist. The Mass is of pivotal importance for us Catholics. That's why it's so sad that so many don't see that anymore. The greatest gift from God. God who can do all things, cannot do one thing. He cannot give us something greater than Himself. That is what He does in giving us Himself under the humble form of a little white host in Holy Communion.

Now sometimes the Lord has allowed little glimpses of that reality of His Eucharistic presence, His Presence in the Holy Communion. He allows that glimpse through what we have come to call Eucharistic Miracles. There have been many of them down through the centuries in different parts of the world. These are extraordinary interventions of God, where in a certain sense, He lifts the veil and lets us see that the “ordinariness” of the little white host, the “ordinariness” of the Mass, beyond that, deeper in there, is an extraordinary reality.

There have been four documented Eucharistic Miracles, I suppose, that are confirmed Eucharistic Miracles, since the year 2000 that I'm aware of and there have been two in Poland. I think in each of those cases the host turned into a piece of human heart muscle. The same happened in Buenos Aires when, now Pope Francis was Archbishop there. He investigated a Eucharistic Miracle there and they can't explain it. Then a few months ago in a parish in the United States there was a miracle where the minister of Holy Communion was running out of hosts and suddenly there were more hosts. Then they ran out of hosts again and suddenly there were more. There was a multiplication of the Holy Eucharist. You can look up any of these online.

But I want to give you, I suppose, a personal testimony of another Eucharistic Miracle with a small “m” - something I personally witnessed. I preface this by saying, just because I saw this doesn't mean that I am a visionary. Just remember, Judas saw all of Jesus's miracles but that didn't really help him. So, it doesn't make you special because you see something, it means you have a greater obligation to act upon what you see. I didn't really realize this was happening. I wasn't quite sure what was happening at the time, but then it was confirmed to me later on.

To be continued…

God Bless,

Fr. Don Kline