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

07-23-2023Letter 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

I was at a Mass in a parish, not this one, not that it would matter where it is. I'd finished distributing Communion on my side of the church. The minister of Holy Communion on the opposite side of the church was still distributing Holy Communion because the line was longer. So, I went up to the tabernacle and I emptied the remaining hosts that I had in the golden ciborium into the larger ciborium, intending to put it back into the tabernacle.

I left the empty one down in front of me on the ledge in front of the Tabernacle and I reached with the other one and put it back into the tabernacle. Just as I was reaching in, to place it in the tabernacle, I had the sense, like in a flash, something just fell down in front of my face, just something. It could have been a fly. I wasn’t sure. It was just so quick. I thought, “What was that?” I was paying attention to the tabernacle. So, I closed the Tabernacle door. I genuflected and went to lift the empty ciborium. I looked and there was a host in the bottom of the ciborium. I thought, “How did that get there?” I definitely emptied that ciborium. Then I began to think, “Maybe I didn't. No! I did!” Then I thought about this, “Where did that Host come from?” Then I opened the tabernacle and put the Host in with the rest of the Hosts. Then I closed the tabernacle, lifted the empty ciborium and went into the sacristy to purify the vessels. But it was in there I was thinking, “That's really strange. I'm convinced that Host wasn't there because I emptied that ciborium.”

Later that day, a lady I know well, rang me. She said, “Tell me. Did you notice anything strange when you were at the Tabernacle today?” I said,“Funny you should say that. I had the distinct impression that a Host dropped out of the sky onto the ciborium. Maybe I'm nuts.” She said, “No you're not.” And then she told me what she had experienced while she was sitting in the pews.

She was on that side of the church about seven or eight rows from the front. As the communion line was finishing, a man she'd never seen before, didn't know, didn't recognize, was in the last few people coming up to receive Communion. Like everybody else who received Communion, she's sitting in her pew. She sees him turn around and walk down the aisle. As he's walking down the aisle, she sees that he still has the Host in his hand but isn't consuming it. So, she's a little bit antsy in her seat, thinking to herself, “Why is he doing that? Why is he walking away with the Eucharist?”

She's watching him like a hawk. As he gets closer to her, he still hasn't consumed the Holy Eucharist. So, she thought to herself, “I'm going to have to step out of my pew and just say, “Listen you can't walk away with the Holy Communion. You have to consume.” So she's about to get up, when suddenly from his hand, the Host shot up into the air, about seven feet in the air. It stopped. It turned around and then it shot up to the Tabernacle, stopped above my head, and then dropped down.

To be continued…

God Bless,

Fr. Don Kline