Miracles which prove our faith.

Preface: I believe that my faith is a gift from God. Question 9 of the Catechism: What is faith? Faith is a supernatural gift of God, which enables us to believe without doubting whatever God has revealed. But as well as ‘supernatural faith’ there also attested Miracles which also prove our faith. Here are some of them.

Our Lady of Guadalupe 1531.

In 1531 there were few Catholics in Mexico. Juan Diego was a convert of the Franciscan Missionaries. After a visionary meeting with Our Lady he was given the task of carrying flowers in his tilma (an Aztec garment like a long cape) to the Bishop of Mexico. The flowers had been arranged by Mary. When Juan presented the floral display the Bishop dropped to his knees. Our Lady had arranged the flowers in a picture of herself. This led to a Cathedral being built on the site of Our Lady’s appearance to Juan which is where the tilma, which is in perfect condition, can been seen.

In the early days persecutors of the Church tried to damage the tilma by placing a bomb timed to explode during a High Mass and within the range of the tilma. The bomb exploded shattering an altarpiece and twisting a bronze cross but no-one was hurt and the glass in front of the tilam did not even crack.

Our Lady of Knock 1879.

On the 21st August 1879 at the Church of St John the Baptist in Knock, Eire, a tableau appeared on the church wall at the back of the Church. It consisted of Our Lady, St Joseph, St John the Evangelist and an altar with on it a lamb with two angels flying alongside and in the background a Cross.

The tableau was seen by fifteen parishioners, men women and children aged from six to seventy-five, and lasted from approximately 7.30p.m. to 11.00p.m. For some of the time it was teeming with rain but no-one left. Some prayed the Rosary others stood transfixed by what they were seeing.

A Commission was set up to examine the happening. Scientists could not find any cause for the vision to be false. The Daily Telegraph sent a reporter to Knock but he also could not find any reason to falsify what had happened.

Our Lady of Fatima 1917.

On the 13th May 1917 three young children, Lucia aged nine, her cousin Francisco aged eight and his sister Jacinta aged six had a vision of a beautiful youthful lady holding a Rosary who told them that she came from heaven and asked them to come to the same place on the 13th of every month till October when she would tell them who she was and what she wanted them to do.

On a subsequent vision the lady promised ‘a sign’ which would allow everyone to believe what the children had said.

On the 13th October which was to be the last appearance of the Lady a crowd of tens of thousands were present awaiting the sign. The weather was appalling. Wind and rain lashed the crowds and everyone was soaked. The lady appeared and told the children ‘I am the Lady of the Rosary’.  She asked that people should amend their lives, ask for pardon and not offend Our Lady any more.

Before she departed she opened her hands and from them rays of light extended towards the sun. As the Lady left the sun started spinning in the sky. Multicoloured lights shot out in every direction. At the same time the heavens seemed to be revolving as the sun spun madly and then appeared to hurtle down to the earth. Many in the crowd were terrified and thought the end of the world had come. As suddenly the miracle started, it stopped. Then another miracle: their previously rain soaked clothes were completely dry.

For fuller details of the visions of Guadalupe, Knock and Fatima go to www.religiouswriting.com and click on The Life of Mary.

Eucharistic Miracles.

There are many attested Miracles concerning the Blessed Eucharist. Among them are the 8th Century Miracle of Lanciano, Italy, the 1263 Miracle of Bolsena-Orvieto, Italy, the 13th Century Miracle of Santarem, Portugal, the 1317 miracle of Hasselt, Belgium, the 1730 miracle of the Sacred Blood Siena, Italy and the 1876 miracle of Dubna, Poland.

For fuller details of these miracles go to www.religouswriting.com and click on The Story of the Life of Jesus and to Commentary of the Real Presence and scroll down to Lanciano

The Miracle of Buenos Aires 1996.

Such miracles still occur and the latest one was in 1996 in Buenos Aires. On the 19th August 1996 Fr. Alejandro Pezet was told by a lady parishioner that a Host had been dropped at the back of church. The host was in poor condition and soiled so the priest put it in a bowl of water, as required by local rules, and put it in the Tabernacle of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, waiting for it to dissolve in the water.

Six days later on opening the tabernacle Fr. Pezet was astonished to find that the host had become a bloody substance. The miraculous happening was reported to Coadjutor Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis).

For years the Host remained in the Tabernacle and the event was held in strict secrecy. Since the Host suffered no visible decomposition in 1999 it was decided to have a sample analyzed scientifically. This was under the direction of Jorge Bergoglio who had now become Archbishop.

Without knowing what it was or where it had come from scientist at a laboratory in Buenos Aires and later in New York ascertained that the sample was a fragment containing red and white cells of the blood and tissue of a human heart. 

One of the scientists, Dr Mike Willesee Zugide, stated that there is no way to explain the fact: “How and why a consecrated Host may change and become flesh and blood remains an inexplicable mystery to science, a mystery totally out of my jurisdiction”.