New Eucharistic Miracle?

There are reports of a Eucharistic miracle occurring recently in Lourdes.

By "recently" I mean it happened seven years ago.  The bishops kept things quiet, but it is being talked about now because a cardinal found out about it and brought it to the Pope's attention, and the Pope thinks there might be something to it, or at least thinks the French bishops were too hasty in deciding not to consider it.

If my (very rudimentary) Italian serves me right, it seems that at the Mass of the Italian National Eucharistic Congress in 1999 (which explains why there is video footage of the Mass), the host levitated about half an inch above the paten from the epiclesis until the end of the canon of the Mass.

If you are confused about why the bishops did not tell everyone but instead kept it under wraps, first let me explain that this is what usually happens even when something quite otherwise inexplicable has happened.  When an unusual supernatural event, prodigious sign, or miracle is reported, with the exception of atheists who dogmatically deny that such things can occur, there is no one more difficult to convince of its authenticity than a priest, especially a bishop.  This is not an indication that priests do not believe such things can or do occur - the most faithful are perhaps the most demanding.  You can understand, perhaps, how strongly they want to avoid giving credence to something and then having it turn out to be not of divine origin.  When you hear that the Church has "approved" an apparition or miracle, you can be sure that it has been subjected to the most intense scrutiny by the most skeptical people they can find, including atheists, to see if it can be accounted for by natural causes.  For the Lourdes healings (of which there are many), the investigation process is just now making public its findings on things that happened fifty years ago, just to avoid rash judgment.

Secondly, because the Church does not depend on visible miracles as a chief means of converting peoples' hearts.  They're certainly nice when they happen, and often a help to peoples' faith and devotion, but the Church is so confident in the truth that has been entrusted to her keeping by Christ that she does not "need" miracles.  She is not desperate to demonstrate that the supernatural exists.  This is traceable to our Lord in the Gospels - look at his attitude toward his own signs and wonders.  For instance, when St. Joseph of Cupertino started levitating all over the place (this is attested to in his bull of canonization - see the previous paragraph), his superiors did not parade him out in front of everyone (Hey - come see the amazing levitating guy!) even to try to get people to believe in the Church's preaching.  Rather, they locked him in the basement.  Perhaps this seems strange, but it is the way the Church works.

Third, the Catholic Church is Miracle Central.  We can't keep track of them all.  If you believe what the Church teaches about the Eucharist, a little levitation, while out of the ordinary, wouldn't even be the most noteworthy thing about a Mass.  Most people haven't even heard of Lanciano, which sounds like it would be a lot harder to fake than this (reported) one.

Anyway, this is neat to hear about, but if there is ever a definitive official decision on this one, it probably won't happen for a good long while.  In the meanwhile, God makes Himself bodily present at every Mass.  But that's not news, I suppose, since it happens every day.  Once a reporter asked Pope John Paul why God doesn't reveal Himself more so that more people would believe in him; the Pope answered that if anything, God had revealed Himself so much that people find it hard to believe.

Comments

[PeterTerp]

Okay, so I've just watched that video clip about fifty times. For better or for worse, I didn't find the image of the levitating Host to affect me in a powerful way. To play devil's advocate, it just seemed a little too wobbly for a miracle. Is that harsh to say? Granted, it doesn't seem to wobble at all once it is suspended, but it just kind of popped up, and flops around before stabilizing. To a layman's eyes like mine, this looks suspicious. Would a physicist actually find it more convicing though? Maybe there is something about the way it wobbles that would debunk a "natural" phenomenon theory. But it began kind of like a spinning plate. I also found it troublesome to my skeptical mind that the camera never had a clear angle to show the empty space beneath the Host.

Also, it would have been handy to hear what was going on in the Church at the time instead of the chant in the background. Did people gasp? Were these priests used to this kind of thing happening, or were they just so focused that they didn't let themselves react?

And on a random note, a glitch either in the camera or in the MPEG made the host disappear around 48-49 seconds on the version I downloaded. I say it was a glitch, because it looked like there was a horizontal blur running through the whole screen precisely where the Host was.

As someone who believes in the Eucharist, I can see why people might be cautious or skeptical about this particular event.

[Fergus]

The occasion of this "miracle" was a Sunday Mass in Lourdes, broadcast on French TV (there's a Mass every Sunday morning on TV: programme is called "Le Jour du Seigneur" - the Day of the Lord). The reason it was this Sunday was the fact that the French bishops (not the Italian) were meeting in Lourdes at that time. The chief celebrant was Cardinal Billé, former archbishop of Lyons (in French "Lyon"), president of the French bishops' conference. He died subsequently on March 12th March 2002.

Thus, the reason that there is a video clip at all is that somebody recorded the broadcast on their TV. The shorter clip is available on YouTube (search for Eucharistic Miracle Lourdes). You can get a much longer clip which is about 130 MB! You can download your own copy at this link: http://www.tonyassante.com/miracolo/index.htm
Simply scroll down to the end of the page, click on “prieghera eucaristica” and prepare to wait a long time to download!

The long clip starts after the Sanctus, and finishes with the Doxology of the Eucharistic Prayer. You hear the chanting and speaking of the Eucharistic Prayer by the bishops (NOT the same as the short clip which is Gregorian chant added to the file)-the entire Eucharistic Prayer is provided. You can clearly see the host popping up during the epiclesis (at the word "elles", i.e. "them" referring to the bread and wine). The Eucharistic Prayer in question is Number 2 of the Roman Rite (NOT number 3 as commonly reported on the web), with the variable section for Sundays. In English we do not have this variable section. The text from the beginning of the video is:
"Toi qui est vraiment saint, toi qui es la source de toute sainteté, nous voici rassemblés devant toi, et, dans la communion de toute l'Église, en ce premier jour de la semaine, nous célébrons le jour où le Christ est ressuscité d'entre les morts. Par lui que tu as elevé à ta droite, Dieu notre Père, nous te prions: Sanctifie ces offrandes en répandant sur elles ton Esprit; qu'elles deviennent pour nous le corps...." etc.

In English the latter part of the text is: “Sanctify these offerings (by) sending down upon them your Spirit; so that they become for us the body…” The “jump” was at the word “them”.

The reason there is a “shadow” at the bottom of the short video clip (and the longer one) is that the tonyassante people have added it to the video. The clip was from TV, and nobody seemed to notice that the “miracle” was happening so the footage doesn’t take any notice of it, or at least tries to ignore it. At various points the camera shot changes, which is a pity. I presume the “Jour du Seigneur” people have the entire footage from each camera.

Why wasn’t it noticed? Why didn’t anybody react? The Mass was in the underground basilica in Lourdes. The altar is too far away from anybody and up too high for anyone except the few priests very close to the altar (in this case, three) to be able to observe. Ordinarily, one doesn’t “watch” the host to see if it levitates so I wouldn’t imagine the two concelebrants (one is the former Archbishop of Paris – Cardinal Lustiger) would have noticed, at least initially. It’s a pity that the footage doesn’t show the celebrant (Cardinal Billé) picking up the host for the institutional narrative which follows the epiclesis, the shot changes just before the point. It shows the host again after it has been shown to the people by the cardinal and placed back on the paten, and it continues elevating. I don’t know what happened in between. Did the cardinal notice? An unnatural break in his chanting the Eucharistic Prayer with the concelebrants is noticeable when the camera isn’t pointed on the cardinal and the host. This could be simply that he needed to take a breath, or it could be that he noticed the host he reached out to pick up was levitating.
The host continues to levitate throughout the rest of the prayer, and you can see the gap clearly between the host and whatever was underneath it (paten, or another host) because the concelebrants move behind the altar and you can see their green "chasubles" in the gap between the host and whatever is beneath it: admittedly, the view isn't perfect. At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer the host seems to have stopped levitating, although it’s not clear because you only see Cardinal Billé (I think it’s him) holding the paten aloft: you don’t see him pick it up from the altar.

As far as I know, the levitation was noticed by the cardinal and the concelebrants, but they decided not to speak about it for fear of being ridiculed.

What does it mean? I have no idea. The levitation could have been manufactured. Although, the bishops at the altar would have noticed the natural causes of the levitating.

Some web commentators point out that there are wires on the altar: I suspect they are for amplification.

[MASS]

TO SEE :
http://prodigeeucharistique.blogspot.com/