Repent, Go to confession!

I’ve been sitting in the confessional in a parish where I’m filling in for 50 minutes now. Not one penitent. The door is open the available light is on. I hear sharply the criticism from people that priests aren’t available enough for confession. Perhaps this is a reason. Both the lack of availability of priests and the lack of penitents are a symptom of what Pope Pius XII called back in 1950 “the loss of the sense of sin.” People don’t think they’ve done anything wrong. The Ten Commandments are outdated. They say mistakenly “Everybody goes to heaven, to the same place, a better place. You can presume that God forgives you.” Yet this is not compassion it is a loss of morality, a dead conscience. If you have knowingly violated one of the Ten Commandments you are in mortal sin and need to repent. Confession is the ordinary means Jesus gave the Church to do this. He wished us to receive his own forgiveness through this very human encounter with a priest because when you repent of your sins out loud before another human person you are only then really owning up to them, it neutralizes the shame, you immediately feel unburdened, and grace is given by the invisible God who also receives your confession through the visible minister. Grace is given as Jesus promised “whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven”. So you hear his voice through the priest say, “I absolve you.” Then you know without a shadow of a doubt that you are forgiven. Repent. Go to confession.

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APPROVED Eucharistic Miracles from THE 21ST CENTURY

1. Legnica: A Bleeding Host in Poland, 2013 On Christmas Day 2013, at the Church of Saint Hyacinth in Legnica, Poland, a consecrated host fell on the floor. The host was put into a container with water so that it would dissolve. Instead, it formed red stains. In Feb. 2014, the host was examined by various research institutes including the Department of Forensic Medicine in Szczecin who stated: “In the histopathological image, the fragments were found containing the fragmented parts of the cross-striated muscle. It is most similar to the heart muscle.” Additionally, and similar to the findings of the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano, Italy, research found that the tissue had alterations that would appear during great distress. The bleeding Host in Poland was approved for veneration in April 2016, by Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski of Legnica who said that it “has the hallmarks of a Eucharistic miracle.” 2. Tixtla: Eucharistic Miracle in Mexico, 2006 In Oct. 2006, a parish in the Chilpancingo-Chilapa Diocese of Mexico held a retreat. During mass, two priests and a religious sister were distributing communion when the religious sister looked at the celebrant with tears in her eyes. The Host that she held had begun to effuse a reddish substance. To determine the validity of the event, Bishop Alejo Zavala Castro asked Dr. Ricardo Castañón Gómez (who researched the Eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires) and his team to conduct scientific research. In 2013, the research concluded that: “The reddish substance analyzed corresponds to blood in which there are hemoglobin and DNA of human origin… The blood type is AB, similar to the one found in the Host of Lanciano and in the Holy Shroud of Turin.” 3. A Eucharistic Miracle at Chirattakonam, India, 2001 Though most Eucharistic miracles have to do with a bleeding host, the one at at Chirattakonam, India was a bit different. On an April morning in 2001, Fr. Johnson Karoor, pastor at St. Mary’s parish in Chirattakonam, India, exposed the Blessed Sacrament for adoration. Soon Fr. Karoor noticed three dots on the host and shared what he saw with the people, who also saw the dots. The priest then left for a week and came back to find that the host had developed an image of a human face. To ensure it wasn’t his imagination, he asked an alter server if he saw anything in the host. “I see the figure of a man,” the alter server replied. After mass, Fr. Karoor had a local photographer capture the image of the host below: Read more…

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