This Is My Body, This Is My Blood Miracles of the Eucharist Book I Part II

By Bob Lord and Penny Lord

Miracle of the Eucharist of Avignon
Miracle of the Eucharist of Blanot
Miracle of the Eucharist of Zaragoza
Miracle of the Eucharist of La Viluena
Miracle of the Eucharist of Daroca
Miracle of the Eucharist of Cebrero
Miracle of the Eucharist of Santarem
Miracle of the Eucharist of Bois Seigneur Isaac
Miracle of the Eucharist of Walldurn
Miracle of the Eucharist of Erding
Miracle of the Eucharist of Amsterdam
Miracle of the Eucharist of Langenwiese
Miracle of the Eucharist of Daroca
Eucharistic Miracles and the Saints

• Language: English
• Publisher: Journeys of Faith
• Release date: Jun 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458130174

Bob Lord

Bob and Penny Lord renowned Catholic Authors and hosts on EWTN. They are best known for their media on Miracles of the Eucharist and Many Faces of Mary. They have been dubbed experts on the Catholic Saints. They produced over 200 television programs for EWTN global television network and wrote over 25 books and hundreds of ebooks.

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This Is My Body, This Is My Blood Miracles of the Eucharist Book I Part II

Bob and Penny Lord

Published by Bob and Penny Lord at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Bob and Penny Lord

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Table of Contents

Miracle of the Eucharist of Avignon

Miracle of the Eucharist of Blanot

Miracle of the Eucharist of Zaragoza

Miracle of the Eucharist of La Viluena

Miracle of the Eucharist of Daroca

Miracle of the Eucharist of Cebrero

Miracle of the Eucharist of Santarem

Miracle of the Eucharist of Bois Seigneur Isaac

Miracle of the Eucharist of Walldurn

Miracle of the Eucharist of Erding

Miracle of the Eucharist of Amsterdam

Miracle of the Eucharist of Langenwiese

Miracle of the Eucharist of Daroca

Eucharistic Miracles and the Saints

Bibliography

About the Authors

Avignon 1433: Dividing the Waters

The Sorgue is a small river, running through the city of Avignon, in Southern France. If the name Avignon rings a familiar bell in your mind and soul, there is good reason. It is world famous as the Sanctuary of the Popes. It became the home of the Popes from 1309 to 1377.

Towards the end of the Thirteenth Century, many factions within Italy were trying to take over Rome, and the Papal States. One family in particular, the Colonna family, was attacking the Popes. In 1304, Pope Benedict XI fled Rome to Perugia, near Assisi, where he died the same year. Pope Clement V, the first Pope of Avignon, was elected in Perugia on June 5, 1305. He was a Frenchman, who accepted the offer of the King of France to rule the Church from France. He had ulterior motives. While it was true that Italy was a battleground, and the Pope one of the main targets, he also wanted to reconcile France and England in order to get them to help him launch a new crusade in the Holy Land. It was not until March of 1309 that he actually took up residence in Avignon.

The first two popes who had residency in Avignon, Clement V, and John XXII considered Avignon as temporary living quarters, and the last two, Urban V, and Gregory XI, wanted to return to Rome. Urban V did go back to Rome in 1367, but returned to Avignon in 1370. Gregory XI had made a secret promise to the Lord before he became Pope, to bring the Papacy back to Rome. Only he and Jesus were aware of this promise. So, when Catherine of Siena reminded him of the promise he had made, Pope Gregory XI knew it was the Lord who was speaking to him. He returned to Rome in 1376.

This caused what has been termed the Great Western Schism, in which there was a Pope of Avignon, who was recognized only by France, Spain, and the Kingdom of Sicily, and another Pope, the Roman Pope, successor of St. Peter. This situation lasted until 1409. What remains in Avignon are the Pope’s Palaces, which were built during the 67 years of their residence.

There is, however, another event, perhaps more important, which makes Avignon a place of Pilgrimage for us. In order to fully understand the significance, we have to go back 217 years from the time of the Miracle, to 1226. The Albigensian heresy, which got it’s name from the town of Albi, France, was spreading its false teachings throughout the southern part of the country. The heresy condemned all the sacraments, especially marriage. Sexual permissiveness was promoted by the Albigensians. The Eucharist was completely rejected. Albigensianism was a religion created to justify doing everything that was irreligious and blasphemous, even to the extent of civil disobedience. It was condemned by the Church as early as the Eleventh Century, but it wasn’t until the Albigensians began serious attacks on the secular governments, that the heads of the countries where they had their greatest stronghold denounced and outlawed them.

The Albigensians were very powerful in 1226, especially in Southern France, where Avignon is located. As a means of combating their attack on the Physical Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, King Louis VIII, father of St. Louis IX, had a church built on the banks of the Sorgue in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. He ordered that the Blessed Sacrament be exposed at all times in a monstrance. The church was put under the custodianship of the Gray Penitents, of the Franciscan Order.

The Sorgue River tended to overflow every few years. When these acts of God occurred, the water came up the banks of the river, and flooded homes and farms in the immediate vicinity. A particularly mighty flood came after heavy rains during late November of 1433. The water exploded the banks, moving farther inland than in previous years. It was one of the worst floods known to the little area.

THE MIRACLE

On the evenings of November 29 and 30, the water level rose to a dangerous peak. The banks of the river overflowed, going into all the homes in the area. The Grey Penitents of the Franciscan Order were sure that the little church that King Louis VIII had built, where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed day and night, was flooded. They had an urgency to go there to save the Consecrated Eucharist and bring It to dry land. Two of the superiors of the Gray Penitents got into a boat, and rowed their way to the church. Keep in mind that when they arrived, the water was halfway up the front door of the church. However, when they opened the door, to their amazement, they found that the entrance from the door to the altar was completely dry. Our Lord Jesus in the form of the Consecrated Host in the Monstrance, stood regally on top of the altar, completely dry.

The water had piled up against the walls. It was reminiscent of the Bible account of the Parting of the Red Sea. Indeed, it appeared that way to the Gray Penitents also. They looked for some other members of the Gray Penitents, who came and verified the Miracle. The four Friars prayed in unison, and brought the monstrance, containing the Blessed Sacrament to a Franciscan Church on dry ground. When they had placed the monstrance on the altar, they read from the book of Exodus regarding the Parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21).

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord swept the sea with a strong east wind throughout the night, and so turned it into dry land. When the water was thus divided, the Israelites marched into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left. The Franciscans wrote the account of the four Friars into the records of their community, where it is preserved till today.

A tradition was created at that time, which is still in practice. On the 30th of November each year, in the chapel of the church in Avignon, the Gray Penitents put a rope around their neck, and, devoutly crawling on their hands and knees, they recreate the incident, retracing the steps of their predecessors, following the same path that was taken on the evening of the Miracle.

There is nothing left