Can a Host bleed? (Yes)

St. Stephen Catholic Church,
where the miracle occurred

I just received this story from a Catholic friend Kiran K, with whom I worked.  It speaks strongly of Jesus being alive today, and alive in the Communion, so I had to share it.  Who says miracles no longer happen?  

On June 6, 2010 at St. Stephen's Catholic Church in New Boston, Michigan, Father John Hedges found a Host (the thin wheat wafer representing Jesus' body that is consumed during Communion) with a bite out of it and stuck to a hymnal.  If this were a bread store, the right response would have been to throw it in the trash. But since the consecrated (prayed over) Host represents the body of Christ, this was considered a desecration.  That is, a disrespecting of our Lord.   

Father John knew the right procedure to dispose of the Host, and so he placed it in a container of water so that it would shortly dissolve, and then it could be properly disposed of.  He placed it overnight in a gilded box called a tabernacle (a place of honor) and came back the next day to dispose of it.  What he found was not what he expected.  The host had not dissolved as physics says it should have.  Instead, it was whole, and it had a small amount of blood on it.  Blood! Significant in that Jesus shed his blood for us.   A little while later, the blood smear became a droplet.  A little while later it was full of blood.  This was indeed a miracle. This would be interpreted as follows:

• Jesus was sending a message.
• This Host is to be seen as a real portion of Jesus' body.
• He was grieved.

To make this more amazing, Father John reported that this was not the first time a descrated Host bled in his presence.  The first time he did not mention it to anybody because he thought it was solely for his own eyes.  This time he felt led to share it with the community at the Monday, June 7 Mass.


Father John Hedges


He spoke of the significance of the Host and prayed in reparation for the desecration that had occurred.  He asked all to go down on two knees instead of one at the end of Mass as a show of respect for the body of Jesus, and to leave in absolute silence, and everyone felt moved to do so.  Said a woman named Carol, who was there at the time, "I do not need to tell you how many of us were crying during the talk.  People's faces were RED."

My comments:  Think of this not as a material curiosity, but as one of those rare communications from Heaven.  Then read the story again.

Source:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2529665/posts