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There have been many well-documented Eucharistic miracles in the history of the Church and some are worthy of belief.

Others are questionable, such as an alleged miracle that took place at a Mass in Lourdes, France, in 1999. The event was captured on video camera. (Check the video clip below for images from the Mass.)

Two very large flat hosts are sitting on top of the paten. During the Epiclesis — the part of the Mass where the priest calls down the Holy Spirit and stretches his hands over the hosts — one host suddenly pops up and appears to float slightly above the paten.

If you watch the video (keep in mind this is1990s low-resolution footage), it does appear that the top host moves. So what’s going on?

Our friend Fr. Terry Donahue explained that sometimes, for very large hosts, the bread warps into a bowl shape in one direction or another. If you press them onto the paten, they’ll take its shape.

That’s what happened to the two hosts in the video. They were on top of each other and took the shape of the paten. During the epiclesis, the warp of the bottom one reversed. In other words, it popped up. The top host, curved in the opposite direction, sat on top of the highest point of the bottom host, like a right-side-up bowl stacked on an upside-down bowl.

In the video, you see the top host wobble just the way you would expect if it were supported by a small balance point.

When you observe the footage closely, you notice that nothing miraculous happened. Everything is consistent with the laws of physics.

Miracles are real, but that doesn’t mean we should automatically believe every claim. There’s a reason why the Church spends time investigating each one before deciding its legitimacy.

Fake miracles shouldn’t disturb our faith. Don’t forget, the greatest miracle of all happens at each Mass when the bread and wine change into Christ’s Body and Blood.

Many Catholics have relatives, friends, and maybe even a spouse or kids, who are Protestant. And while there is often one or more staunch anti-Catholic in the mix, many Protestants consider Catholics fellow Christians and have no qualms about attending Mass for weddings, baptisms, or funerals.

This can lead to awkward situations if a Protestant attendee at a Catholic Mass goes up to receive Holy Communion. Does the Church allow this? Most Protestants don’t believe the Eucharist is really Christ’s Body and Blood.

What should a Catholic do in such a scenario? Let’s examine the issue.

Why Protestants can’t receive Communion at a Catholic Church
First, note that there are exceptional circumstances wherein a bishop may give permission for a Protestant to receive our Lord. But such situations are rare.

The main reason why Protestants can’t receive our Jesus’ Body and Blood is because it would amount to a public lie. When the priest presents us with the Eucharist, we respond, “Amen.” This affirms our belief that what we are to receive is the actual Body and Blood of Christ.

Most Protestants think that the Eucharist is either a symbol of Christ or that it contains His spiritual — not physical — presence.

The Church doesn’t withhold the Eucharist from our non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters out of spite. It’s saving them from publicly declaring a belief they don’t hold.

What to do if you’re worried about Protestant family and friends receiving
Some Protestants may approach the altar in good faith. If you think the people in your party may go up, talk to them beforehand and explain the Church’s rules. Or ask the priest or the announcer to give a general statement at the beginning of Mass, saying only Catholics who fulfill the Church’s requirements can receive our Lord.

Charity sometimes requires us to do hard things for the greater good. You may offend people by sticking to the Church’s teaching. But, ultimately, we are on this earth to please God, not our fellow human beings.

Christ taught that sometimes we must put even our family aside to follow Him. It’s not what we want, but following our Lord is ALWAYS worth it in the end.

The Most Holy Trinity is the foundation of our faith and all of reality. It’s also one of the most difficult teachings of our faith.

So what exactly is the Trinity? We hear all the time that God is “three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — one God.” But what does this mean?

While it’s a mystery that can never be fully grasped, there are two explanations that give us something to work with.

Communion of three persons with one nature.
Some people see the Trinity as a contradiction, as if we were saying that “three equals one.” You don’t have to be a mathematician to see the error here.

We believe that God is three persons who share one nature, not one person with three natures.

We humans are different persons, but we all share in human nature. However, each of us doesn’t possess the entirety of human nature. John – in a sense — has his own “slice” of human nature. Jim doesn’t possess John’s share.

The Trinity is different. Each of the three persons possesses the entire divine nature, not individual slivers of it.

Analogy from acts of the mind and will.
Form an image of yourself in your mind. Hopefully, you love yourself enough to have some love for your image.

Understand that this image is not a distinct person from you, nor can it love you back.

In God, the Father eternally begets and loves a thought which is a distinct person, the Son. This thought is capable of knowing and loving the Father back. The love between the two is real enough to be a third person, the Holy Spirit.

These are analogies, so they fall somewhat short. But analogies contain truth. These two beautiful reflections take the Trinity from the realm of an abstract idea to something closer to God’s real nature: a dynamic communion of love. He invites each of us to share in this communion after death.

Many people view the Catholic Church as anti-science because Catholicism demands faith in things that can’t be scientifically verified. And some Catholics have treated scientists with contempt — although that does make other Catholics uncomfortable.

Actually, the Church has long been an advocate for science, as the following cases show.

Many trailblazers in the sciences were Catholic.
You have Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk who discovered the basic principles of heredity. Astronomer Nicolas Copernicus was a Catholic canon. Fr. Giuseppe Mercalli was a volcanologist who developed what’s known as the Mercalli intensity scale for measuring the effects of earthquakes. And Fr. Georges Lemaitre gave us the Big Bang Theory.

Far from seeing their faith as an impediment to their research, these scientists felt that they were uncovering God’s handiwork in the world around them. They expected that phenomena had rational explanations because our God is a God of purpose and order.

The Church calls on scientists when trying to verify miracles.
The Church no longer simply declares people saints. Rather, it goes through a vigorous process of studying the potential saint’s life and discovering if there have been any miracles associated with praying to them.

Even if someone claims he or she prayed to such-and-such a person and received a miracle, the Church doesn’t immediately accept this assertion. It studies the supposed miracle, sometimes calling on health professionals to determine if natural causes can explain the cure.

The Church is careful, knowing that though miracles do occur, God usually works in us through our normal, everyday experiences.

Then there’s the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Founded in 1603 and then reestablished by Pope Pius XI in 1936, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences claims its mission is to “Honour pure science wherever it may be found, ensure its freedom, and encourage research for the progress of science.”

It also functions as a forum for dialogue between the Church and scientists. Non-Catholics have been members, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

The Church has long provided patronage to sciences.
The Church treats science as it truly is: a helpful tool for making sense of the world God created. It doesn’t make it the be-all and end-all that some atheists do, for to elevate science to the ultimate explanation of everything is to turn it into a religion.

For many people, pets are family. Pets can be more loyal than many people and at times the affection they give often seems more sincere than love from our fellow humans.

In light of this, some people hope to reunite with their deceased pets in heaven. We hear of human beings attaining salvation, but not cats, dogs, birds and turtles.

Do pets go to heaven? If Fido’s really such a good boy, shouldn’t he enjoy the fruits of eternity? Let’s investigate.

Short answer: We don’t know what happens to animals after death.
God hasn’t revealed the fate of animals to us. It’s reasonable to think there will be animals in heaven. While heaven primarily consists of the vision of God, we will be aware of being united with other people and (possibly) animals.

But will they be resurrected pets from Earth or newly created creatures? Either answer — or both — is a possibility.

Why pets may not go to heaven.
Each group of living things has a different type of soul. There are plant, animal, and human souls. Plant and animal souls aren’t spiritual, meaning they don’t carry out operations that transcend the bodily organs in which they take place. For example, a dog’s experience of eating and sniffing is limited to the organs associated with those two acts.

This seems to suggest that when a plant or animal dies, the entire organism passes out of existence.

Humans, on the other hand, have spiritual souls. We have two powers animals and plants lack: intellect and will. While these powers make use of corporeal organs (such as the brain), their activity also transcends those organs, attaining to a spiritual act.

Not being composed of matter, a spiritual soul cannot perish. That’s why we know human souls persist even after their bodies break down.

Animals don’t have spiritual souls. That doesn’t mean God can’t preserve them for the next life in some way, but we don’t know how that would happen.

It’s fine to have hope for your pet’s salvation. Just know that even if it doesn’t survive past death, there will be nothing lacking in heaven. There we will encounter God face-to-face, the fulfillment of all of our desires.

The Contingency Argument is probably the best proof of God’s existence. When we consider the universe, there are three ways to explain its existence: It either has no explanation, it is its own explanation, or it needs to be explained by something else.

The third option — the heart of the Contingency Argument — is the most plausible of the three.

Here’s why.

Introducing the Principle of Sufficient Reason.
To say the universe has no explanation seems to violate the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which states that when things exist, we look for the reasons why they exist.

This principle governs our lives and all scientific research. When you come home to spilled milk on the floor, you know there’s an explanation. The milk didn’t suddenly appear there. The same is true with science. Scientists don’t approach an experiment exclaiming, “This chemical just happened for no reason.”

If something is contingent — meaning it doesn’t have to exist — you must find the reason for its existence in something else.

You can’t keep tossing the problem to a larger structure.
Some people may contend, “While it’s true that you need explanations for things in the universe, you don’t need an explanation for the universe itself.”

One philosopher gave us an example that illustrates the problem with this thinking. Imagine you find a glowing orb on the ground. Naturally, you’d wonder where the orb came from and seek an explanation. If the orb were as large as a planet, you would really want to know why it exists.

It’s the same with the universe. There’s no reason to stop asking “why?” in the same way we do for trees, bees, and the breeze.

The universe is extremely regular.
If the Principle of Sufficient Reason weren’t true, we’d expect to see many more unexplained occurrences. We’d observe things randomly popping in and out of existence all the time. But we don’t.

Based on what we observe in the world, it seems impossible that the universe has no explanation or explains itself. That leaves the last option: The universe requires an explanation outside of itself.

Atheists may still find that improbable, but remember the words of Sherlock Holmes: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Atheists pride themselves on their lack of religious faith. But can anyone ever fully escape their innate religious inclinations? Often, you’ll find that supposed nonbelievers have substituted another ideology for religion.

Transhumanism is one of these replacements for faith, as writer and agnostic Meghan O’Gieblyn’s life shows. Transhumanism is the belief that we can use technology to create an advanced human nature possessing greater physical and mental capabilities.

Meghan O’Gieblyn grew up Protestant, studied theology, and even spent some time at the acclaimed Moody Bible Institute. She then fell away from her faith.

After abandoning Christianity, she met Ray Kurzweil, the former head engineer for Google and a writer/speaker on transhumanism. She was enthralled by what she thought was his rational, scientific account of life that gave her life purpose without bringing God into the picture.

She then started noticing parallels between Kurzweil’s transhumanist ideas and the teachings of Christianity, such as transhumanism’s proposal of a mysterious future apocalyptic moment in which human nature rises to a higher redeemed state.

Basically, transhumanism is a secular end-times account. It demands faith and hope that this “salvation” will be achieved.

If you think about it, many of the human enhancements proposed by transhumanism function as surrogates for the Christian sacraments. The sacraments elevate our humanity to a higher state.

O’Gieblyn came to the conclusion that transhumanism is simply Christianity repackaged and a religion atheists can cling to.

Disillusioned, she rejected transhumanism and is now an agnostic. Prayers that she’ll come back to Christ, and for all those who put their trust in secular ideologies instead of God!

We live in an age dominated by fear and anxiety, and it is destroying us. Granted, we can’t wholly avoid the troubles around us as long as we live in this vale of tears. But we can’t let them consume our lives.

Now more than ever, we need the strength and peace that comes from the Holy Eucharist. If more people would take the time to make a Holy Hour at least once a week, many things would change for the better!

Sometimes it can be hard to still our souls in Jesus’ presence. To help, here are seven passages to reflect on during your Holy Hour. Share them with family and friends!

Psalm 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God.”

St. Padre Pio
“Often place your confidence in Divine Providence and be assured that sooner heaven and earth shall pass away than that the Lord neglects to protect you.…My past, O Lord, to your Mercy; my present, to your Love; my future, to your Providence!”

St. Francis de Sales
“Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.…”

John 14:1-4, 18-20
“Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.…I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you”

Luke 12:22-25
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: They neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life?”

Jesus to St. Faustina
“All grace flows from mercy and the last hour abounds with mercy for us. Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God; even if a person’s sins were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary; that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace and then God will do the rest.”

St. Teresa of Avila
“Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.

For some time there has been talk of the Church declaring another Marian dogma: Mary as Co-Redemptrix. This has ruffled some feathers inside and outside the Church, although the teaching has been part of Catholic theology for some time.

Many Protestants are alarmed by this title of Our Lady and think that it means we’re making Mary equal to Christ. Some Catholics even wonder whether it makes too much of a humble handmaid of the Lord.

As Scripture shows, this is not the case. In 1 Cor. 3:9, St. Paul says that he is a co-laborer with Christ. He means that he’s an instrument by which the Corinthians have come to believe in Christ. It does NOT mean that St. Paul is equal to Jesus. He cooperated with the Lord in bringing salvation to the people, such that they could say, “Without Paul, I would never have known Jesus.”

It’s the same with Mary. When we say she is “Co-Redemptrix,” we don’t mean that she equally shared in Jesus’ work of redemption. We simply state that she cooperated in a special way as an instrument of the Lord.

All of us are called to be co-redeemers with Christ. Even our Protestant brothers and sisters acknowledge that Jesus wants them to freely participate in His mission to save souls. When they accept this mission, they become co-redeemers. You can’t escape that title!

But why do we single out Mary with this title instead of, say, St. Francis of Assisi or St. Teresa? The answer is simple: Mary is a unique instrument in God’s plan of salvation. After all, she alone can claim the title “Mother of God.” When God asked her to become the Mother of the Lord, she said yes. Things would have turned out very differently if she declined.

She also committed no personal sin and was free from the stain of Original Sin. This made her a more effective instrument in the Lord’s vineyard.

There is no reason to fear the title “Co-Redemptrix.” If nothing else, it shows what a powerful intercessor Our Lady is.