Big news, everyone: I think this will be our final Catholic Massterclass! I never thought it would last this long, and yet I think it could go even longer. Holy Mass is so rich! We’re going out with a mystery, which is fitting for our mysterious worship. Today we’re talking about Eucharistic miracles. A Eucharistic miracle is an extraordinary event in which God makes visible what is normally hidden. At every Mass, a true miracle takes place: bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, though this change is invisible. In Eucharistic miracles, that same reality becomes visible in a way that we can perceive. In that sense, they are something like a “double miracle.” I have three miracles that I’d like to briefly share with you.

First is the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, the earliest recorded Eucharistic miracle. It took place in Italy around the year 700. A priest who was experiencing doubts about the Real Presence saw the appearance of the bread and wine change at the words of consecration. The Host became visible flesh, and the wine became visible blood. These miraculous species have been preserved for over 1,300 years. Scientific studies in the 1970s found that the flesh is human heart tissue and the blood is real human blood, type AB.

Next is the Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena. Once again, a priest wrestling with doubt witnessed the Host begin to bleed during Mass. The blood stained the corporal, which is still preserved today in Orvieto, Italy.

Finally, we turn to the Eucharistic Miracle of Buenos Aires. A discarded Host was found and placed in water so that it would dissolve. Instead, it became a bloody substance. Scientific analysis later revealed that it was human heart tissue with AB blood type. Even more striking, white blood cells were present, indicating that the tissue was living at the time of examination. The scientist who analyzed the sample was not told its origin.

There are many more examples of Eucharstic miracles from history, some of them seem unbelievable - I suppose they all seem unbelievable, which is part of what makes it a miracle - but they all point to the reality of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, which comes to us at Holy Mass.

You could read more about them by going to this website, designed by St. Carlo Acutis when he was just a teenager: https://www.miracolieucaristici.org/

May the Lord grant us all a greater love for the Mass and for the Holy Eucharist!

This week we’re going to talk about deacons. Although we don’t have any deacons in our parishes, you may attend Mass where a deacon is assisting the priest or bishop. It’s worthwhile to know what that role is all about.

We have to go back to the Old Testament. In the Temple of Jerusalem, God established a clear distinction among His people. Only the priests—descendants of Aaron—could offer sacrifice. Yet they did not act alone. The Levites, drawn from the same tribe but not ordained as priests, were entrusted with assisting in the worship of God. They prepared what was needed, cared for the sacred spaces, and supported the priests in carrying out the liturgy with reverence and order.

There is a similar pattern in the Mass. In the New Covenant, the bishop and priest act in the person of Christ the High Priest, offering the one sacrifice of Christ made present on the altar. Alongside them stands the deacon, ordained not to the priesthood, but to service. The role of the deacon closely resembles that of the Levites. At Mass, the deacon proclaims the Gospel, may preach, prepares the altar, assists the priest during the Eucharistic Prayer, and helps distribute Holy Communion. He does not consecrate the Eucharist, just as the Levites did not offer sacrifice, but his role assists the beauty, order, and integrity of the liturgy.

Alongside his assistance in the liturgy, deacons also add something to the life of the Church. While the Levites were primarily focused on the Temple, the deacon is sent beyond the walls of the church. From the earliest days of the Church, deacons were entrusted with caring for the poor, the neglected, and those in need. Their ministry reminds us that the sacrifice we participate in at the altar must be lived out in love and service in the world. In this way, the deacon becomes a bridge—connecting the worship of God with the needs of His people.

This structure teaches us something important: not everyone has the same role, and that is by God’s design. The beauty of the Mass is not found in everyone doing everything, but in each person fulfilling the role entrusted to them. The priest offers the sacrifice. The deacon assists and serves. The faithful unite themselves to Christ’s offering. Together, this ordered harmony reflects the worship of heaven itself—where all is directed toward the glory of God.

Deacons wear similar, but different vestments as a priest and bishop. Their main vestment is called a dalmatic, which looks similar to a priestly chasuble, but it has sleeves. The stole they wear is diagonal from the right shoulder to the left side. The practicality of these vestments allows them to assist more freely than the flowing vestments of the priest.

Today’s Catholic Massterclass will focus on the use of bells during the Eucharistic Prayer. The GIRM provides this instruction: A little before the consecration, when appropriate, a server rings a bell as a signal to the faithful. According to local custom, the server also rings the bell as the priest shows the host and then the chalice (GIRM, no. 150).

Two simple points about this: first, it is optional, not required, to use bells just before the consecration (often interpreted as the epiclesis) and at the elevation of the Sacred Host and Chalice after the gifts are consecrated; second, the common practice when bells are used is that there is one ring at the epiclesis and three rings at each of the elevations. A smaller number of parishes also ring the bell one time immediately after the priest consumes the Body and Blood of the Lord.

The purpose of the bells comes from traditional liturgies when the Mass was offered in a language other than the vernacular (the common language of the people in any given location), mostly in Latin. The Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) was offered in Latin, of course, but also with the priest facing the same direction as everyone else (ad orientem), which made it more difficult for people to hear and see what was happening at the altar. What’s more, the priest was speaking quietly, so often the only people who could hear anything were the altar servers. The servers would ring the bells at those times which were most worth paying attention to, namely the calling forth of the Holy Spirit on the gifts, the moment when the people had a chance to adore Jesus in the Eucharist, and at the completion of the sacrifice. The ringing of the bells helped people to be drawn toward the altar when they were perhaps focusing on some other prayers or meditations. Today, even though Mass is often offered in the common language and with the priest facing the people (versus populum), the bells are still helpful because humans still tend to get distracted at inopportune times. They can help to call our minds back to the present moment to focus on the only truly important thing taking place, which is the worship of God ordained by Jesus.